Page 104 of A Bride for the Sinful Duke

Only one girl was left. She was younger than the rest, her big eyes glistening wetly as she blinked at Juliet.

Juliet grimly realized that she might have to carry the girl out. Her legs shook as she inched forward, holding her hand out to the girl.

“Come, Jill,” she said softly. “Trust in me. You will be fine.”

“Please,” the girl whimpered in abject terror. “Please help me.”

“I will, I promise,” Juliet nodded quickly, slowly inching closer.

She suddenly heard a loud crack as her feet moved to the edge of the hole, and she reached out for the girl again.

“NOW, Jill!”

Jill grabbed her hands. Juliet swung her across the gaping, crumbling hole that split the balcony and continued to break apart around Juliet’s feet.

With a scream of sheer fright, Juliet pressed herself against the wall, breathing erratically as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Before her fear could completely consume her mind, Juliet said her second prayer that day:

Please… someone. Anyone. Please, please help me.

CHAPTER 39

Hector was frustrated by how far St. Catherine’s was from Islington Hall.

He despised the fact that it took days to get there but disliked it even more when he realized that, while he was traversing these roads for the first time, Juliet had taken the route on multiple occasions.

He wondered what it must have been like for her as a child to sit in a carriage beside her impassive father and stare out the window, bewildered and hurt by the sudden loss of her mother, only to be duped by her remaining parent and abandoned at the gates of the convent.

He also pondered what it must have been like for her to then be pulled out of the convent almost twelve years later and thrust into an uncertain future that, once again, had begun with days stuck in a carriage with a stranger.

It does not matter how long it will take. I would travel across the lands and seas to get to where you are.

St. Catherine’s looked even sadder than Hector had imagined. This was the place where Juliet had spent more than a decade of her life, the place that had shaped her into the person she had become. It made his heart break for her.

He could see right away why Juliet wanted to come back, and he understood why someone as incredibly kind as she was felt she had to help the people who resided there.

A few of the girls spotted him and pointed in his direction with mixed expressions. Clearing his throat, Hector approached them, but they ran away shrieking.

“Can I help you, sir?”

Hector turned around, relieved to find himself in the presence of an older woman dressed in nun’s attire.

“Yes, I am looking for my wife, Juliet. She arrived three weeks ago, and I …”

A scream cut him off, and he glanced around and frowned.

“Is something wrong?” he questioned as he heard the distressed voices increasing in pitch and volume.

The nun also looked confused and beckoned to a girl nearby.

The girl exclaimed, “There was an incident on the third-floor balcony, and now, Miss Juliet is stuck! We keep trying to coax and beg her to move, but it is as though she cannot hear us!”

The nun turned to Hector with wide, horrified eyes, but he was already addressing the girl.

“Where? Can you show me where she is?”

The girl nodded and quickly led him to where many others were already gathered. With every step he took, he recalled his mother and sister and remembered the lives he was unable to save.

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