Page 91 of A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Heirs

CHAPTER 25

Alone in her bedchamber, Juliana stared out the window into the dark night. The sliver of the crescent moon barely illuminated the terrace and gardens in the back of Pendrake Manor. Eerie shadows cast from swaying tree branches danced against the ground. The devastated look on Victor’s face haunted her.

Had she made an enormous mistake?

Should she have confessed her love and risked her heart? Accepted what Victor was able to give? Find contentment as her father had?

Why was love so hard?

A soft knock sounded. “Juliana, it’s Drake. May I come in?”

With bare feet, she padded to the door and opened it to let him in.

“Perhaps you and Honoria should give up hosting balls in my honor. It would appear they always end in disaster.” She forced a weak smile.

He followed her to the bed and sat next to her. “You are not responsible for the king’s death, brat.” The teasing nickname held no bite. “That’s not why I wanted to speak with you. Victortold me something happened in the orangery and that you intend to end your betrothal.”

“Oh.” Air whooshed from her lungs.

Drake stared straight ahead as he spoke. “Don’t tell me it’s because you don’t love him. I have eyes, and I know what it’s like to be in love.”

She couldn’t lie to him. Not Drake, who had caught her in every childish fib. And loving Victor was so much more than breaking mother’s favorite vase. “I do love him. With all my heart. But Victor doesn’t love me. His heart still belongs to another.”

Drake’s head jerked toward her. “Are you certain? Because when he spoke with me, he assured me his feelings for Lady Nash are in the past, and he vowed to do everything he could to mend things with you.”

Taking a deep breath, Juliana prepared to tell Drake everything. “What you don’t know is our whole courtship is a farce, and he only proposed to save my honor.”

Drake listened patiently as she explained how Victor had offered to repair her reputation with thetonwhile at the same time avoiding his mother’s matchmaking machinations, and along the way she had fallen in love with him. “So you see, for Victor it was all pretend, but he’s too honorable to go back on his word.”

The gentle smile Drake gave her was one she remembered as a girl. One that said,You silly goose.

“And why is it so impossible for Victor to have also fallen in love? For it to have become real for him as well? You’re a wonderful girl, Juliana.”

“A girl who’s a commoner. He’s in line to inherit. What type of viscountess would I be? Would thetonshun him because of me?”

“I can’t argue with that. Not when class differences separated Honoria and me. But when she didn’t know I was a duke, she still chose me. From what I know of him, I don’t think Victor cares much about the views of society. If he loves you, your parentage won’t matter.”

Hadn’t she considered the same argument earlier? “But how can I be sure?”

Drake sighed. “I suppose a cynical man would say we can’t ever be certain. My stubbornness in believing Honoria wouldn’t choose me over her family almost cost me the woman I adore. She felt she had to prove in no uncertain terms she chose me and wanted to marry me with or without her father’s approval.”

“How?”

Drake’s lips quirked in that half-smile Honoria always went on and on about, and his cheeks darkened.

Juliana grabbed his arm. “You’re blushing. Is it something scandalous?”

“You must never tell anyone. Promise me.”

Oh, it was scandalous!She shook his arm. “I promise. Now, tell me. Tell me.”

“The night of the house party’s ball, she came to my room.”

“So that’s why she wanted to know where it was.”

Drake’s eyes widened. “You were the one who told her?! I always thought it was Simon, although he denied it.”

“She told me she wanted to leave you a note. That sly fox.”

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