Page 12 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
Harry watched her. “Are you all right?”
“I think so.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.” She gripped her wrist. “He squeezed my arm too hard.”
“May I see?”
She was struck by how generous it felt that he was asking instead of demanding. And yet, wasn’t that the bare minimum when it came to the way a gentleman ought to behave? He should ask permission to touch her.
She held out her arm.
Harry looked at it. “You might have a bruise,” he murmured. “He was clearly gripping your arm too hard, Juliet. When Daniel finds out about this—”
“No.” Juliet pulled her arm out of his grip. “No, we can’t let Daniel know. Please.”
“What? You can’t mean to keep this to yourself, Juliet.”
“You just told Lord Stickland that no one would know.”
“I don’t have to keep promises to Lord Stickland! Juliet, why don’t you want people to know about this?”
“I justdon’t, all right?”
There was no way to explain to him how awful it would be to have people looking at her and talking about her. There was no way she could explain her innermost fear, that even now that gentlemen seemed to find her attractive, there was still something wrong with her, and all it would take would be one scandal for them to see through the face she had been presenting to the world and discover her inner ugliness.
Juliet didn’t think she could bear it if she had to go back to being the one who was too ugly to fit in, whose mother looked at her darkly if she tried to eat her fill. It had been too painful.
She couldn’t say that to Harry, not when he used to mock her for the way she looked.
“I’ll respect your wishes,” Harry relented. “But I do think you should stay away from men like that, Juliet.”
“I try to stay away from him,” Juliet said hotly. “In case you missed it, I didn’t go with him just now because I wanted to, Harry. He practically dragged me away from Daniel.”
“Has he done that before?”
“Incessantly. At every ball for the past year. He finds me and corners me.Insiststhat I dance with him… Oh, it’s terrible!”
Harry frowned. “I’ve experienced something similar.”
“Have you?”
“There are a couple of young ladies who persist in following me around, no matter what I do to try and dissuade them,” Harry explained. “It’s difficult. I’m surprised I haven’t run into them yet tonight.”
“I thought this was your first night back in London. Haven’t you been in Paris?”
“I came back from Paris three months ago.”
“But this is the first ball of the Season.”
“These are ladies I met when I went into town.”
“I see. Perhaps they’re not here.”
Harry winced. “They are. I saw them not long ago. And I’m fairly sure they saw me.”
“Then I suppose they haven’t approached you because you’re with me,” Juliet surmised. “I guess talking to me is doing you some good tonight.”
