Page 14 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
“Harry, the Marquess of Warring? Daniel’s old friend?”
“No. Well, yes. He’s the Duke of Burghley now.”
“Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten that his father died,” Lewis said.
Juliet wasn’t the only person Lord Linford liked to hold his distance from. He had never been active in London society, so it was reasonable that he would forget something like that.
In fact, Juliet was surprised he had ever heard about it. “I didn’t realize he had become a duke until last night,” she murmured.
“He courted a lady after the death of his father,” Lewis said. “I had forgotten that too. He courted her because of the death of his father.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Yes, Daniel told me at the time. It seems the late Duke really wanted his son to marry Lady Susan. Daniel told me Harry had no interest in her and wasn’t going to comply, but when his father died, he felt compelled to honor his last request. He courted Lady Susan out of obligation.”
“I see.” Juliet hummed. “It seemed to me that he must have been very sad when his fiancé died, though. Isn’t that why he went away to France in the first place?”
“Perhaps. I really have no idea about that. What I do know is that she was with him for status, and he was with her because she was his father’s choice. If there was love there, it must have come along later. It wasn’t there from the start.”
“I see.”
“Which is evidence, really,” Lewis went on. “That love can grow. That even if you don’t feel affection for someone at the start, courtship and marriage are a good way to nurture the feelings you have for one another until they blossom into love.”
Juliet frowned. “What are you getting at?”
“You’ve received an offer of courtship. And I’ve decided to accept it for you.”
“You’ve decided to accept itfor me?” That was not her plan. “Father, you told me that I could choose for myself.”
“But you haven’t chosen.”
“I haven’t received any offers.”
“Oh, of course you have. You don’t really think this is the first time Lord Stickland has written me about his interest in you? I could put together a book of the notes he’s sent here over the past year.”
“But you never said anything.”
“I was waiting for you. I had hoped that you would come to me and express interest in him. That you would tell me after one ball that someone had danced with you and that you had found him charming. If not Lord Stickland, then perhaps one of the others who have sent requests.”
“There have been others?” Juliet had no idea that all this was going on.
“You’ve been very popular, Juliet. Whatever you’re doing has all the gentlemen very impressed. You have your pick, but you’ve failed to make a pick, and so now I’m afraid I must do it for you.”
“Father, you can’t,” she argued. “Not Lord Stickland. Anyone but him.” Surely her father couldn’t possibly doom her to such a dreadful fate.
“Anyone but him?” Lewis shook his head. “Lord Stickland is the son of an earl, Juliet, and in line to be an earl himself one day. This is the best offer we’re going to get.”
“It’s not the best. I can’t stand him.”
“Weren’t you listening to what I just told you?”
“You told me I would learn to love him,” she said. “But I tellyou, Father, that will never happen. Nothing in the world could make me love that man.”
“You’re going to have to try,” Lewis persisted. “I’m going to write to him this afternoon to accept his offer of courtship.”
Juliet felt as if she was standing at the edge of a cliff, and as if her father was doing all he could to push her over the edge, rather than trying to help her.
“You don’t know what he’s like,” she managed.
