Page 19 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
“I have to hand it to you.” Matilda chuckled, staring at the letter. “I can’t imagine anybody being able to decode what that means. I’ll be impressed if Harry himself can figure it out.”
“Oh, I feel sure he’ll be able to,” Juliet said. “It’s exactly what you suggested, really. It’ll be obvious to him what I’m talking about, but to anybody else, especially someone who wouldn’t know the letter came from me, it would be impossible to figure out.”
“Wonderful! This is going to work, Juliet. I can feel it.”
“You’re always so optimistic,” Juliet said with a smile. “It’s one of the things I like best about you, Matilda. You’re able to see the bright side of every situation.”
“And I’m usually right, aren’t I?” Matilda asked.
“Well, sometimes you are. But this situation is one of the most precarious situations in which I have ever been involved. I just hope it works. I want nothing to do with Lord Stickland, and even the temporary appearance of courtship might persuade him to go away for good. It’s the best idea I have.”
“Should we send the letter?” Matilda asked.
“There is one more thing.”
Further to this request, please expect another letter within the next day. I remain ardently hopeful that you will be willing to assist me in this matter.
Juliet nodded. “That ought to do it. If he doesn’t understand that, Father’s visit will make everything clear. Then, the only thing we need is for Harry to be willing to cooperate.”
“He’ll do it,” Matilda said confidently. “For Daniel’s sake, if nothing else.”
“You’re a far cry from the girl who confronted him and insisted that he didn’t care about us.”
“And you’ve come a long way from the girl who couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him without feeling humiliated.”
Juliet nodded thoughtfully. “I suppose we’ve all changed quite a lot.” She stood up and picked up her note. “I’ll go and find a footman to deliver this.”
“Use Thomas,” Matilda suggested. “He’s always been fond of you. If you ask him not to let Father know, he’ll keep it secret.”
“That’s a good idea.”
Thomas was just a few years older than Juliet and had worked for her father since they were young. In her childhood days, before her father had put a stop to it, Juliet had helped him groom the horses a few times.
“Thank you for your help,” Juliet told her sister. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you, you know.”
Matilda grinned. “That’s why I’m the cleverest of the three of us,” she teased. “Neither you or Daniel would be able to manage without me.”
It was a joke, of course. But actually, Juliet thought her sister was probably right.
She left the room in search of Thomas, hoping he would be willing to carry her letter to Harry, and hoping very much that, when the Duke had read it, he would be willing to help her in her plans.
CHAPTERSIX
Harry stared at the letter the footman had handed him, completely taken aback.
He understood what he was looking at right away, of course. The footman hadn’t said where he had come from, but he had handed over the letter and left immediately. However, there was only one person who could possibly have written this. It was Juliet.
And Harry understood what she wanted as well. There was no mistaking the intent of her letter, but it was the last thing in the world he had ever expected to receive.
The offhand comment he had made about pretending to be in a courtship, could she have possibly taken it seriously?
No, she says in the letter that she knows that was a joke.
And besides, she had laughed about it at the time. He was sure that she knew.
But something had changed since then, that much was clear. Something had happened to make her feel as if she had to make some kind of arrangement to shield herself from Lord Stickland’s advances.
What had he done? What had caused her to change her mind about the severity of the situation? She didn’t answer that question in the letter, but Harry wanted to know.
