Page 28 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
“I’m not going to harm Juliet. For heaven’s sake—”
“I don’t think you would do anything to harm her,” Daniel clarified. “I’m not suggesting you’ll be violent towards her. I know you want the best for her. But if you do want the best for her, I think the best thing you could possibly do would be to step aside.”
“And then what?” Harry asked. “What happens if I step aside, Daniel?”
“You’ll find someone else if you really want a courtship. I was under the impression you didn’t want that, to be truthful with you.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.” Harry gritted his teeth. “I know what would happen to me. What would happen toher?”
“She would find another suitor,” Daniel said. “She’s had other offers, you know. She would have no trouble finding someone.”
“I’m not worried about her having trouble finding someone, Daniel. I’m worried about her finding someone who deserves her.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know Lord Stickland is after her. Is that man whom you want her to be with? Because you and I both know that he’s terrible. You might be worried she’ll fall upon bad luck if she’s with me because of my curse, but being with him would definitely,inarguablybe bad luck.”
Daniel sighed. “I will admit I’m not fond of him. But he’s harmless, really.”
More than ever before, Harry ached to let his friend know that Lord Stickland was not harmless.
“I don’t think he is,” Harry stated.
Juliet had asked him not to share details of what had happened on the patio. He would respect that. But, he decided, he was at perfect liberty to share his opinion of Lord Stickland.
“Look at the way he follows her around,” he continued. “Look at how he insisted on taking her away to dance with him when she told him what she really wanted was to stay and talk to you. He thinks he has the right to tell her what to do, and that’s dangerous. At best, it’s a situation that will always leave her unhappy. I’m sure you don’t want that for her.”
“I don’t,” Daniel admitted. “But I just can’t risk—”
“Susan was ill,” Harry cut in. “So were both of my parents. If anything happens to Juliet, if she develops so much as a cough, then I’ll turn and walk away.”
“Do you promise?” Daniel asked.
“Yes. On my honor.”
The Duke certainly didn’t want to see anything happen to Juliet. What he’d said to her was true. He cared for her as much as part of his own family. He was upset with Daniel for bringing all this up, but at the same time, he couldn’t deny that he, too, worried about the curse.
What if it was real? And what if a false courtship was enough of a connection to make the curse rip Juliet away from him? What if something did happen to her?
No. It won’t.
Susan’s illness had come on so gradually. That was something Harry remembered. There had been plenty of moments when they thought it had gone away, only to have it come back in cold weather or after too much exertion.
That made Harry feel a little more confident. It seemed likely that, if Juliet did start to show signs of illness, he would be able to quickly get away from her and give her the chance to recover. This wasn’t going to be like what had happened with Susan.
Besides, none of it is real anyway. It’s just a superstition!
Yes, it was just a superstition… that was unless it wasn’t.
“All right,” Daniel relented. “But know this, Harry, if I start to see something wrong with her health and I find that you don’t immediately leave her, I’ll never forgive you. I haven’t believed in this curse of yours. I’ve assumed it was just a way for you to blame yourself for circumstances beyond your control. But now that my sister is involved, I find myself feeling differently about it. More cautious.”
“I suppose I can understand that,” Harry said begrudgingly. “Of course you would want to protect your family.”
“That’s right. But I know you’d never deliberately allow any harm to come to her. That’s why I’ve decided to trust you with this.”
“I appreciate that,” Harry said.
It galled him a little that Daniel was acting as though Harry should count himself lucky to be trusted. The two men had been friends for years. Harry would have thought that by now the trust between them would be implicit.
