Page 38 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
Then again, who’s to say that my curse always strikes in the same way?
He was primed, he supposed, to look for lung diseases because his mother had also died of one. But his father’s death hadn’t had anything to do with his lungs. Maybe that hadn’t been the curse, but then, maybe it had, and the curse could manifest in all sorts of different ways.
By the time they reached the carriage, he thought Juliet looked absolutely fine. The only thing wrong with her seemed to be the fact that she was avoiding looking in his direction at all, and Harry had no idea why she was doing that. He sat opposite her in the carriage and tried to catch her eye, but she spent the ride home gazing out the window as if she was completely unaware that he was there at all.
When they reached her home, they all got out.
“Thank you for the afternoon, Juliet,” he said. “I had a lovely time. I certainly hope you did too.”
“It was very nice,” she murmured, but she sounded a bit distant.
“Will we do it again soon?”
“I assume you’ll be in touch with my father about that.”
He nodded. “I will.”
“Then I’ll leave it to the two of you to arrange.” She took her sister’s arm. “Until next time, Harry.”
The two ladies disappeared up the steps and into the manor. Harry and Daniel stood and watched them go.
Then Daniel turned to Harry. “What happened?”
“I have no idea,” Harry answered honestly. “Everything was going well one moment, and the next…”
“You didn’t say anything to upset her?”
“I didn’t. We were just talking about what a nice time we were having, and then the next thing I knew, she was saying she wanted to come home. I don’t know what brought it on.”
“I’ll be keeping a close watch on her health tonight,” Daniel said. “And if it seems that she’s ill at all, there will be no more outings. This is exactly what I was afraid of, Harry.”
“This isn’t what it was like with Susan.”
“Perhaps not. But I told you I wasn’t willing to take any chances. If she isn’t in prime condition by tomorrow morning, I’ll tell my father to call the whole thing off.”
Daniel followed his sisters inside.
Harry got back into the carriage, knowing that he couldn’t really blame Daniel for the way he was reacting.
He just hoped that his curse was not to blame for what had happened there.
CHAPTERTWELVE
Matilda hurried Juliet up to her bedroom and then turned to face her. “What happened?” she asked. “You’re not ill at all, are you?”
“Was it that obvious?” Juliet despaired. “I thought I had pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes.”
“No, I think Daniel was seriously concerned for your health,” Matilda said. “I was the only one who knew. You can never fool me.”
“I’ll have to speak to him and let him know that I’m all right.” Juliet sighed. “I don’t want him to be worried.”
“All right. But I could tell that something was troubling you, Juliet. Tell me what was wrong.”
Juliet bit her bottom lip. “Do you think Harry knew I wasn’t really ill?”
“I don’t think Harry had any idea what to think, to be honest with you,” Matilda replied. “I’ve never seen anyone look more confused. He did seem worried, though.”
“He said something,” Juliet said. “Something that bothered me.”
