Page 49 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
“He should tell Harry that these jokes aren’t funny. Someone needs to.”
“No,” Juliet insisted, knowing that she would be too embarrassed to ever look Harry in the eyes again if that were to happen.
“I never intended to upset you,” Daniel said to Juliet. “I didn’t know any of this. I didn’t know these things were bothering you, Juliet. You could have told me.”
Juliet shook her head. “No, I couldn’t. How could I have come to you as a child and told you that Harry was hurting me when he called me a chipmunk? You barely believe me now. If I’d said it back then, you would have laughed and told me he was being nice. You would have dismissed the whole thing. Don’t say you wouldn’t. You wanted to dismiss it today.”
Daniel couldn’t argue with that. She knew he couldn’t.
Juliet got to her feet. “I’ve had enough of all of this. I’m going to my room.”
Matilda started to rise, too. “Do you want me to come along with you?”
“No, I don’t,” Juliet said. “Please don’t be offended, Matilda, but I’d like to be alone. Stay with our brother and see if you can make him understand the way I feel about all these things I’m trying to explain.”
Matilda settled back into her chair.
Juliet left the room, feeling good about the fact that she had finally spoken up. It was nice to know that Daniel knew, at last, that those jokes weren’t funny.
It wouldn’t stop Harry from making them, but at least there was one more person in the world who understood.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
“At last I have the chance to attend an event this season,” Matilda said happily.
She was so excited that she was nearly bouncing up and down on her seat as the carriage carried them to Montgomery Manor for the afternoon’s garden party.
“Contain yourself,” Daniel chided. “I told Father you were too young for this party, but he insisted that you be allowed to come. But don’t think I won’t take you back home if you can’t behave with dignity.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my behavior.”
“You’re acting like a little frog. You need to behave like a young lady, or I’ll be forced to take you back home.”
“You won’t,” Matilda said dismissively. “You wouldn’t rob Juliet of the chance to spend the day with Harry.”
Juliet didn’t say anything. She wasn’t at all sure she wanted to spend the day with Harry. It was strange to be feeling so conflicted about that, because, really, what had he done to her lately?
He was nice at the last ball. We had a good time with each other. I shouldn’t be so worried about spending time with him.
She shouldn’t be, but she was. The conversation with Daniel yesterday had left her feeling raw and uncertain. She could see that he was looking at her differently now that he knew the way Harry’s comments had always upset her. On one hand, she felt better having him know that those things had troubled her. But on the other hand, now one more person was thinking about her appearance and remembering the way she had looked as a child, wondering how it affected her now that she had blossomed into someone people found beautiful.
She wished, not for the first time, that she could have just been like her sister—lovely all her life so that people wouldn’t think about and comment on the ways she had changed.
Or perhaps it would have even been preferable to have remained unappealing. At least she had known how to cope with that. She hadn’t liked knowing that people found her ugly, and she hadn’t welcomed the comments from people like Harry, but if she were still ugly, perhaps she wouldn’t have to deal with a courtship at all this Season. Maybe her father would have given up on her. And maybe that would be easier. She could have found herself a low-ranking gentleman—a baron, maybe—and she would always have known that he admired her personality, her character because there was nothing else to admire.
It was too much. These were all fantasies, lives she had never lived and never would, and there was simply no point in dreaming about them when they would never be real. What was real was the life she did have, and in this life, she was going to have to spend the day at a garden party in Harry’s company.
It felt awkward and horrible, and she didn’t know what to do.
Daniel was watching her. “Are you sure you want to go to this?” he asked.
It was as if he was seeing her for the first time. That was how Juliet felt now when she faced her brother. She was glad she’d gotten him to rethink whether the things Harry had said about her were all right, but it seemed he was rethinking everything he had ever known about her now, and that was a little over the top, in her opinion. There was no reason to act as if they were strangers. Daniel should know what her answer to the question he’d asked was going to be.
“We have to go to the garden party,” she murmured. “We have no choice.”
“We do have a choice,” Daniel countered. “If you really don’t want to be there, I’ll take you home. I’ll explain it to Father. You won’t have to say anything.”
“You know perfectly well how he’d take that.” Juliet didn’t see the point of this conversation. “He would be furious.”
