Page 54 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
“Harry, don’t.” She was blushing furiously. “Get up. People are looking. I’m all right.”
He didn’t want to touch her, but he was concerned. “Are you sure? Can you move it?”
“Yes, it’s fine. It really only hurt for a moment,” she reassured him. “I’m all right now. Thank you for helping me. Get up off the ground. People are staring at you.”
He got up and sat in the seat next to hers. She glanced over at him, then down at the ground.
Harry didn’t know what to think about everything that had just happened. All he knew was that, at the moment when he had believed she was in pain, he had forgotten about everything. He had forgotten decency and propriety, had forgotten that the two of them weren’t even really courting. All he had known at that moment was that she needed him and that he would do anything to help her.
And it had been nothing at all. Just a little pain that had already faded.
He was startled by the intensity of his own reaction. It didn’t make sense.
He needed to control himself. He couldn’t react to her that way, because he remembered these feelings all too well. The same thing had happened with Susan when he had first started to truly care for her.
He couldn’t allow himself to fall in love with Juliet.
There had been close calls already. He thought back to her moment of illness when they’d been in town. It had come, he realized, just when he had been acknowledging what a good time the two of them were having together.
What if that was what had triggered her illness?
And then with today’s injury, hadn’t he just been thinking how much she meant to him? Hadn’t he just been telling himself how much he wanted to spend time with her? And then she had made that comment about a future marriage, and right after that, she’d gotten hurt.
Not badly hurt, it was true. But maybe it was a warning. Maybe it was the curse reminding him that he couldn’t fall in love.
His heart ached for her. But he could never allow himself to let her know.
He couldn’t let any harm befall her.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
Juliet sat in her room with one hand on her ankle, squeezing it, trying to replicate the sharp bolt of pain she’d felt when she had stumbled.
Nothing. The pain was truly gone. The injury had been only momentary. She was fine now.
She wasn’t sure why she wanted to feel it again. All she knew was that there had been something powerful about that moment when Harry had caught her before she hit the ground and helped her into a chair. It had almost been possible to forget that they were in the middle of a crowd of people.
She had wanted to forget it.
And now she wanted to feel that feeling again. The intensity of his hands on her body and his gaze meeting hers. The way she’d felt concern for her well-being radiating from him, almost as if he was shouting it out loud.
What was happening?
This wasn’t a real courtship. It wasn’t exactly shocking to her that Harry might care about whether she got hurt, but that didn’t mean anything. Daniel would have cared just as much. He saw her as a little sister, just the way Daniel did.
She poured herself a cup of tea from the tray her lady’s maid had brought for her and took it over to sit beside the window. It was a rainy day, and the clouds overhead made the grounds look dark and forbidding. Even if she had had plans with Harry today, she knew they would have been canceled because of this weather.
Why was she missing him?
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” she called out, hoping that the visitor wouldn’t be her father.
She hadn’t spent any time with him since the garden party. He would want to talk about what had happened between her and Harry, and she wasn’t ready to talk about it. She didn’t think she could bear to talk to him until she had taken the time to sort through her emotions on her own and figure out exactly what it was she was thinking.
The door opened. Matilda stood there, looking uncertain. It was clear she didn’t know whether she was a welcome guest or not.
Juliet smiled at her sister. “I said come in,” she said. “Don’t hang in the doorway like that. What are you waiting for?”
