Page 59 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
“Oh, no.” Lady Annie waved a hand. “It’s not right of me to speculate.”
“But you look like you thought there was some other reason for his absence,” Juliet pressed.
“I don’t know,” Lady Annie said. “I can’t possibly know, of course. But I did wonder… well, but I’m sure I’m wrong.”
“What?”
“It’s just that I never expected to see him court someone again, after what happened to his fiancée. And I keep thinking every time I see the two of you together that it can’t possibly last.”
Juliet felt cold. Lady Annie had no way of knowing just how right she was.
It wasn’t real. It wouldn’t last.
But…
“What does his fiancée have to do with anything?”
“Well, he was just so heartbroken,” Lady Annie explained. “And they say he blamed himself.”
“He blamed himself? But how could he have? She had a lung disease, didn’t she?”
“Yes, she did, but grief is funny that way. People see things that aren’t there. Patterns that don’t exist. After the death of his parents, losing his betrothed was too much for him. That’s what people say. And he simply lost his mind a little.”
“That’s not the gentleman I know,” Juliet argued. “He’s perfectly sane.”
“Well, perhaps you don’t know him quite as well as you think.”
“Excuse me?” Matilda interjected, frowning. “What do you mean by that, exactly? My sister knows her suitor perfectly well.”
“Oh, I don’t mean to impugn the relationship!” Lady Annie laughed. “Of course not. Forgive me. I only meant that… well, it seems to me that I might have known him a little longer than you have, Lady Juliet. I was there through everything that happened with his fiancée, after all. I saw firsthand the way it affected him. And I tell you, he has never been the same since. He walked away from that very wounded. Very damaged. So to see him courting another young lady… I didn’t know what to make of it.”
“He’s healing,” Matilda explained. “People heal.”
“Perhaps,” Lady Annie agreed. “I hope that’s what it is. I’d like him to be well. And, of course, I wish you happiness, Lady Juliet. But then, when I saw you out without him tonight, I did wonder.”
“There’s nothing to wonder about,” Juliet said, having recovered a bit of her composure. “We just saw one another the other day at the garden party at Montgomery Manor. Were you there?”
“Regrettably not,” Lady Annie replied. “I had other commitments that day, though I do hate to miss a party. There are plenty more this season, though. I know I’ll see you, with His Grace at all of them.”
“Never fear,” Juliet said firmly. “We will be there together.”
“Lovely.” Lady Annie smiled. “I’d better be getting to my seat. This show will be starting before too long, and I wouldn’t want to miss the opening! Perhaps we’ll run into one another again at intermission.”
She hurried off.
Matilda watched her go. “I don’t like her,” she said.
“She isn’t so bad,” Juliet protested.
Lady Annie was one of few people who had bothered to befriend her this season. She got the impression that most people would rather whisper about the Duke’s new courtship than try to befriend the lady he was courting.
“Sheisso bad,” Matilda insisted. “What’s the matter with her? The way she was talking about Harry as if he’s… I don’t know… mad or something? He’s not mad, even if he did lose his betrothed.”
“Of course he isn’t,” Juliet said. “I don’t think that’s what she really meant, Matilda. She was just trying to say that the loss had changed him. That he had been affected by it. Well, of course he has.”
“Why would she insist that she knows him better than you do, though?”
“Perhaps she does.”
