Page 63 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
He wouldn’t actually be jealous, of course. He didn’t feel that way about her, and she knew that. But if this was even irritating to him, Juliet would take that. After the way he had been irritating her today, let him feel some annoyance.
She was braced for a conversation when Lord Cumberland finished with her and returned to the other side of the party. She turned to Harry, thinking that he would demand to know what that had been about. Hoping that he would. If he cared for her at all, surely that’s what he would do.
But he wasn’t even looking at her.
“I’m going to head home,” he announced.
She felt as if she’d missed a step going down. “What?”
“Can you find your own way back to Matilda?”
“Of course I can, but… Harry, why are you going?”
“I have other things to tend to,” he replied. “I can’t spend the whole day at a party. I’m a busy man, Juliet.”
“Then why did you come to the party in the first place?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m starting to think I shouldn’t have.”
“I don’t understand this.”
“I’ll see you at the next ball.”
Without giving her anything further, the Duke strode across the lawn and disappeared around the corner to the front of the manor.
Juliet watched him go, feeling absolutely heartsick.
What had gone wrong? How could he have just walked away from her like that? It wasn’t just that he didn’t feel what she felt. He must actually hate her.
Or perhaps Lady Annie was right. Maybe he was mad.
If he hated me, he would have ended our courtship. He wouldn’t have said that he means to see me in the future. But maybe he does want to end it. Maybe he just doesn’t want to do it in public. Maybe he’ll come by the house to discuss the matter with me…
A chill ran down her spine.
Lord Stickland hadn’t given up on her. And if her courtship with Harry were to end, she knew what her father would want her to do.
It was all too much to bear. She couldn’t stay here and socialize, pretend that everything was all right when the world seemed to be falling around her.
She went in search of Matilda. She would tell her sister that they needed to go home early. She knew Matilda would understand.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
“Juliet,” Daniel said. “Everyone is worried about you.”
“I’m all right,” Juliet murmured, not looking up from her embroidery.
“No, you aren’t. You’ve been sitting in the library and brooding for three days. You don’t come down to meals. Are you even eating?”
“I’ve had meals brought to me here. I’m just not feeling very social at the moment, Daniel. It’s nothing to worry about.”
“You’ve got Matilda in an absolute state,” Daniel reproached. “You know, she says you spent twenty minutes at that garden party, and then you suddenly wanted to leave. Are you ill again?”
“No, I’m not ill! Why do you keep asking me that?”
“Because I’m your brother and I worry about you. And you shouldn’t be upset with me for that. You should be pleased to have someone who cares as much as I do about what happens to you, Juliet.”
Juliet sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I am grateful for you, Daniel. Things are just difficult right now.”
