Page 74 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
He sighed. “I want to do what we agreed on. I want to help you protect yourself from Lord Stickland. Do you really think I’ll be happier if I have to watch you fall back into the clutches of that awful man?”
She looked up at him.
For a moment, he thought he had convinced her.
“Let me do this for you, Chipmunk,” he said quietly.
Her shoulders tensed.
Had he reached her?
Then, she whirled to face him, and her eyes were blazing.
“What is the matter with you!”
Harry was completely nonplussed. “What do you mean?” he asked. “I was only saying—”
“I know what you were saying! You’re horrible, Harry!” Her tears were flowing in earnest now. “How could you say that to me right now?”
He couldn’t recall being more confused. “Juliet, I don’t understand. What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?What’s wrong?” She laughed bitterly. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong. Every time I convince myself that you really do care about me, you show me otherwise. And I can’t stand it anymore! How do you think it makes me feel to know that I mean so little to you?”
“But what would make you think that?” he asked anxiously. “I’ve never said that you didn’t mean anything to me. It’s just the opposite, Juliet.”
“Stop. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I don’t want you to lie to me, to be cruel to me when I’m doing nothing but trying to be kind to you. I don’t know how you can be that way.”
“What are you talking about?”
Harry didn’t know whether to feel apologetic or annoyed. He hadn’t been cruel to her at all. He was trying to be kind to her. He had done nothing but try to be kind to her. And she was treating him as if he had done something awful. Something unforgivable.
She pushed past him towards the curtain. “I’m not going to do this anymore,” she said. “I should have listened to Matilda from the start. Somehow, you won her over. But I should have listened from the very beginning. I should have known you would never change.”
“Juliet, for God’s sake, tell me what this is all about. Tell me what’s going on. If I’ve done something to offend you, don’t I deserve to know about it?”
“I’m not going to stand here and explain this to you,” she snapped. “I shouldn’t have to do that.”
“Just—just wait a moment.” He knew that if he allowed her to walk away now, she would be walking out of his life forever, and he just couldn’t take it. “Just stay here for a moment. This all happened so quickly, Juliet.”
She laughed bitterly. “It hasn’t been quick at all.”
“I’m just trying to help you.”
“I don’t see how you can possibly think you’re of any help to me.”
“You don’t mean that.” Surely she didn’t mean that.
“I do mean it.” She scowled. “I told myself countless times that you weren’t as bad as Lord Stickland, but in many ways, you’re much worse.”
“How can you say that to me? I would never behave the way he has.”
“Maybe not, but the things you do hurt me just as badly. And coming from you, they’re worse. I never believed for a moment that Lord Stickland cared about me, because why would I? But you… I thought you did care.”
“I did,” Harry insisted. “I do.”
“No, you don’t. Or if you do, it’s only because I’m Daniel’s sister, and you don’t want bad things to happen to your best friend’s sister. It’s never even occurred to you thatyoumight be that bad thing.”
He was furious at the suggestion. “How can you say that I haven’t considered that I might be the thing that hurts you, now that you know about my curse?”
