Page 82 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
It had been worth it. She would do it again.
But he was wrong to suggest that she would ever love again. Perhaps she would marry. Perhaps she would find a gentleman she could bear, someone who was kind and treated her well, but she would never again know anyone who made her feel the way Harry had. It was impossible.
The door to her bedroom opened, but she didn’t bother sitting up or even turning to face it.
“It’s me,” Matilda murmured. “Daniel told us, Juliet. I came to see if you were all right.”
Juliet couldn’t respond to her sister. A moment passed, and then she felt Matilda’s hand on her back.
“What happened?” Matilda whispered.
“Everything,” Juliet said. “Everything happened.”
“Tell me.”
Juliet shook her head. “I don’t know if I can.”
“I think you’ll feel better if you do,” Matilda said. “It won’t do you any good to hold this inside. Sit up. I have a glass of water for you.”
Juliet sat up and took the glass. She sipped slowly, and sure enough, it did make her feel a bit better.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“Of course,” Matilda said quietly. “Can you tell me what happened now?”
“I don’t know where to begin…”
“Did you tell him you knew about the curse?”
“Yes, I told him. He was startled, but I think he was glad to know that it wasn’t a secret any longer.”
“Well, that sounds like a good thing,” Matilda said encouragingly.
Juliet shook her head. “It isn’t. He can’t overcome his fear, Matilda. He’s so worried about that curse. When he looks at me, it’s all he sees. The potential for disaster.”
“So what happened next?” Matilda asked. “After you told him you knew? What did he say?”
“Well… to tell you the truth, at that point I tried to end things between us,” Juliet admitted.
“You did?”
“I could see how distressed he was. I could see how it tormented him, thinking that at any moment I might lose my life. I don’t believe it, but he does, and he’s been living in fear of it.”
“What did he say to that?”
“He tried to talk me out of it. He said that he wanted to help me and that it would be all right as long as things weren’t real between us. And then…”
“Then what?”
“Well, he called me… that name again.”
“Oh, hedidn’t! Not right then, of all moments!”
“I think perhaps it’s for the best that it happened the way it did,” Juliet said.
“How can it be for the best?”
“Because I was so emotional at that moment that I couldn’t help but tell him exactly how I felt. I let him know just how much it hurts me when he says those things to me. But he had no idea. He was so sorry. He never meant to hurt me.”
