Page 98 of A Deal with the Broken Duke
Juliet swallowed. She knew the whole story was going to have to come out now. She was going to have to tell her brother everything if she wanted his help. But that was an acceptable price to pay if it meant getting out from under Lord Stickland’s thumb.
“He’s threatening me,” she said. “Threatening to take action against me if I refuse to marry him. And Iwon’tmarry him.”
Daniel looked at Lord Stickland. “Is this true?” he growled. “Did you threaten my sister?”
“Ask her what she’s been doing. Go on.”
“No,” Daniel said. “Do you think there’s anything in the world she could say that would convince me she deserved to be threatened? Coerced into a marriage she doesn’t want? Good God, man, you’re talking about my sister. Get up.”
Lord Stickland struggled to his feet.
“Did he hurt you?” Daniel asked Juliet. “Did he put his hands on you at all?”
“No.” Juliet shook his head. “He didn’t touch me. But I think…” she hesitated. “He must have known that I would be coming to this room. He must have followed me here or something… except that it couldn’t have been that, because he was here when I arrived. But I know he’s been spying on me. He knows things about me that he couldn’t know if he hadn’t been.”
“Are you going to tell your brother what those things are?” Lord Stickland asked nastily. “Or are you going to go on lying about everything you’ve been doing, Lady Juliet, even now that you’re caught?”
“You don’t speak to her that way!” Daniel snapped.
“But I should tell you,” Juliet said. “I can’t keep this a secret anymore, Daniel. Lord Stickland is cruel, but he’s right. It’s time for me to be honest.”
“We can discuss it later, whatever it is,” Daniel said. “For now, we have this man to contend with. I think we ought to—”
But he never got to say what it was he thought they ought to do, for just at that moment, the door opened again, and this time it was Harry who entered.
Lord Stickland burst out laughing. “This is too perfect.”
“Oh, good.” Harry sighed in relief. “You found her.”
He hurried to Juliet’s side, and for a moment, it was as if nothing had ever happened to drive them apart. His hands came to rest on her shoulders.
“Are you all right?” he asked her urgently.
“I’m fine.”
Had Harry known that Lord Stickland meant to corner her like this? She didn’t think he could have, but what could have led him to be so concerned about her well-being, then?
“As if you care about that,” Lord Stickland mocked, still laughing. “Tell everyone the truth, Your Grace. Let her brother hear it from your lips. Your courtship was never real.”
Harry’s head lowered slightly. His eyes closed.
“What?” Daniel asked.
Harry turned to face Daniel. “All right,” he said. “I can explain this.”
“Listen to him.” Lord Stickland laughed. “He canexplain. You all thought he was such a better choice for Lady Juliet than I was, just because… I don’t know why. Because he’s a duke and I’m not, I suppose. But he never really wanted her. He never really loved her. It was all some game. And the things he did in the course of his deception…” he trailed off ominously.
Juliet understood what he was implying. He was alluding to the fact that Harry had kissed her. Apparently, he wasn’t going to tell Daniel about that, at least, not yet. Perhaps he was holding on to that information, hoping to use it against her at some point in the future.
Perhaps he was just trying to avoid humiliating her unnecessarily, but she didn’t want to give him too much credit. He had never been kind to her, and it was hard to believe that he had any intention of starting being kind to her now. If he wasn’t telling the whole story, it would be because he had his reasons for keeping it to himself.
She made eye contact with Harry. She could see that he, too, noticed the detail that Lord Stickland had left out and that he was wondering about it just as much as she was. But Harry wasn’t going to say anything, that much was clear.
“What is he talking about?” Daniel demanded of Harry. “Is this true? Your courtship with my sister, it was a lie?”
“It was. It wasn’t a true courtship,” Harry confessed.
“So you lied to me. And to Juliet!”
