Page 63 of The Last Duke She'd Marry
“I won’t ask again,” Granville said with a hint of a snap. “I’ve suffered enough humiliation at this family’s hands.”
Juliet flinched. “I can only beg your forgiveness.”
“One day, I might even bestow it.” He was back to sounding like his usual high-and- mighty self.
Granville had lost a hell of a woman in Juliet, and Evesham suspected that the clod knew it.
Did the man love her? He couldn’t tell. Once he’d have said that his fellow duke was incapable of the emotion, but recent events had made him realize that he’d misjudged his enemy. Granville turned out to be a lot more human than he’d ever given him credit for.
With insulting brevity, Granville bowed to Portdown. “Your servant, my lord.”
Once he was gone, the straight line of Juliet’s shoulders drooped. She’d looked tired when she came in. Now she looked beyond exhausted.
Portdown turned on Juliet with bewildered fury. “What in Hades did you do that for? Heaven knows why, but he was ready to take you. Even after what you’ve done. The man’s a saint. Why in God’s name won’t you marry him? You liked the fellow well enough to accept him two days ago.”
Juliet’s shoulders braced again. “He is a saint to offer for me. He deserves better than a woman of besmirched reputation.”
“So you’ll take Evesham?”
“No.” Implacable as ever. “I told you I don’t wish to marry.”
“That’s too bad, given you’ve been such a hussy.”
“Stop it,” Evesham said in his ducal voice. “A few kisses in the moonlight don’t turn your daughter into Lady Macbeth.”
“We know that’s all it was,” she said in a voice weighted with desolation. “But the tattle they’re spreading in London will tell a different story.”
“The talk will say it was more than kisses,” Portdown said in a grim tone.
“Bugger the talk. Stop haranguing the girl. If you’re going to harangue someone, harangue me. Everything is my fault.”
“That’s not true,” Juliet said in a stony voice. “You just behaved as you always do. I’m the one in the wrong. I knew I should stay away from you, yet I couldn’t.”
Evesham kneeled beside her chair and took her hand. “My dear, I’d love to marry you. Say you’ll make me the happiest man in the world.”
Blue eyes full of turmoil met his. For a moment, her fingers closed around his hand, as if he offered her a lifeline when she was drowning. “You sound like you mean that.”
“On my life, I do.”
For a tremulous instant, he wondered if he might have succeeded. Instead of uttering the instant denial that she’d given him before, she studied his face. It was as if she probed his soul. Hope surged with a strength that shook him to the foundations.
Then Portdown ruined it all. “There, you’ll marry Evesham. We’ll have the banns called on Sunday and the wedding in three weeks. A special license will only fan the tattle. A long wedding trip abroad, a baby in nine months, then by the time you come back, all this nonsense will be forgotten.”
Evesham cursed silently, as horror wiped the softness from her expression. She wrenched her hand from his and lurched to her feet. “I’ve given His Grace my answer and that’s an end to it.”
Evesham rose more slowly. “I hate to think of you hiding down here like a dirty secret.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll let it be known that you did the right thing.This time.”
Her tone held a hint of a jeer. He ground his teeth in frustration. She referred to Vanessa, damn it. And on that subject, he couldn’t speak in his own defense.
Portdown settled behind his desk and glared at her. “Juliet, if you refuse to take Evesham, you will no longer be my daughter.”
She went as white as paper, and her balance wavered. Evesham caught her arm to keep her upright, although he doubted that she even knew he was there. “Papa, you don’t mean that.”
“I do.” Lord Portdown’s face set in lines that indicated Juliet wasn’t the only stubborn Frain. “It was bad enough when Viola brought the family name into disrepute. At least she had the sense to marry the reprobate. I will not countenance a second daughter ignoring common morality, and moreover refusing to do what she can to fix the problem. You have my word on it.”
Evesham was already angry with Portdown. Now he wanted to kill the blockhead. Every word that the callous ass said landed on Juliet like a bullet. How dare he treat his daughter like this after all she’d done for the family?
