Page 42 of The Last Duke She'd Marry
She rushed back to the window in a panic. “Shh. Somebody will hear you.”
“I’ll say I’m practicing for the play. That’s what gave me the idea of climbing up to you.”
Her hands closed hard on the stone sill. “It’s a stupid idea. Go away.”
He didn’t shift. “I will, if you tell me you won’t marry Granville.”
“I won’t discuss this with you,” she said in a furious whisper. “It’s nothing to do with you.I’mnothing to do with you. I’m shutting this window and going to bed.”
“Then I’m not going anywhere.”
“You’ll get sick of perching on that ledge.”
“That’s true. I may find I need to sing to keep awake. Or perhaps yell so that you can hear me through the glass. There’s a thought.”
Rage filled her, mainly at herself. The hussy who had replaced sensible Juliet Frain would dearly love to invite Evesham into her bedroom. “You’re blackmailing me. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“Shame isn’t part of my vocabulary.”
“That’s nothing to be proud of.” She straightened and folded her arms over her bosom. “Leave me alone, Evesham. I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
A smile lightened his features. “That’s good. Gives me more chance to talk to you. And I’ve got plenty to say.”
“None of it relevant,” she snapped.
“We’ll see about that.” He reached for the carved gable around the top of the darkened window below her.
“Don’t!” She forgot to be angry and leaned as far forward as she dared. “You’ll fall.”
Now he was closer to the light, she caught the laughter in his eyes. It was cruel that he was so beautiful. She’d always thought Granville was good-looking, but he was like a plaster saint compared to Evesham’s masculine appeal.
“So you do care.”
It alarmed her quite how much she cared. It took an almighty effort to sound hard-hearted, but she managed it. “I care that if you come to grief, I’ll have to explain why there’s a body on the flagstones under my window.”
“Stray corpses are so untidy,” he responded, with the humor that had undermined all her defenses from the first.
Her heart pounded with fear and unwilling excitement. “Yes. That’s exactly it.” She leaned further out. “Really, Evesham, it isn’t safe.”
She watched him dig his fingers in, as he clambered up the walls. “I sneer at safety.” His breathlessness hinted that the climb was more strenuous than he’d expected.
“I don’t. I’ve already had one dead duke in my life. I don’t want another.”
“Even if this one is no great loss.”
“I didn’t say that. Oh!”
Boots scrabbled across stone, as Evesham lost his footing. The hand hooked around the drainpipe was all that kept him from plummeting to the ground.
“Please…please don’t do this.” Her heart was lodged in her throat. “You’ll get hurt.”
By now, she couldn’t hide her genuine distress. She only started breathing again, once he found purchase and stretched up to grip the windowsill in front of her. A heavy gold signet ring on his little finger caught the light from her lamp.
“Me? I’m indestructible,” he said. “Now don’t distract me while I climb in. To blazes with Romeo. He makes the whole thing look so easy.”
Irate and still jumpy from watching him come close to falling, Juliet stepped back to watch him haul himself up. He paused as he straddled the ledge and took a long look at her. His unabashed appreciation made her flush and tighten the belt on her pink robe.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said stiffly.
