Page 48 of Lady of Fortune
“Good night, my lord.”
Effectively dismissed, Eddie saw no reason to remain any longer, though he caught the longing gaze Julia threw over her shoulder, and he responded with a smile and a shrug. He was making his way to the door when he was intercepted by Lady Elizabeth. He inwardly sighed but smiled for her. It was not her fault he was feeling rather disgruntled at the moment.
“My lady,” he said with a slight bow.
“Mr. Francis,” she said in return. “I hope you are enjoying yourself this evening.”
“This is a beautiful home,” he said truthfully. “And the evening has been quite interesting, that is for certain.”
She looked at him knowingly. “Aninterestingchoice of words, Mr. Francis.”
He gave her a half-grin. He wasn’t going to lie to her, and he could tell she was a woman who appreciated honesty.
“I do have a question for you,” she said, and he nodded for her to continue. “Julia… she is quite taken with you, as I’m sure you aware, for she is not one to hide her feelings.”
“I agree, she does not,” he said.
“This is rather impertinent, but do you feel the same toward her? I apologize for the forward question, but I do not want to see her lose her heart. I know she is much stronger than most give her credit for, but I believe she has felt herself to be in love with you for nearly a decade. The thought that she would now fall even harder for you, only for you to walk away, would be difficult to witness, and I would never want to see her go through that.”
He nodded, understanding, and saw the opportunity to ask the opinion of someone who would fully comprehend his current dilemma. “Which is why I have done all I can to not allow our relationship to grow any closer, and yet… it remains difficult to keep myself away from her. And this leads me to a question for you, Lady Elizabeth. Do you think it’s fair that I give her my own heart? Is a life with me the life she deserves, or would she be far better off with a man like the Duke, who seems so smitten with her?”
A dark look passed over Lady Elizabeth’s features at the mention of the Duke, and he remembered Julia’s words regarding their mysterious relationship, but he forgot it as she began to speak.
“Julia has known a privileged life, it is true,” she said slowly. “But she is not naive. She knows what would await her if she were to leave the life she has known. She would not pursue a liaison with you if she wasn’t prepared to give everything up.”
He nodded. “She is a romantic,” he commented, and Elizabeth smiled in agreement.
“I would describe her as such, yes. You know her well.”
“I do,” he responded. “What I wonder is if this all seems like an adventurous sacrifice in the name of romance at the moment. What happens in a year from now, when life becomes one race after another, moving from one course to the next? How long will she be able to sit there and watch me go out onto the track? I can offer her a home, but it will be nothing compared to what she knows now, and while there would be a bit of help, there will not be someone seeing to her every need. Is this still what she will want in five years, ten years?”
“I don’t have the answer for you, Mr. Francis,” she said, with a rueful grin. “I wish I did, but when it comes to love I only have practical advice, as it were. Your answer is one that can only come from the heart. And my own heart has nothing to do with it. You must determine what Julia’s has to say.”
Eddie stood frozen as he stared at her. Determine what Julia’s heart had to say? How the hell was he supposed to do that?
Lady Elizabeth must have sensed his bewilderment for she placed a gentle hand on his arm for a moment.
“Do not overthink it,” she said with a small smile. “While I do find myself always in my head, I have heard it is often best to follow your heart.”
And with a swirl of skirts, she turned and was off, leading Eddie to stare after her for a moment before he finally gathered himself together. He took one look to see if Julia was still present, but her blonde head, though short, was nowhere to be found.
It was enough to bring him back to the moment, and before he could think any further on what he was doing, he turned and departed the Moreland home.
CHAPTER24
Julia awoke the next morning with the full rays of the sun streaming onto her face for the first time in a long time. The early mornings had become a habit, it seemed. The day had finally come — the Two Thousand Guineas had arrived. She and Orianna would perform a slight warmup, but that would be the extent of the remainder of their training, and then the race would begin.
“You’ve learned as much as you will ever be able to before this race,” Eddie had told her. “Now is the time to relax and prepare your mind even more than your body. Remember all I told you about the race, and repeat that vision, over and over again.”
Julia remembered nodding, and she was now doing all she could to follow that advice and keep the nervous jitters at bay.
She just had to get through the morning until the afternoon race. She would arrive at the track with her family, participate in many of the social events of the day, and then she would have to slip away from the grandstands and into her racing silks. Following the race there would be a party, of course — which she had already invited Eddie to attend, no matter the results of today’s race. She did hope he would come. She knew he hadn’t the greatest of times last night, but she also now knew just what it was that vexed him so about the nobility. She simply had to make him see that they were not all like the man who had sired him. Then she would tell him how she felt and determine how they would best go forward, for afterward, she had no idea when she would see him again.
But enough of that. She had a race to focus on.
After a breakfast alone, Julia retired to the drawing room with the latest copy ofThe Women’s Weekly.It was now a few days old, for it had been sent here from London and the post took some time. With the upcoming Two Thousand Guineas, her friend, Phoebe, the publisher of the paper, had promised that Julia’s article would be front and center.
And sure enough, there it was. Phoebe had been true to her word, and Julia’s column, written by “A racing enthusiast”, according to the byline, detailed the horses who were scheduled to be running and the various odds of each of them. Julia perused the column once more, just to make sure it was exactly as she had submitted it, and then permitted herself a smile of congratulations. She thought she had accurately portrayed Orianna’s chances, despite the fact that she, of course, was very much rooting for her horse to win. But it was Valiant — with Eddie atop of him — who had the best odds.
