Page 34 of Taken By the Broken Duke
“And you wish me to marry your daughter instead. As you originally planned,” Horatio interrupted her.
Lady Margaret drew a breath, raising her chin. Then nodded sharply. Horatio glanced at Frances who was looking at the floor. But she timed the raising of her eyes for just the moment that he was looking at her. She watched him for a moment from beneath long lashes before shyly looking away. She even blushed. Unfortunately, her dark sultriness could not compare to the fresh, bright, and pure beauty of her cousin.
“That is the only acceptable course of action. For my husband and myself.”
“And if I insist on marrying Juliet?”
“My husband will refuse to consent,” Lady Margaret added with no little triumph.
“Ah, she is under the age of one-and-twenty, is she?” Horatio asked, seeing the trap in which the Godwins set for him.
“She is twenty. So unable to consent to marriage alone.”
“I can wait a year,” Horatio shrugged.
“Then we will remove Juliet from this house and place her somewhere you will not find her. And we will let it be known just how wicked and degraded the Templeton line has become,” Lady Margaret finished with a harrumph.
She gave a thin smile, as though this had been her coup de grace with no further argument required. Horatio looked from the scheming older woman to her daughter, trying very hard at an outward appearance of demure innocence. Failing utterly, but trying nonetheless.
He considered his options. They were limited.
He had entered the room, believing himself in a position of power but had not realized that it was the Godwins who held all the cards. He could call their bluff but was beginning to believe now that Lady Margaret would follow through on her threat to ruin him. The scandal would taintthemas well, however. Horatio wondered how she planned to escape it without the marriage.
What he needed now was time to think. What he wanted was to be in the company of Juliet once more.
That need alarmed him.
Desire for her was not the same as trust. Intrigue was not love. He wanted her but could not escape the suspicion that she was part of the conspiracy.
“I wanted to ask a question about Juliet,” he said, presently, “specifically about her illness. What is it? Is it truly terminal?”
He had been watching for a reaction and got it. Lady Margaret frowned and Frances looked to her mother with a frank, questioning look.
“Illness?” Lady Margaret asked. “What illness?”
Horatio judged the question to be genuine. The delay in reply was just enough for someone struggling to process something of which they knew nothing. She had not been expecting the question.
“She told me of an illness inherited from her mother. An illness that killed her mother and left her father destitute in the pursuit of its cure,” Horatio probed further.
Lady Margaret laughed. It was a loud, involuntary bark that had the sound of sudden relief. Horatio looked to Frances who was hiding a smile behind her hand.
“Oh, that isrich. Quite the story,” Lady Margaret crowed.
Horatio felt a flash of anger. He did not know if she was laughing at him, accusing him of being a liar, or leveling the sameaccusations against Juliet. Neither of those scenarios pleased him.
“Explain,” he demanded.
“My sisterdiddie of an illness that the doctors could not cure. Juliet’s father died a dissolute debtor, having frittered away his fortune. He died in a debtor's prison. But not before burning their house to the ground. That is why we took Juliet in. She is perfectly healthy though, and since childhood, has pretended to a condition similar to her mother’s.”
“Pretended? How?Why?”
“I lack the knowledge of the human psyche to explain. Perhaps to be like her mother, and in some way, closer to her memory?” Lady Margaret ventured.
“For attention,” Frances said, suddenly.
Horatio’s eyes darted to her and she blushed. “Forgive me, Your Grace. Juliet has always been a jealous child. Has she not, mother?”
“Alas, yes. Always envious of her cousins. Perhaps understandably. After all, both of my daughters still have a mother who is living and hale, and a father who provides for them. Juliet has been attended to by the finest doctors of Harley Street and they have found nothing wrong with her. Not physically, anyway. You see now why I did not wish you to marryJuliet? It would, I fear, not suit either of our families, given our objective to reduce scandal. Juliet is mentally unbalanced,” Lady Margaret finished resolutely.
