Page 50 of Taken By the Broken Duke
“So, you went back to Ravenscourt? Did your father not relent even then?”
“No. I was driven off the estate at gunpoint. He was furious. I had thought some of that anger would have dissipated in the intervening time, it had been three months at that point. I was able to enter the house. Heard my father's voice sounding very jovial and happy in the Black Study—that was always his preferred room for company. Whoever he was entertaining, I don't know. When I made myself known, they left. I saw the door slam on the far side of the room and was confronted by my father as enraged as I have ever seen him. Curious.”
“Whom was he seeing?” Juliet wondered aloud.
Horatio didn't answer but gazed into the fire, lost in thought.
“How peculiar that I have only now remembered that I heard a woman's voice before I entered the room. I assumed it was my aunt but I don't think it was. Odd that I have never recalled that particular fact until now, all these years later…”
“Perhaps you simply cast the memories aside, refusing to dwell on them. And now that we are discussing them, something has come back to you,” she offered.
“Possibly,” he whispered, brows furrowing in contemplation. “Alas, it does not matter. I ran, destitute and alone. I went from poor house to poor house. Sometimes I ran and hid from militia constables on the lookout for vagrants without gainful employ. Somehow, I made it as far as Bristol, and that was where I met Dickens Hall, formerly of His Majesty’s Royal Navy. Against all judgment, he believed my story. He saved my life. Gave me a job, my self-respect.”
“That is a remarkable journey,” she muttered in awe.
“And one that changed me forever. I saw what life is like in this country for those without the privilege of rank and wealth.”
She sat up to look at his face. There was such conviction in his words.
“It made me want to do something about it. Do something to make the lives of ordinary people better somehow,” he went on.
She saw a fevered light in his eyes now, hard passion in his voice. “How?” she asked with wonder.
This was language she was not accustomed to hearing. It sounded dangerously close to revolutionary, which made it exciting,thrilling. Horatio put his head back against the cold stone pillar by which they sat.
“That's just it. I don't know. For so long, I had thought that the first step must be to restore my name, my family's reputation. That I would be able to do more if my standing was reinstated. But as to what Icando... I just do not know.”
Juliet's mind raced. She thought of the possibilities. They seemed endless. Surely a Duke with the ear of the Regent, as the Templeton family once had, could achieve anything he chose. She wanted to help, found the idea exciting beyond words.
But then a shiver ran through her. It left a dull ache in its wake, deep in her bones. She hugged herself, waiting for the feeling to pass.
“Juliet… what is it?” Horatio asked abruptly, sitting up.
“I am very cold all of a sudden. Do not worry,” she replied from between chattering teeth, “it is something I have experienced before. The fire should warm me.”
Horatio took her bare arms, rubbing his hands up and down them. His touch was warming and she found herself relaxingagainst him once more. The chill remained deep within her though. His hands went around her back, rubbing tenderly.
“Is it part of your illness?” he asked.
“Something that used to happen to my mother when she began to decline,” she replied.
She closed her eyes, her hands steadying herself against Horatio's chest.
“And… how long have you been experiencing this particular symptom?”
There was sudden tension in his voice and Juliet knew why. It made her feel that she was the cause of his distress. Far better if he had never had to face the prospect of her death. If her ultimate demise was that of a complete stranger to him.
“Better if you had never known me,” she whispered.
“No!” he growled with ferocious strength. “This may have been a battle you have become exhausted by, but I am new to this fight. I will not surrender so easily. This fellow in Carlisle will tell us everything he knows or he will answer to me.”
Curiously, Juliet took a measure of comfort from Horatio's apparently indefatigable resolve. She knew it was hopeless—but his hope was infectious.
“It has been a very long time since I dared to hope for anything,” she murmured. “I have made no concrete plans because I do not believe I will be alive long enough to see them to fruition.”
Horatio’s head perked up a little just then. “And what would you wish to do if that were not the case?”
She pondered his words for a moment. “I wanted to be the first female accredited and qualified veterinary surgeon,” Juliet said with a chuckle.
