Page 15 of The Artisan and the Duke
He held her close, and as his lips approached hers, Jules bolted upright awakened by the dream. Jules sighed and shook her head. She mumbled, “I am most certainly not taking an infatuation with the man.”
Jules got a drink of water out of the pitcher by her bed and held it to her forehead. “This is ridiculous,” she muttered.
***
The next morning, bright and early, Jules gathered with her family as they prepared to leave for the country. “I wish you’d come with us,” Mrs Kelley said sorrowfully. She clung to Jules’ shoulders as she hugged her daughter to her.
Jules gently pushed her mother away and wiped a tear from her own cheek. “There’s no need to make this a drama fit for the actors on the stage, Mother. I’ll join you as soon as I can,” she swore.
“I trust that you will. Just be safe, Jules,” her mother said softly.
Jules nodded. When she turned to the tearful little girls beside Mrs Kelley, Jules could not stop a few of her own tears from streaming down her face. “And you two,” Jules said sternly as she wiped away their tears. “You need to help Ma and be good girls. I will see you very soon.”
Tally threw herself into Jules’ arms followed by a distraught Georgie. It broke Jules’ heart, but they would be safe with their mother, and Jules had things to do. After a moment, Jules tenderly disentangled the little girls’ arms from around her neck. She gave them a brave smile and was proud to see the two girls muster up courageous smiles of their own.
Mrs Kelley came over and ushered the girls towards the carriage that awaited them. “Come girls. It’s a long ride to where we are going,” she said softly. When the girls were loaded up into the wagon, Mrs Kelley climbed in as well. She leaned out the window and called to Jules, “Be safe.”
Jules lifted her hand as she did not trust herself to speak just then. She stood there watching the carriage take her family away. Jules reminded herself that she had chosen to stay and that there was no need to sulk about it. She had work to do.
***
As she made her way upstairs, Fredrick called from the bottom floor, “A word?”
Jules turned and descended the stairs. “Lord St Claire,” she said as she did not know the man’s military rank. When she reached the bottom, she asked, “Is everything well?”
“Yes, well, it’s about my brother actually,” Fredrick said with a smile. “He has gone out to talk to that barrister that he spoke to you about. He would like it very much if you did not go out on your own while he is gone.”
Jules smiled. “I’m happy to hear that he has not forgotten his promise. I would never entertain the idea of leaving, Lord St Claire. Causing His Grace strife and worry is always the furthest thing from my mind.”
There was something about the way that the young lady held herself when she said what she did that made Fredrick very much think that she intended to cause a great deal of strife and mischief.
“I do implore you that if you decide you must be out, to take a carriage. I will even accompany you if I must,” Fredrick said with a bit of trepidation.
“I imagine getting out into the city is hard for you,” Jules said softly. “I do not mean your injury, and I certainly mean no disrespect. I have known many who were missing limbs that were not slowed down in the slightest by it.”
Fredrick frowned. “Then what did you mean by your words?” He was not offended, just deeply curious.
“I meant that when a person comes up against an evil that they can’t comprehend that it is hard to step back out into the civilized world and rationalize that such horrors should exist,” Jules said thoughtfully. “I felt that way when I worked in a sweatshop as a child for a short time.”
Fredrick looked at his feet. “Gregory had said that you were from modest means,” Fredrick spoke quietly. “I had not thought it was that lowly.”
Fear rose in Jules that she had said too much and endangered whatever plan that the Duke had set in motion to keep his and her family insulated from scandal. “I misspoke,” Jules said hastily.
Fredrick waved off the concern he saw in the woman’s countenance. “Fret not over secrets,” Fredrick said hastily. “My brother and I tell each other almost everything. You will not run afoul of his plans.”
“Oh,” Jules said with relief. “I really can’t go ask around dressed as I am. I could, however, go dressed as a common woman.”
Fredrick thought about it. “It might be best if you did. If we are seen, it might not lead directly back to the House of Thornton,” Fredrick mused.
Jules decided that she liked the Duke’s brother right then and there. “You and your brother have an odd love of dressing like commoners,” Jules said with a smile. She paused and frowned. “Are you sure that you can stand it?”
Fredrick gave the young lady a gallant grin. “I think if you can risk the cells or worse, then I can most certainly rise to the occasion,” he assured her.
“Well, what are you two conspiring about?” the Duke said as he stepped inside the front door.
Jules blushed and mumbled, “Nothing.”
“We were actually conspiring to go out as commoners and ask all sorts of unsavoury questions of unscrupulous characters,” Fredrick said with a grin at his brother.
