Page 107 of A Scandalous Kind of Duke

With a huff of tobacco breath and a muttered curse, he turned away to hoist a more amenable trunk onto his brawny shoulders, and then he joined the ant lines of workers, loading the ship for its departure at high tide. On the deck of the ship, sailors moved about, doing whatever it was that sailors did.

They were very picturesque, these docks, with the masts and people and gulls, all rough energy and the promise of adventure. An image rose in her mind: a painting of a young woman, eyes shining with either excitement or tears, walking up the gangway to board a ship. Title:The Great Mistake.

“Juno, what are you doing?” Hester stood before her, arms folded, the bonnet shadowing her thin face.

Juno sighed. “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

“Do you mean to stay in London then?”

“I cannot stay in London.”

“Then you mean to leave for Italy.”

“I cannot leave for Italy.”

Hester perched on the trunk beside her. “If you can neither stay nor leave, you are in a very difficult position. What is going on?”

Juno gripped the edges of the trunk and considered the ships. A decade ago, she had come to these same docks and departed England for the first time. Because Leo had rejected her, because she believed he was saying she wasn’t good enough for him. And she had been wrong.

She had thought he regretted their tryst. She had been wrong.

She had thought she could never marry a duke. Perhaps she had been wrong about that too.

For someone who made such a song and dance about making her own decisions, Juno Bell did seem to get a lot of them wrong.

“Can I tell you a secret?” she asked, but did not wait for Hester’s reply. “Years ago, when Hadrian first brought Leo home from Oxford, I fell in love with him.”

Hester widened her eyes. “You did? You hid it well. I don’t recall you two ever speaking much.”

“We used to take long walks together, in the mornings while you were all sleeping.”

“Good heavens, your uncle would have been furious.” Hester shook her head. “I had no idea Leo was such a scoundrel.”

“Oh no, please don’t think poorly of him.” Juno gripped her arm, pleading. “Iwas the scoundrel. He was always honorable and proper, but I threw myself at him, right at his head. He very politely pointed out we could never be together. I thought he meant I was not good enough for him.”

Her aunt frowned. “I don’t believe he would have said that. Perhaps he meant he had to consider his duty to his family first.”

“Yes, that’s what he said.”

“When?”

“The other day. When he told me he wanted to marry me.”

A statue-like stillness fell over Hester, as she said, very carefully, “The Duke of Dammerton wishes to marry you?”

“Years ago, he wished to marry me,” Juno clarified. “And now… Now I am leaving England in disgrace, and he is engaged to someone else.”

“And you have sworn all these years you were content to remain unmarried. That you chose art above all else.”

Juno sighed. What was it Hester had said about her parents? It was possible to love more than one thing in one’s life.

“There was some gossip about him last night,” Hester said thoughtfully. “A public brawl with his half-brother. And even duels, I think I heard?”

Juno said nothing.

“Juno, did these fights and duels have anything to do with you?”

“I believe so.” She met her aunt’s eyes. “Yes.”

---