Page 105 of Her Beast

“Why do you look so betwattled?”

“Because I’ve never heard about him—and I recall hearing about you all those years ago.”

“You did?” she asked, intrigued by this new information. “How did you hear about me?”

“I knew Brian quite well. He mentioned that he had a niece by his older brother.”

“Ah,” Julia said, deflating. Not so intriguing after all, then.

“Your brother doesn’t live in your family home?” Malcolm asked.

Julia was torn between the wish to talk about Richard and an ingrained fear of doing so because of her father. All her life Thomas Harlow had threatened all of them about keeping Richard’s existence a secret.

Quite suddenly, defying her father seemed like an excellentreason to talk about her brother.

“My father keeps Richard hidden because he’s… different.”

“Different how?”

Julia thought about Richard’s sweet, loving face and the way her father treated him and frowned. “He is simple—or at least that is what my father and Nadine call him.” Actually, they called him worse names than that, but Julia didn’t want to speak the words.

When you sayhidden, what do you mean?”

“Richard lives with our old nurse at Brookfield—it’s just outside St. Albans.”

“Why does your father keep him a secret?”

“He says nobody would want to marry me if they learned that such a thing ran in our family. He is especially anxious that Basingstoke doesn’t know about Richard given his family’s mania for bloodlines.” Julia’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you so interested in him?”

“No particular reason.”

An unpleasant thought leapt to mind. “Please tell me you are not going to abduct Richard, too?”

“I won’t abduct anyone else. Why would you think I would?”

She shrugged. “I’ve been here for quite a while, so I thought maybe my father was not, er, being cooperative and you needed another captive.” She cut him an anxious glance. “Is he? Being cooperative, I mean?”

“Everything is fine, Julia.”

“What does that mean?”

“Just what I said.” He hesitated and added, “I’m sorry you won’t get to see your twin over the holidays.”

“Well, I wouldn’t get to see him in any event. Don’t feel badly on my account because I quite enjoy myself now that you’ve stopped ignoring me and I’ve got Kemp, Norris, and John to play cards with on the nights you’re too busy for me.”

His eyebrow—his most expressive feature—lifted. “John?”

“That’s Mr. Butkins’s first name.” She smirked. “Or didn’t you know that?”

“I am his employer and sign his cheques,” he said dryly. “I know his Christian name. I’m just surprised you do.”

“Why are you surprised? Did you expect me to sit here alone, talking to the walls when you leave to go off to do… whatever?”

He laughed. “It sounds like you miss me, Julia.”

“I hardly noticed you were gone,” she lied, the words sounding false to her own ears.

Judging by his smug smile, he thought so, too.

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