How had she been so foolish as to allow Miles to find her? She’d been too distracted. She ought to have remained aware of her surroundings, for pity’s sake. Most particularly when she knew that she was at risk.Fool, Juliana. Neither had she been successful in receiving answers from Jasper!
Body burning with exertion, Juliana threw her hand up to hail a hackney. She sighed in relief as one clattered to a stop in front of her. With a quick shouted direction, she ascended the step and closed the door, slumping breathlessly against the squabs.
Her footman’s visage flashed in her mind’s eye and she cursed silently, a tremor of fear travelling down her limbs.
It would appear that her stratagem required adjustment. This could not go on; she could not live in fear, wondering when Miles or Francis would finally succeed in taking her life—and Jasper’s. Something must be done.
A seed of a thought planted itself in her mind, gradually germinating into a fully formed idea.
Soon, they rolled to a stop before the Bow Street offices, and she flipped the driver a coin before darting up the front steps.
The door swung inward. She passed a bemused Grace and halted just inside, her eyes wide with shock.
Jasper turned at her entrance and cursed soundly.
“Juliana!” Maria and Heather swept forward to embrace her.
“What happened?” Leo’s low voice cut through the moment, drawing her gaze over her friends’ shoulders.
Leo was there. Despite their abrupt parting, he’d come back to her. Her heart gave a hardthump, her pleasure at seeing him palpable.
He came to her side, and reached toward her cheek, his gaze raking her from head to foot and back again. Despite the concern and anger in his gaze, heat followed his perusal, warming her just beneath her skin.
“Miles found me,” Juliana replied.
“Where is your footman guard?” Jasper demanded.
Juliana shook her head, and regretted the action immediately. “I do not know. I was grabbed, and he disappeared. Mayhap Miles got to him, first.”
Chaos erupted in the small foyer as everyone spoke at once, Jasper’s face crimson in the height of his outrage. The volume spiked, and Juliana’s aching head protested.
Juliana lifted her arms with a cringe and announced, “I have a plan.”
CHAPTER26
Retreating voices faded down the corridor as Juliana’s friends and family began preparations for their plan, but Leo couldn’t bring himself to leave her side.
The woman he’d fallen in love with was about to place herself in danger, and he could not let her go until he’d had his chance to speak. His abdomen gave a slight wobble, and he cleared his throat in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort.
“Juliana,” he said, joining her at the window, where she stood gazing at the gardens.
“Thank you for coming, Leo.” She turned to face him.
“I oughtn’t have left as I did. My pride was wounded, but that is not an excuse for my behaviour.”
Heat from her palm permeated his coat sleeve and seeped into his very soul. “I’ve come to learn that I am swift to assume the worst regarding the intentions of men.”
Leonard nodded, his gut now entirely in knots. But she ought to know the truth. “Elizabeth’s mother perished in childbirth,” he began.
Juliana’s palm stilled, but she nodded encouragingly.
“It was two years later, after the required period of mourning that I forced my brother, Walter, to host a dinner party.” Leo blinked back the burn that prickled his eyes, and continued. “I was so cavalier and sodding selfish that I’d tupped one of his maids a fortnight before. My apathy infuriated her, and during the house party she sought her revenge on me.
“Walter was miserable throughout the night.” Leo sniffed and cleared the lump from his throat. “And instead of leaving the man to mourn, I forced him into a salutation—even giving him my untouched drink.”
Juliana made a soft sound of dismay, and Leo groaned.
“It was poisoned.” He turned to face her. “It remains my greatest mistake. And until my blunder at the inn, I’d thought it would be the only error that would ever occupy my thoughts.”
