“Because I missed you, Julianna.”
Of all the explanations he might have offered to her query, this was the one that cut the deepest. She felt it like a barb in her heart.
“You missed me.” The words escaped her, and she felt numb. Disbelieving. Of course she longed to believe them, quite desperately.
But she could not. Dared not. Would not.
“I missed you. I wanted you to come back to London.” A sad smile flitted over his lips for a brief moment, before disappearing again. “I thought I could persuade you.”
Her grip on the cue tightened. “But I never saw you. You never called upon me.”
“I intended to. However, I saw you with another gentleman. You seemed happy. I turned my attention elsewhere. Bought that damned picture and about a dozen others instead. One of them was a landscape of the harbor in New York. It reminded me of you, so I took a knife to it and then tossed the remnants in the fire. The rest are scattered about.”
He spoke matter-of-factly. As if everything he was revealing was not akin to a dagger being lodged between her ribs.
“You came to see me.”
His jaw clenched. “Take your turn, Julianna, else the game shall last all night.”
Finishing this dratted game was the last thing on her mind just now. “Why would you come to New York City and then leave without calling upon me?”
Part of her—the most foolish part—mourned that lost chance. She knew not why. If she had known he had followed her to New York City, would it have changed anything? It certainly would not have taken away the fact that he had been kissing another woman in the street upon his return to London after his grandmother’s death.
Lady Richards.
The name still made her stomach curdle. Fleeing to America had meant she had not been forced to cross paths with the woman. But now that she was in London, it was inevitable they would see each other at some social event or other.
“I saw the way you were looking at him,” Sidney said coolly. “Turned out I had pride, just not very much of it.”
She struggled to recall who she might have been walking with that day. She’d had many friends in the city, some of them gentlemen. Mama had been determined to matchmake, her heart set upon a hideously wealthy American marrying her daughter, likely to spite Father. But Julianna had never been interested in any of the men she had met and befriended. Her heart had belonged to one man.
It belonged to him still.
“I do not know who was accompanying me that day,” she said softly. “It could have been anyone. Mama was quite set upon seeing me married off.”
“It no longer matters.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Take your turn, Julianna.”
Fine. If he did not wish to discuss it, she would leave things as they were. The hour was growing late, and her emotions were raw. She aimed and managed to score a point. Their game progressed in silence. Shelbourne missed three shots in a row, and Julianna renewed her effort to defeat him, all while turning this new information over again and again in her mind.
What did it mean? Why would he have followed her across an ocean when he had been kissing Lady Richards? Did she care?Shouldshe care?
Her cue sent two object balls caroming into pockets.
“You are the victor, Lady Shelbourne,” he declared, his tone grim. “I owe you a gift.”
There was only one gift she wanted from him.
The truth.
And she was going to do everything in her power to get it. If not tonight, in the coming days. He had much to answer for. And mayhap she did as well.
* * *
Sidney wasthe same sapskull who had ventured across an ocean to seek out the woman who had laughed in his face following his proposal of marriage. And that had never been more apparent than during the previous evening’s game of billiards when he had so stupidly confessed to her.
There was wooing, and there was handing himself to her on a silver salver.
But even through his dismay at his own stupidity, he had still played his hand according to the plan he had formulated over the course of their first round. He had allowed her to win that final bout. Oh, it was not as if Julianna was not an excellent billiards player; she was. She was the sort of woman who naturally excelled at almost anything she tried. Mayhap it was her innate grace. Or perhaps her sense of competition, or her stubborn nature. Whatever the case, she was certainly a worthy adversary.
