She swallowed. “I will not allow you in my bed.”
“You will, or I will not agree to a marriage.”
“Then I will marry someone else,” she countered, defiant. “The first man I find.”
“I would not do anything as foolish as that if I were you,chérie.” His voice was low and smooth, silken seduction. But sharp warning, too. “I have a right to my daughter. You cannot deny me that.”
“Bub pa!” Emily announced, as if she were in agreement with her father’s pronouncement.
Truly, if Julianna had not been so rattled by Shelbourne’s reaction and his words and threats, she would have been astounded by the manner in which Emily responded to him. Emily did not like many people, and strangers were anathema to her. She had screamed the first time she had laid eyes on Julianna’s father. That she was so taken by Shelbourne seemed somehow representative of the innate connection they shared.
And Julianna hated it as much as she loved it.
It shook her. Rocked her. Humbled her.
Made her realize she had no choice save one.
“I will marry you and remain here for the next few months if you promise to protect Emily from scandal,” she relented. “I will not have her the object of scorn. In America, no one would ever know—”
“I will protect her,” he interrupted. “She is mine. I would never allow harm to come to her. However, we must present her as ours. Nor do I accept your suggestion you shall only stay in London for a few months. All or nothing, Julianna.”
“Six months,” she tried to bargain, thinking of the danger to her heart and her future business both if she were to tarry in England, as his wife, beneath the same roof, for too long.
“After I have my heir, you can feel free to return to America and do whatever you wish. But Emily and any future child or children from our union will remain in England with me.”
Did he think she could abandon Emily? A future child? She was not her mother.
“I will not leave her behind.”
“Then you have no choice, Julianna.” He paused, and for a bittersweet moment, there was a hint of vulnerability in his inscrutable mask. “All I want is to know her, to love her, to watch her grow.”
Oh, dear God.
He was breaking her heart again, making her feel as if she had made the incorrect decision two years ago. But that was wrong, was it not? She had done what she had to, to protect herself and her heart.
And she would do what she had to now. He could remain in Emily’s life. He could visit New York City, or Julianna and Emily could return to London annually for visits. She could persuade Shelbourne of the rightness of such a plan with the proper motivation, she was sure.
“A marriage of convenience,” she reminded him past the persistent, vexing lump in her throat.
“A marriage ofmyconvenience,chérie,” he warned silkily. “Not yours. Never yours.”
That was where he was wrong. She would agree to this marriage and to his terms. But she was going to fight him. Because this was not just a battle between them. This was a war, and she had every intention of emerging the victor. She had no other option.
Chapter 5
Two years earlier
I shall never forget today. I had just returned from riding Juniper. Rusticating in the country has always been a source of irritation for me, the tedium of which is only broken by many escapes to the surrounding fields with a trusted mount. But this day was unlike all the rest, when I returned to the manor winded and muddied from the grueling paces I gave my prized mare. Because there was, awaiting me, the most glorious creature I have ever beheld. Fiery-haired, bright-eyed, curious, and beautiful. For a moment, I could not speak for fear I would wake and discover it all a dream.
~from the journal of Viscount Shelbourne, 1881
Julianna always supposed the moment she realized she was in love would be accompanied by a great deal of fanfare. Not that she believed the heavens would part or a golden ray of light would bathe the gentleman upon whom she bestowed her affections. Nor did she think the air would suddenly smell sweeter, the sky appear bluer, or every detail—no matter how insignificant—be rendered more apparent to her eye.
But she had been certain, so certain, the realization would have been brutally significant. Accompanied by something. A declaration on behalf of the gentleman. A gesture that moved her desperately.
For instance, he could have rescued her from a runaway carriage and sworn his undying devotion. Or saved an innocent pup from getting struck by an omnibus and then confessed he had loved her from afar for years but had been too afraid to speak to a woman of her reality-defying beauty.
However, when she fell in love with Sidney Davenport, Viscount Shelbourne, future Marquess of Northampton, it had beeninstant. Nothing had altered that day. There had been no outer sign of the violent shift that occurred within her the moment her eyes met his for the first time.
