Her blue eyes widened, shocked. “You did not want to marry him? Why did you not tell me?”
“Aunt Sophie had just passed. I didn’t want to bother you with something so trivial.”
“I thought you were happy! I’ve spent the last year thinking you found your love match. Marrying a man you loathe is anything but trivial. What happened?”
I had not considered this part of my confession, the part that would ensure that Jules never wanted anything to do with my husband again. “You will not like it.” She made a go-on gesture with her hand. “Do you recall when Michael returned to town in the spring?”
“I am not likely to forget that,” she said with a wry smile.
“That was Hugh. He cornered Michael and threatened him away because he was compromising you. I… you were so happy, I just wanted you to be happy, and he was ruining it. I just kept thinking that if I couldn’t have the love I wanted that you should. And he destroyed it. He had doomed us both to unhappy, loveless marriages.”
“I didn’t even realize I was so angry until I was shouting at him. I cannot even remember all the horrible things I said.”
For what seemed an eternity, Juliet merely blinked. I forcefully reminded myself that, unlike me, she preferred to consider her answers. Finally, she broke the palpable silence. “First, I knew about the conversation that Hugh had with Michael. Frankly, Michael had one foot out the door from the moment we—well, it is no matter. He would have left regardless of what Hugh said to him.”
“If I thought he required forgiveness, I would have done so, but Hugh had my well-being in mind. If you are still unhappy with him for his interference, please do not hold onto it for my sake.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected and Michael confirmed. Why on earth would you marry without love, though? It’s all you’ve ever wanted. Your parents would never force you to wed without affection, I’m certain of it. Why did you choose him?”
“I was compromised.” The words escaped in a miserable whine. At her questioning look, I continued. “It was so ridiculous that I can hardly believe it myself. I overheard him at Lady James’s ball. He was insulting me to every gentleman in the billiards room. He told them I was too short, and too round, and too ugly, and too loud, and too—everything!”
She rose instantly, turning toward the door. “Oh, that wretch of a man, I am going to—”
“Don’t, Jules. It’s long since passed. After I overheard it, I went to hide away in the retiring room. Except I found a closet by mistake and the doorknob came off in my hand. No one could hear me calling out. I had resigned myself to death by starvation when Hugh stumbled in too. From what I understand, he was searching for the study and found the closet by mistake. Before I could stop him, he closed the door, and we were both stuck.”
“You were not!” She laughed.
“We were. He was quite drunk, you see. Eventually, he accepted that we were trapped. There was a window, but he couldn’t reach it on his own. We decided it would be best if he helped me up so I could escape and free us both.
“That was when the entire billiard room full of gentlemen found us. He already had his hands around my calves and his face pressed against my bottom.”
She was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. It was the infectious, giddy kind of laughter that cures all ills and leaves you languid and sore in the stomach after. Tears formed between giggles, but it could not stop either of us.
We were interrupted by a knock and Michael’s quiet, “Jules? Darling?”
She looked at me in askance, at my nod, she stood and unlocked the door. A few chuckles continued to escape while she wiped tears away with the back of her hand. She was still incapable of words when Hugh and his brother entered the room.
Each man cocked his head at a slight angle to the left with a furrowed brow. The matching quizzical expressions set both of us off into peels of laughter again.
Jules actually snorted, which might have been the least lady-like sound she had ever made, and it caused another round of giggles.
She made a move to return to the settee, but Michael wrapped an arm around her waist, catching her from behind. He pulled her, still giggling into his chest and wrapped his free arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss behind her ear. That gesture seemed to calm her, and she settled against him, covering his arms with her own.
He whispered something I could not hear in her ear and she shook her head in response.
Their easy comfort was lovely and envy inducing in equal measure. There was no woman on this earth more worthy of the affection and adoration plain in Michael’s eyes. But it was everything I ever wanted and nothing I could see my way to.
It was Michael who broke the silence that descended in the absence of our mirth. “Just what is so amusing, ladies?”
Hugh hovered uncertainly next to me, glancing between the chair and settee indecisively.
Juliet answered for me. “Kate was telling me of a scandal that I missed at a ball when I was in mourning for Sophie.”
“Hmmm, are you being petty and judgmental?” Michael asked.
“Tragically, no,” I retorted before she could reply.
