“One of them might be, but not Juliana,” Mr. Shelley huffed. “What value does she have to anyone? If someone is coming for vengeance, it will be against Anne or Thomasina, and they are your problems now, gentlemen. I will not lose my secretary just because Anne married a former thief.” Rook stiffened and Anne lifted her chin in anger. Their father didn’t seem to notice. Or perhaps even care. “And now we have stayed too long. I will call for the carriage. Juliana, you will join me in the foyer after you say your goodbyes.”
He pivoted without another word and left Juliana and the rest of her family gaping after him. Then her sisters were there, buffeting her on both sides, each with an arm through hers.
“I’m sorry,” Thomasina whispered.
“He’swrong, just as he always is. And wewillfix this,” Anne added.
Juliana smiled at them in turn, though she felt no pleasure in this moment or this humiliation. “I am simply glad you two are free of him,” she said, and pulled from their arms. “It seems I am expected to follow, and what other choice is there? He is right, at the heart of it. I have no value to anyone, certainly not to Winston Leonard. You should all focus your attention on keeping yourselves safe and in celebrating your happiness. You ought not worry over me. I’ll see you all later.”
She didn’t wait for their arguments or farewells, but turned and followed her father. He was just exiting the foyer when she entered, and she trotted after him, feeling rather like an ill-favored dog with an angry master.
He entered the carriage at the bottom of the drive without waiting to assist her. That job went to a footman, who helped her up in the carriage while staring at the red line of her scar across her cheek the entire time. She fought tears as he closed her in the rig and shouted to their driver to take them home.
“Don’t you get ideas in your head, girlie.”
Juliana blinked as she glared across the carriage at her father. He wasn’t looking at her, but at some papers he had drawn from his inside coat pocket.
“About what?” she asked, though she already knew.
He lifted his gaze ever so slightly and speared her with it. “They’re all worked up over nothing, you know. Winston Leonard is a gentleman, not like Ellis or Rook Maitland. He can be dealt with as such. You have no need to go stay with your sisters and be part of their hysteria.”
She gritted her teeth at how easily her father could take sides with the man who had maimed her. And he’d intended worse.
“So you said,” she growled.
His gaze narrowed. “Your accident is unfortunate, but your prospects were minimal at best, thanks to Anne and her behavior. You didn’t lose much in the end. So you will be my secretary, and all will be well.”
She stared at him, wishing she weren’t still shocked by his bad behavior, by his selfishness, after all these years. “Myaccident?” she repeated. “That is what you call my being attacked by a mad man?”
Her father grunted and buried his attention back into the papers. It was probably for the best. After years of balancing everyone’s needs so well, Juliana found it was far more difficult in this moment. Emotions bubbled up in her, burning and ripping and tearing at the control she’d practiced her whole life. Her anger and her fear and her confusion were all balanced on the blade of the knife that had changed her face and her life.
In the end, she wanted to feel none of those things. She didn’t expect happiness or joy. Perhaps those things would never be hers again. But she would settle for not feeling the bad things. Last night she hadn’t. At the Donville Masquerade, the negative emotions had been replaced with desire and titillation and anticipation.
She straightened her shoulders. She didn’t want to lose that. So she was going back there. Tonight. Ellis Maitland and his edicts be damned.
Chapter 4
When she’d entered the main hall of the Donville Masquerade the previous night, Juliana had been shocked by the activities around her. Her gaze had darted around the room, never fully settling on the scandalous actions and sounds that permeated every part of the room because it was all so overwhelming.
But tonight it was…different. Tonight as she entered the hall, her gazesoughtthe wicked things. Settled on them because they centered her in some way. They took her mind off far worse matters.
So she allowed herself to stare openly at a table of four men and one lady who were playing cards. Except when one of them lost a hand, they stood and shimmied out of an item of clothing. The men were in various states of undress, including one who was entirely naked. The lady was bare from the waist up, and she giggled as the naked man flicked a thumb across her nipples before he dealt the next hand.
Juliana sucked in a gasp of air and stepped farther into the hall. She wasn’t ready for such things, that was for certain.
She looked elsewhere and found two ladies sitting in the back of the room at a table. Their heads were together, fingers laced as they passed a drink back and forth between them. Finally the taller woman, with dark hair and warm brown skin, leaned forward and kissed the other lady. Their connection escalated rapidly, and soon their tongues tangled in passionate display before they parted, smiling at each other with affection.
Juliana swallowed and glanced down at her feet. What was she doing here? She was a shy little sheltered mouse, it seemed, just as Ellis Maitland had said. He would laugh heartily to know how shocked and titillated she was by all this. He would think her even more of a fool than he already did.
She frowned. Why was she thinking ofhim?
“No,” she muttered, and shook her shoulders to clear her mind. She was here with a purpose and she was going to fulfill it. She scanned the room once more and this time her gaze settled on a man standing along the wall, watching the actions of those around him. He did not wear a mask, as was more common with the men in attendance, and he had a nice face. Not as handsome as Maitland, but then again, who wanted beauty that could be weaponized?
She drew a long breath and slowly began to cross the room toward him. Her hands shook as he noticed her and straightened up, his eyes flitting over her with interest.
“Good evening, my lady,” he drawled when she reached him.
She inclined her head. “G-good evening.”
