Her hands curled in her lap, crushing the worn fabric of her dowdiest day gown yet. She felt the heat blossoming in her cheeks and thanked whatever saint was still listening to herprayers that there were far fewer candles in the dining room, or Grandmama might have seen her unusual reaction.
It was not just at the most inopportune times, either. No, the insufferable, contemptible man had seen fit to invade her waking thoughts and her dreams, bringing with him that strange, aching throb she dared not mention.
Perhaps madness ran in the family, and Kit’s foolish naivete and recklessness were not even the most devastating of them all.
“Kit, dear boy! There you are!”
Grandmama’s voice cut through her steam-hazed fantasies, wrenching her almost painfully back to reality. Juliana tilted her head to find Kit dressed haphazardly in his evening clothes, reaching for his hat.
“Are you leaving without dinner?” Grandmama asked him, her disappointment evident even in the meager lighting.
Kit nodded. “Why, yes. Yes, I must.”
“Oh?” Juliana remarked, keeping her voice even. “Where are you headed to at this hour, brother?”
“Just a… masquerade.”
It took great effort to keep her brows from knitting into a frown. “A masquerade?”
“Yes, Julie. A masquerade.”
If he had smiled at them, grinned in that devil-may-care way of his, and told them he was heading off to go carousing at some ball or gentlemen’s club, Juliana would have said nothing of it. However, from the way he hastily jammed his hat onto his head, his eyes wide and shifting in agitation, she knew that somethingwas amiss.
That, and the simple fact that no masquerades were being held in London on that very day.
Quietly, she sawed through her beef, her hands aching from gripping the cutlery too hard. From the corner of her eye, she watched as Kit dashed out the door without the slightest hint of composure.
It was then that she made up her mind.
I have to see what he is up to.
Their grandmother might have chosen to turn a blind eye to his shenanigans, but what kind of sister would she be if she allowed her only brother to stumble into a grave pitfall?
Juliana had done a great many things for which she should have exerted more careful deliberation.
In hindsight, of course. Always in hindsight.
But the moment Kit dashed out the door looking as he did, she did not care to dwell more on the potential repercussions of her actions. She simply donned the most fashionable gown she owned—the one that had seen less exposure—and quickly grabbed a mask.
A masquerade, he had quickly told them. Just because she was rushing headlong into whatever fray her brother was involved in did not mean she would do so without the slightest preparation.
“Miss, we’ve arrived at the destination.”
She blinked and peered out of the window. “Oh.”
They had pulled to a stop before a dimly lit mansion on the outskirts of the city. There were no signs to indicate what sort of establishment it was, and hardly any other buildings around. All of a sudden, wild thoughts began to dance in her mind.
What if she were discovered by whatever ill-intentioned miscreants Kit had somehow involved himself with? What if they—she swallowed past the nervous lump in her throat—decided to dispose of her? Who was going to hear her cries for help in the middle of nowhere?
But if her brother was in there, she could not resign herself to merely accepting whatever unscrupulousness he had managed to get into.
When I find him, she thought angrily,I am going to drag him out and beat some bloody sense into him if I have to!
Juliana reached into her reticule and pulled out the last of the money she had saved, handing it over to the driver, who carefully counted the coins. Satisfied, he tipped his hat at her before leading the horses away.
Now, she truly was on her own.
With a grim resolve, she pushed back her shoulders and straightened her spine. She was the daughter of a baron, now the sister of one, and she would not cower before anything.
