Julianna lifted a hand and reached over to touch his bare shoulder. “Rhys? Things might have been so different between us, if only—” She stopped and shook her head. “I wish…”
He leaned forward and pressed his forehead to hers. “Don’t say it, Julianna.”
“I must say it.”
He kissed her gently, closing his eyes, knowing the words that she was about to say would rip through his heart.
“I wish,” she hung her head, “things had been different. I wish…I’d known.”
He took a deep steadying breath. There would be no better time to ask her what he needed to know. “Now that I’ve told you, you must tellmesomething, Julianna. I need the truth.”
She cupped his face in her hands and nodded. “Of course. Anything.”
Guilt tore at him. He’d often told himself these many months that Bell had saved him from Julianna’s schemes by offering him the chance to go to France. The thought had plagued Rhys for so long, he had to finally know the truth. He took a deep breath. “That night, in my study two years ago, were you trying to seduce me to trap me into marriage?”
Her hands fell away from his face and she pulled back. The look of indignation mixed with anger on her face immediately told him he’d made a grave mistake. Her eyes blazed. Her chest rose and fell, her cheeks turning red before she finally spat, “You fool, you utter fool. Do you honestly believe I would do that? Is that what you think of me?”
Julianna pushed herself to her feet again and shook her head, looking down at him with a mixture of pity and disgust in her gaze. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides. “You still don’t trust me. After all this time, even the time we’ve spent together here, you still believe I only ever wanted you for your title and your fortune.”
“Julianna, I—”
“Let me speak!” she demanded. “The truth is that I know you’re destitute, and if you’d stop and use your brain for a moment, you’d realize that my trying to seduce you that night makes absolutely no sense. If I had been trying to trap you into marriage, I could have easily told my parents how far we trulydidgo, and my father would have demanded you do the right thing then and there. If I was after your proposal at all costs, as you say, why didn’t I do that?”
“Julianna,” he cried, “please.”
She swiped tears from her eyes, eyes that were still blazing with outrage. “I’ll tell you why, because I truly thought we were falling in love and that you intended to ask me to marry you because youwantedme, because youlovedme. That is why, you complete horse’s arse!”
And with that, she stomped off the blanket, past the willow, and around the hedgerow—and Rhys was left knowing just how wrong he’d always been.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The next night at dinner in Lord Clayton’s large dining room, Julianna was seated next to Lord Murdock, who had arrived that afternoon. There were at least two other new guests at the dinner table that evening. Baron Winfield, Frances Wharton’s father, and the Prince Regent himself, who’d come based on Sir Reginald’s invitation.
The rumor was that Sir Reginald intended to announce his engagement to Miss Wharton that evening. Julianna kept glancing over at poor Miss Wharton. The young lady looked positively miserable. Miss Wharton kept exchanging glances with the Earl of Kendall, who everyone was talking about, but still no one noticed was serving the table dressed as a footman. Watching that play out was by far the most interesting part of the meal.
Meanwhile, Julianna could not stop thinking of her afternoon at the lake with Rhys yesterday. She’d thought about it all night last night, even begged off going to dinner because of it. She’d thought about it all day today as well. Mary had tried to talk to her, but Julianna hadn’t been ready to talk.
She wanted to forget the entire discussion. She wanted to forget him. Forget that he was still in the stables, pretending to be a groomsman. Bless it, how she wanted to forget everything. But each time she tried to think of something else, like Lord Murdock’s imminent visit, she found herself drawn back to thoughts of Rhys. He’d nearly died. He’d been blinded. Both things were too awful to contemplate.
He lied to her.
After she’d been faithful and waited for him.
Buthedidn’t trusther.
No wonder he liked horses so much—he resembled one’s hindquarters.
“Julianna,” her mother whispered from her side at Lord Clayton’s dining table. “You’re not smiling.”
Julianna shook her head and forced a smile back onto her face. She’d tried this evening to concentrate on what Lord Murdock was saying, but each time she leaned toward him, a memory of Rhys with his shirt off, lying on the blanket under the willow tree, flashed through her mind.
Mary’s words came back to haunt her. Julianna had pushed the thought away ever since that night. “I don’t think you should marry someone whom you don’t love,” her sister had said. But what had love to do with their world? No. Julianna needed to do what she always should have done, concentrate on her future. And her future obviously lay with her marriage to Lord Murdock.
She glanced at the marquess and gave him another tentative smile. The truth was, she and Murdock had done little more than exchange smiles so far this evening, and the smiles were beginning to make her cheeks ache. She’d already decided that after dinner, she would ask to speak to him privately to discuss their future. She still didn’t like the fact that he’d decided to arrive at the house party without telling her. And if the rumor about moving up the wedding date was true, she’d have a few choice words for him.
The dinner seemed to drag interminably. The only conversation she and Murdock managed were a few pleasantries about his journey from London and a variety of comments about the meal itself. Had he always been this dull? She hadn’t noticed before. But now that she thought on it, she hadn’t spentthatmuch time in his company. They’d danced at balls, he’d brought her punch, they’d shared one meal at her father’s town house and one meal at Murdock’s town house, and then he’d asked her to marry him and she’d said yes, and they hadn’t seen much of each other since, honestly.
When Sir Reginald stood to make his announcement, Julianna was glad only because it broke up the monotony. But when Lord Kendall climbed up to the sideboard, ripped off his powdered wig, and declared himself to Frances Wharton, the entire dining room was agog. Within minutes, Lord Kendall and Sir Reginald were arguing, and Miss Wharton had fled the room.
