“What’s more,” Kendall continued.
Rhys sank back into his chair and stared at his friend. “There’s more?”
“Yes, the difference between your situation and mine with Lady Emily is that you and Julianna had feelings for each otherbeforeshe became engaged to Murdock. She actually cared for you before she met him, which means it’s highly likely thatwereshe to pick you, she would be choosing you for true love and not your title.”
Rhys allowed the words he’d just heard to sink into his addled brain. It was true. Hehadknown Julianna before she’d met the Marquess of Murdock. Hehadhad feelings for her then, and she had had them for him. She’d said as much.
Rhys lurched to his feet and swiped his hair away from his forehead. “By God, man, I do believe I finally understand.”
Kendall inclined his head toward Rhys. “Excellent. I’m thrilled to hear it, because you’ve been acting like a complete horse’s arse for weeks.”
Rhys lurched across the desk and grabbed Kendall by the cravat. “Good God. What day is it?”
Kendall pulled Rhys’s hand away and gave him a skeptical look. “You truly don’t know?”
“Is it the fifteenth? She’s getting married the morning of the fifteenth.” His throat was dry and true panic coursed through his veins.
“You’re in luck,” Kendall replied with a grin. “It’s the fourteenth.”
Rhys whirled around to stare at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was nearly midnight, which meant he only had a matter of hours to find her. Find her and somehow convince her to marry him. Because he may have made the biggest mistake of his lifetwicein the last eighteen months, but damned if he was going to make it a third time.
“I have to talk to her, Kendall. I must find her.” Rhys turned and dashed toward the door.
“Do you really think it’s best to gonow? You’re inebriated, old chap,” Kendall said, following his friend down the corridor toward the front door.
“I’ve no time to waste.” Rhys grabbed his coat, hat, and gloves from the shocked-looking butler and ripped open the front door. “Just point me in the direction of Montlake’s town house.”
Kendall rolled his eyes. “I’m entirely certain I’m going to regret telling you this, but now that I think of it, Frances did mention something about Lady Julianna wanting a man who’d jump on a sideboard in front of the Prince Regent for her.”
Rhys turned to stare at him, his brow tightly furrowed. “What? What are you saying?”
Kendall sighed. “I’m saying you’ll need to make a grand gesture if you’re going to win her back, so I’ll do better than pointing you in the right direction. I’ll take you there myself.”
He asked the butler to have his coach brought round and pulled on his own coat.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Rhys nearly jumped from Kendall’s coach before it came to a complete stop across from the Duke of Montlake’s town house. He righted himself and then ran across the road and up the steps of the imposing structure.
Kendall followed close behind, obviously keeping an eye on his drunken friend.
Rhys rapped on the door loud and long until an equally imposing butler answered the summons.
“May I help you?” The butler obviously remembered Rhys from his prior visits to Julianna because his demeanor changed the moment he saw Rhys. “Your Grace,” he intoned, bowing.
“I must speak to Lady Julianna, immediately,” Rhys replied.
The butler turned ashen white. “His Grace has asked that Lady Julianna not be disturbed tonight,” the man said, clearly referring to Julianna’s father. “It is the eve of her…” the butler cleared his throat uncomfortably, “wedding.”
Rhys grabbed the butler’s shoulders and stared him in the eye. “I bloody well know that, man, that’s why I need to speak to her.”
Kendall pulled Rhys away from the poor butler, who couldn’t have looked more astonished if he’d just been assaulted by the queen.
“Apologies, kind sir,” Kendall said before Rhys could open his mouth again. He pushed Rhys behind him. “But we have reason to believe Lady Julianna would like to hear what Lord Worthington has to say. Could you please allow us in, and go fetch her?”
The butler glanced about uncomfortably. “Come into the drawing room. I can only agree to ask His Grace for permission.” The butler clearly didn’t want any more of a spectacle to unfold on the front steps of his master’s house.
“But I need to speak to Julianna,” Rhys moaned.
