Julianna nodded. “I know. I decided last night before I fell asleep. It’s the first time in weeks that I’ve been able to fall asleep actually. That’s how I know it’s the right decision.”
“What do you intend to do, Anna?” Mary asked her, searching her face.
“I plan to inform Lord Murdock at sun-up. I expect he’ll take it well. When I asked him last week whether he loved me, he asked me what love had to do with marriage.”
Mary scrunched up her nose. “That doesn’t sound terribly romantic.”
“I agree. And after I inform Lord Murdock that I am not marrying him, I plan to go find the Duke of Worthington and tell him I love him.”
“You love Worthington?” Mary asked, a frown wrinkling her brow.
“Yes, and even if I tell him I love him and he doesn’t say it back, I know I’ll regret it forever if I don’t at least try. I’ve spent my whole life living up to someone else’s expectations of how I should behave. I deserve happiness. I deserve a chance at true love, and I think I can only have that with Worthington.”
Mary’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m so happy for you, Anna, and I truly think you’re doing the right thing. I actually came in here to talk about Lord Worthington.”
“You did?” Julianna replied, blinking at her sister through the darkness. “What about him?”
Mary winced. “Let me preface this by saying I probably should have told you this long before now.”
Julianna’s heart thumped so fast it hurt. “Tell me what?”
“Well, for one thing, I wasn’t actually interested in riding lessons at Lord Clayton’s house party.”
Julianna shook her head. “Mary, you woke me up at one o’clock in the morning to tell me you didn’t really want to take riding lessons at a house party we left over a month ago?”
This time Mary bit her lip. “Yes. I wasn’t particularly interested in Lord Mixton, either.”
Julianna shook her head. “I suppose that explains why he hasn’t been around since.” She rubbed a hand across her forehead. “Mary, dear, are you feeling all right?”
Mary took a deep breath. “I’m not doing a particularly good job at admitting to something, Anna, but the truth is that I always knew Mr. Worthy the groomsman was really the Duke of Worthington.”
Julianna’s head spun as if she’d been thrown from a horse. “What?” She’d heard each of her sister’s words, but somehow, they didn’t seem to make sense.
Mary nodded. “Yes, I knew it was him, and I invented excuses like going to look at flowers on the far side of the lake and needing to take riding lessons in order for you to have reasons to spend more time with him.”
Julianna felt as if the wind had been knocked from her chest. “What? How did you know?”
Mary bit her lip. “While it’s true that I neverformallymet the duke,” she continued, “the truth is that little sisters tend to do things like sneak to the top of the staircase and peer into the foyer when older sisters’beauxcome courting. I heard Stratham call him by name.”
Julianna pressed her fingers to her temples. Wait? You saw Worthington from atop the staircase well over a year ago and you remembered him when he was pretending to be a groomsman at a house party?”
Mary shrugged and a coy smile popped to her lips. “He’s ever so handsome, Anna. Not exactly someone whose countenance one forgets.”
Julianna’s mouth formed a wide O. “If you knew, why did you never ask me why he was pretending to be a groomsman?”
Mary shrugged again. “You both obviously had your reasons for pretending. Far be it from me to ruin the charade. In fact, I continued to pretend even just now when Papa was fighting him in the corridor.”
“What!” Julianna bolted upright.
Mary folded her hands together calmly. “Yes, well, that is more precisely the reason I’ve come. The Duke of Worthington just arrived to declare his love for you and Papa had him tossed out into the street.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“There’s no help for it,” Kendall said, hoisting himself up into his carriage. “Perhaps you can write her a letter.”
Rhys gave the earl a glowering stare. “You can’t be serious?” Limping, he’d retreated across the road to Kendall’s carriage, but he’d yet to climb inside. Instead, he was still staring up at Montlake’s town house. “There has to be some way for me to scale the wall,” he muttered.
“Youcan’tbe serious?” Kendall retorted.
