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The woman sighed. “They are simply stories, my lady,” she said, in the same exhausted register as the butler. “Told so you can dream sweet dreams…which you are obviously not doing now.”

Eloise lifted her chin. “Well, they are not merely stories, if a princess is here now.” Then she added, with great dignity, “And I was not in the least bit sleepy.”

Juliet found, despite everything, that she was smiling. Goodness, what a firecracker of a child she was. “There is truly no need to apologize,” she said, holding her hands out.

She glanced down again to find Eloise looking at her with speculation flickering in her gaze. “But your dress has mud on it,” she said. “Did you fall off your horse?”

Now, Juliet’s smile was genuine, creasing her cheeks. “Oh, I did not fall off my horse,” she said. “If I did, I fear I would not have made it here.”

As Eloise considered this, the butler seemed to have recovered himself.

“Pardon me, my lady,” he began, turning to face Juliet, “but may I ask why you have come here?”

Juliet straightened up, cleared her throat, and gripped the contract in one hand. “Oh, please pardon my rudeness,” she said, “but my name is Juliet Gainsborough, daughter of the Earl of Clarkston, and I am here to see the duke. It is a rather urgent matter.”

At her words, the butler’s eyes flew wide, and he immediately made way for her.

“Oh! Please, do come this way,” he said, and ushered her in through a hall that smelled of old stone and woodsmoke. It led to a parlor off the main passage, where a fire was already burning.

“Please take a seat.” He bowed before the armchair closest to the fire, and Juliet took the seat gratefully. “I will inform His Grace of your presence.”

“Thank you.” She smiled, grateful for the warmth of the fire as well as the butler’s kind demeanor. Now that she was here, Juliet found that she was quite nervous, and barely managing to keep from tapping her foot relentlessly on the old oak floors.

Eloise had followed without invitation, despite the low-pitched nagging from her governess, who trailed behind her. She settled herself on the footstool beside Juliet’s chair, her gaze glued directly on her face.

Juliet cleared her throat once, but didn’t say anything, as she didn’t yet know what to say to the child.

But Eloise was not deterred by the awkward silence nor the staring match. “Are you here to see Papa?”

“I am,” Juliet replied, her tone pleasant even though her pulse skittered erratically at the mere notion of possibly meeting the Duke of Ravenlocke this night; a man rumored to be as brutish as they came.

Juliet did not know what to expect, but certainly, a man who could be called “Papa” affectionately by such a small child couldn’t be all that terrifying, could he?

It was as though her apprehension showed on her face because Eloise broke the silence again to say, “Papa only looks frightening,” to which Juliet blinked in surprise.

“Oh?” was the only thing she could think to reply. Did this sweet child think that was comforting?

“It is because he does not smile very much,” Eloise continued, and Juliet leaned towards her to hear more. The girl was truly such a delightful chatterbox. There was something in the little girl’s uncomplicated warmth that felt like the first clean breath she’d taken all day. “But when he does, he looks wonderful!”

The governess sighed, stationed beside the little girl, her book still clasped to her chest. Now, she offered Juliet another apologetic look. “I truly do apologize, my lady.”

But Juliet shook her head. “Oh no, there is no need for an an apology. I am very much enjoying her company.”

“You are, aren’t you?” Eloise crowed excitedly.

“Oh, please, do tell me more about⁠—”

A voice came from the threshold behind her, interrupting whatever she was about to say. It was low, but the authority in it had Juliet freezing in place, the cold wrapping around her spine all at once.

“Step away from my daughter.”

Chapter Two

“Papa only looks frightening.”

Adam had heard Eloise before he reached the parlor door.

He’d nearly flown down the steps after he’d gotten Grieves’ message about a young woman who had come to meet with him.