Page 42 of Odd Earl Out
God knew he didn’t have any patience for silly chits who nattered endlessly at him, but Juliet was one of only a few ladies whose conversation made hermoreattractive to him, rather than less so. He’d admired her from the first—he was a man, after all, and she was exquisite, her blue eyes alone enough to warm even the coldest of hearts—but lovely faces were as common as white cravats in London.
Such a sly wit, though, falling from such dainty, ladylike lips?
That was unexpected, and it knocked him off guard just long enough for her to slip past his careful defenses. She’d been wreaking havoc on him ever since, quickening his breath, and making him ache with longing.
“My goodness.” A delicate pink blush rose to her cheeks. “You’re very gallant this evening, my lord.”
“It’s not gallantry, Juliet. It’s merely the truth.”
Her eyes met his, the deep, dark blue of heavens and oceans, and the air between them swelled with awareness, the low buzz of it in his ears, the pulse of it low in his belly. They gazed at each other in silence, until her lips parted, and he realized he’d been staring at them.
His heart was pounding, thundering in his ears, everything inside him giving way to the hot rush of blood in his veins, and it was some moments before he could make sense of what she was saying.
“… tell you about my father.”
“Your father?” She’d come bursting into his study at this hour, to tell him about her father? “I don’t understand. I wasn’t acquainted with him.”
“No, but you’ve heard of my family’s misfortunes, my lord, along with the rest of London.”
“Your mother’s scandal? Yes, I heard of it.” It had been several years since her mother had fled London with her aristocratic lover, yet thetonwouldn’t let it go. They still spoke of it with such malicious delight, it was as if it had just happened.
“I believe thetonrefers to it as my mother’s scandal, yes, though it was never hers as much as it wasours, as we were the ones left to face the consequences of it. Scandal is inconvenient that way, isn’t it? Rather like smallpox. It leaves its marks on everyone unfortunate enough to cross its path.”
There was a bleakness in her voice utterly at odds with everything he knew about her. “It pains you to speak of it.”
“Yes.”
“Then you needn’t tell me—”
“I want to tell you, my lord. Not the salacious bits thetonsalivates over, but about what happened after she’d gone. Thetonnever bothers much with that. No doubt they think it as dull as a church sermon.”
Dull? No, it wouldn’t be that. Heartbreaking, yes, enough so that the selfish part of him didn’t want to hear her speak of it, but if she could bear to say it aloud, then he could bear to listen to her. “Very well, if you wish.”
“Thank you, my lord.” She was quiet for a moment, her gaze on the fire, but when she turned to face him, she was determined. “It was dreadful, of course. Far worse in the aftermath than in the moment. It’s astonishing, really, how quickly everything fell apart, as if we’d been balanced on the head of a pin our entire lives, only waiting to topple over.”
“Lives are fragile things, aren’t they?” Like a fire that burned brightly, but extinguished itself quickly.
“More so than I’d realized, yes. My eldest sister Euphemia was betrothed at the time, but the scandal put a rather brutal end to it. She’s never been the same since, and I doubt she ever will be.”
“Her betrothed was a villain then, and a coward.” He’d never before laid eyes on Euphemia Templeton, yet he was, somehow, choking with fury on her behalf.
“He was in no way worthy of Euphemia’s heart. As for Emmeline… well, you know her yourself, so I’ll only say she so dreads another scandal she’s considering refusing Lord Melrose’s hand in a desperate attempt to avoid a second one.”
“She won’t actually refuse him, surely?”
“I can’t be certain, but she may, yes. Pure folly, given she’s quite irrevocably in love with him, and pointless, as well, for it won’t do any good. Scandal will come either way.”
“Yes.” It would come—hadcome—and was devouring everything in its path. Any attempt to stop it now would be as futile as trying to put his spilled port back in the bottle.
“As for Helena and Tilly, the two youngest, they escaped relatively unscathed, as they were too young at the time to be much affected by it.”
“Small mercies.”
“Disappointingly small, yes.” She paused. “You’re aware, my lord, that my father died last year?”
Her tone shifted when she mentioned her father, as if she were handling a thing with jagged edges that would cut her if she didn’t take the utmost care with it. “I am, yes.”
“Thetonbelieves my mother’s scandal and abandonment are to blame for his death. Their opinions mean nothing to me, but my sisters think so, too.”
