one, observing as he did her delicate bone structure and air of fragility— misleading, no doubt.
“I had best explain all. My name is Juliet Winterton, daughter of Viscount Winterton. Please know that I never intended to trap you into any sort of marriage, my lord. The last thing I want is to marry, especially one who is a rake.” She gave him a pleading look, one that begged for patience.
Alexander winced at the way she said “rake,” quite as though it were something nasty to be found under a rock. “So why are you here?”
Juliet took a deep breath, then plunged on. “My stepbrother decided to compel me to marry his good friend Robert, Lord Taunton. Marius had it all arranged, even to sending for the parson. Lord Taunton is a gamester and drunkard, a lamentable excuse for a man, as is my stepbrother if I may say so. After years of enduring Marius, I was not about to marry the same sort of man, if you follow my reasoning. So I fled.” She threw up her hands at these words as though to say her actions were obvious.
“That does not explain how you came to be here posing as my wife. How did you know but that I was not already married?” Alexander shifted in his chair so he might better study Juliet, as she had introduced herself. Her eyes, he decided, were her best feature, long-lashed and a lovely amber color like aged brandy.
“First of all, I knew you were single. Your doings are frequently noted in the newspapers, my lord. And I must say, you do seem to go from one escapade to another with scarcely a letup.” She gave him a scolding look such as he might have received from his mother.
“Go on,” he said dryly.
“It was while Pansy and I were at the little inn in the village—I’d had a disagreement with the driver of our post chaise and dismissed him only to find that we were rather stranded. We heard some people discussing this house and you. They said you had never been here, nor were you likely to come.”
“That doesn’t explain why you are here. And how long, may I ask, have you been here?” Alexander rubbed his chin while he considered his options, wondering what Mr. Small would think of this mare’s nest.
“First of all, I was looking for a place to hide from my stepbrother. I had traveled quite some distance and hunted for a situation where he would be unlikely to find me. This little village seemed perfect. It isn’t even listed in my Patterson’s Roads. So I pretended I was your estranged wife to have a place to hide.” She exchanged a look with Alexander, then dropped her gaze to her lap. “As to the other, I have been here now for about two months.”
“No brother as yet? It doesn’t surprise me. I’d never have found the place had my solicitor not given me good directions.”
“Why are you here, my lord? I do not mean to pry, but I would like to know. This is a rather odd place for you to be at the height of the Season, if you will pardon the observation.” Juliet darted a glance at him, mindful of his height and excellence of dress. He was as handsome as his youthful portrait had promised. Only now he emanated a sort of leashed power the child had not yet attained.
Alexander thought that Juliet Winterton deserved as truthful and complete an answer as she had given him. “I, too, am in hiding. There is a willful, some say unbalanced, young woman who has taken it into her mind to marry me. I suspect she desires a title and the money more than my person.”
“Oh.” Juliet digested this for a moment, then said, “Well, I must say this is a wonderful place to hide. The house is charming, and Mrs. Bassett is a gem.” Suddenly, she looked self-conscious. “I have done a few things—garden and mend and those sort of things a lady of the house is expected to do. I even gave a dinner. I have money of my own, so you need not think I have charged it all to you.”
He merely raised his brows as though she were being silly.
Then it struck Juliet that she was actually a
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