“I have not come to smile in your presence.”
“Then why have you come?” Edward asked again, looking back to the empty space behind her.
“Why do you keep looking behind me?” she asked, gesturing with the end of her shawl to the empty lawn.
“As it has escaped your notice, allow me to point it out to you.” Edward stepped away from the tree, coming closer to her, in order to point to that empty space. He had not realized how close he had come until her scent reached his nostrils. It caught him by surprise.
He had always thought a bluestocking like Lady Julia would smell of books, but she did not. There was something intoxicatingly sweet to the scent, with a hint of bergamot, making him hover in this forwarded position.
“Point what out to me?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at his sudden silence. Edward shook off his stupor, gesturing to the grass once again.
“Lady Julia, there is an empty space where there should be a chaperone.” His words made her look down. She did not turn to that empty space, neither did she turn and flee from him, as he fully expected her to do so. Instead, she pressed her full lips together, saying nothing at all as she stared down between them. “Shall I make a jest on why a lady alone in a gentleman’s company is a poor thing? Or will you run now before it can be alluded to?”
To his amazement, she didn’t go anywhere.
“God’s wounds, whatever you have to say to me must be very important for you to not leave at those words.” He laughed and folded his arms. “Let me try this another way.” He leaned toward her a little, hoping to frighten her off with his proximity, so that she could run and save herself from his reputation. “Alone with a rake, Lady Julia? What will the ladies say we have been doing together?”
She flinched and jerked her chin upward, revealing such a defiant expression that Edward wondered what it could be like to kiss her.
One taste, one kiss. Just the chance to lower her guard a little. Maybe then she would like me.
“I do not listen to gossip,” Lady Julia said firmly. “Not usually.”
He couldn’t quite understand these words, but a sound somewhere in the distance of the garden made him step away and spin his ear toward the sound. It may have been an owl flitting between the trees, or it could have been another young lady escaping the ballroom, either way, he could not take this risk any longer.
“If you would excuse me, Lady Julia,” he said, turning back to face her. “Whatever you have to say to me I am sure can be said in public in that ballroom, no good can come from you being out here with me. Alone.” With these final words, he stepped away from her and moved away.
I will not be the reason for the downfall of a lady like her.
* * *
Julia stared after the Duke in amazement, so shocked that her jaw ached from how far it had dropped. She glanced around herself, before looking ahead again at the retreating figure of the Duke.
He is a surprise indeed!
She had half thought if she merely presented herself to the Duke alone, without a chaperone, that a rake such as he would take advantage of the situation. Yet it seemed she was wrong. Not only was he not even attempting to charm her, but he was actually walking away from her.
Is he trying to protect me from his reputation…?
Julia could not allow herself to think of such a thing anymore, for she did not have a lot of time left. She glanced back to the house, knowing soon enough her father would grow impatient with her absence, and would demand a search was made for her. She had to ruin her reputation before she was presented to Lord Gillet.
“Your Grace!” Julia ran after the Duke, catching up with him as quickly as she could. Her shoes slipped once or twice on the wet grass, leading her to reach out to stabilize herself on a tall marble statue, as the two of them stepped out into an avenue of rhododendron bushes.
Julia stepped away from the statue, watching as it glistened in the moonlight, before turning her focus on the Duke who had come to a stop with his eyes wide. Those midnight eyes could have been black in this darkness.
“What are you doing?” he hissed in a whisper. “Are you not aware how this will look if you are seen out here alone with me?”
“I still must speak to you.” Julia was struggling with what to say at all, for she hadn’t come to speak to him, she had come tokisshim. Yet she lacked the courage at this moment to do such a thing.
“Then say it quick and return to the ballroom.” The Duke gestured away, but she did not move. She held her ground and lifted her chin higher, to the point that the Duke laughed, tipping his chin back to the sky. “This is absurd. I have never thought you of all ladies would take such a risk.”
“Me? What do you mean by that?” Julia asked, following him as he stepped away again.
“The lady that argued with me the first night we met at her debut, simply because she had read of my name in a scandal sheet.” He put upon a dramatic voice as he spoke. “Do you remember that night, My Lady?” he asked as she walked alongside him, down the avenue of bushes that seemed to be growing narrower.
“I do.”
“You declared when I asked you to dance that you would sooner dance with any other man there than I.”