Page 43 of A Mismatch Made in London

“I am not. I am trying to put you both on your guard. Gentlemen change their minds. They court a lady, paying all their attention to her, then they switch their affections to someone else. It happens all the time.”

“How can you be so jealous and spiteful?”

Now Jeremy looked as angry as his sister.

“Because of your little escapade with Fairweather, I actually asked Shelley and Gotthurst—thankfully Gotthurst owed me a favor, and Shelley was eager to become better acquainted with you—I asked them to pay particular attention to you and to Miss Moore, to dance with you at the ball, to help you retain your respectability. Since you had tried so hard to throw away your reputation, I had to do something.”

I felt paralyzed, numb. Juliet looked the same. I’d never seen her so pale and grave. Her gaze never wavered, however, from her brother.

“Jeremy Beaumont,” she said slowly and in a low tone as the carriage was drawing near their townhouse. She opened her mouth as if to say something, twice, but shut it instead.

Jeremy blew out a breath. “Forgive me, Juliet. I said too much.”

As soon as the carriage halted, Jeremy jumped out and pulled out the steps, then stood with his hand out to help us down.

Juliet refused to take his hand, holding up her skirt and going quickly down the steps, stumbling slightly but catching herself and running into the house.

I placed my gloved hand in his, only long enough to step down, then hurried after Juliet.

12

The next morning I still felt numb. It was Thursday, and I hadn’t heard from Lord Gotthurst.

“I’m sure he and his mother and sister will call on you today or tomorrow,” Juliet was saying. “And I think my brother must surely have been lying, although I can’t think why he would, except to shame me.” Her chin trembled slightly, then stilled.

“Has he ever lied to you before?” I chanced to ask. “Or tried to shame you?”

“No . . . no.” Juliet looked out the window. “It’s not raining. Come. Let’s walk to the park. Better yet, let’s visit Marianne and Robert. They will be able to distract us, and they won’t mind us coming so early in the morning. We can return home before calling hours.”

I agreed, only because I was so miserable. “But we’ll have to ask your brother to go with us.”

“I refuse to speak to him.”

“We will need someone to accompany us.”

Juliet blew out an aggressive breath. “I’ll ask the housekeeper, then.”

Juliet found Mrs. Smith in the kitchen.

“I can only spare your lady’s maid, Barreau, but she is nosuitable chaperone for ladies such as yourselves.” She frowned at Juliet. “Tell your brother to hire someone for going out with you.”

“Hire who?” Jeremy suddenly appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.

Juliet had that fiery look again, and she turned and brushed past her brother without another word.

I went after her, unsure what to say or do.

Jeremy was right behind me.

“Where are you going, Juliet?” he said.

“Away from you!” she said.

“Listen to me. I’ll hire a widow to be your companion and go places with you, but you have to listen to her and—”

Juliet spun around on her heel. I plastered myself against the wall to get out of the way as she stuck her finger in Jeremy’s face.

“You have humiliated me. How could you tell a gentleman such as Mr. Shelley to pay attention to me in order to help me ‘retain my respectability’? How could you do that?”