Page 22 of Discovering the Duke

“That is what I wanted to talk to you about.” Lady Venerton pushed her shoulders back so her small breasts were shoved high on her chest. She lowered her head in a way she must have intended to be seductive, except it made her look as fully foxed as she smelled, eyes half-mast and mouth slack. “She doesn’t deserve you. I know men like you. Strong, healthy, virile. You need—”

“This is highly inappropriate.” William turned from the woman.

She grabbed his arm, her grip strong. Before he could realize what the countess was doing, she threw her body against him. William flew back against the wall at the unexpected press of weight and knocked a vase from the table. It crashed to the floor, and Lady Venerton’s mouth pressed wetly against his.

A soft cry came from somewhere behind Lady Venerton.

“William.”

He recognized that voice. Oh God, he recognized that voice.

Julia.

Chapter 9

Julia couldn’t think. She could only run. Away from the scene, away from the hurt. Away from the husband who had betrayed her.

“Julia—wait.” William shouted somewhere behind her, but she didn’t stop. Not even when the aged Lord Venerton ran past her, nearly knocking her to the ground.

“I knew there was something between the two of you,” a reedy voice hissed.

Julia turned in time to see him deliver a solid blow to William. She was not the only victim.

Her heart clattered in her chest. Heat blazed through her and made the pain in her arm agonizing. The warmth seemed to press into her lungs and fog her brain. She needed to get outside. Just for a moment. Just to breathe.

She raced through the front door and slammed directly into a person. She reeled back and looked up to find Lord Hesterton staring down at her as though she’d grown a second head.

“It’s cold out here, Your Grace.” His obvious statement was delivered with his usual bored drawl.

The chill in the air washed over her like a cool cloth. “I need to get some air,” she gasped. “To just…forgive me, but to just be alone.”

“Now that I understand.” He gave her a soft smile. “Will you at least accept my coat?”

Was she not wearing a coat? Her mind spun. Of course, she wasn’t. She hadn’t time to put one on.

She nodded, and he pulled the coat from his shoulders and draped it over hers. The lining inside was still warm from the heat of his body.

“Thank you,” she said in puff of frozen air and rushed from the house.

He called after her, something she could scarcely make out. But she didn’t ask him to repeat it. She didn’t care. All that mattered was the agonizing chasm filling her chest.

William.

He had betrayed her exactly as her father had done to her mother. She was grateful it had not gone too far. She had not told him she loved him. What a fool she would have been then.

The moon cast its brilliant light overhead and turned the world into a wash of purple blue snow. The wind had stopped, and the night was still.

Lady Venerton.

Louisa.

The vilest of all women.

Julia stiffened.

The vilest of all women.

A woman who easily took what she wanted, even when it was obvious the feelings were not mutual. Julia exclaimed her own stupidity into the night air. She had fallen too quickly on her fears rather than her trust.