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She shrugged, a slender shoulder rising and falling. “You’ve been frowning ever since you stepped out of your carriage.”
He shook his head. He couldn’t deny that and Chase might say he was prone to being over-serious. He couldn’t help himself. Both Charlie and Chase tended to make trouble first and ask for help second. Like the time Charlie had found herself alone with a gentleman. She’d sworn it was innocent but it had taken all his effort to keep her from being ruined. “You still haven’t asked me your question.”
“Right,” she said, dropping her voice. “It’s just that you asked me several questions and I feel like you now have an advantage. You know me far better than I do you.”
He supposed that was true. “Well you can’t get to know me if you don’t start asking.”
She nodded her head in assent and then scratched her chin. “I’ve been searching for the perfect one to ask but I think I’ve finally discovered what it should be.”
“And?” he said on a long breath. Her ability to stall rivaled even Charlie’s.
She tilted her chin to give him a long look. “Why are you so adamantly opposed to love?”
The question hit him like a bundle of bricks. She might look innocent and airy, but this woman had sniffed him out in a manner of minutes. “That’s absurd.”
She shook her head. “No, it isn’t at all. His Grace outright told you he was in love, and yet here you are, still fishing for information. You don’t believe in love or you don’t trust it, otherwise you wouldn’t have come here with such a large chip on your shoulder.”
“I don’t have to listen to this.” He turned, his gut churning as he started to head inside. Inwardly, he knew it was an innocent enough question. But she poked a wound that still festered.
“I thought you wanted information. Answer this one question and I’ll answer more of yours,” Juliet said from behind him.
He stopped. He’d underestimated her as an opponent for certain. She’d touched a nerve he didn’t like to examine himself. Her honesty had lured him into a false sense of security but that didn’t mean she wasn’t intelligent and outspoken.
Could he answer her without revealing too much to get her to answer more of his? Damned if he wasn’t tempted.
* * *
Victory sang in Juliet’s veins as she watched Hartwell draw up and slowly turn back around. His face was in taut lines of pain and she winced a bit, knowing that her questions and comments might have hurt him.
“Fine,” he said between gritted teeth. “If you must know, I don’t believe in love. I thought I might once, but it ended…badly.”
“How?” She reached for his arm and gently clasping his forearm, she pulled him back onto the balcony.
“I thought the woman in question loved me. I was wrong.”
A shadow crossed his face and he shuddered. Just the smallest bit. She might have missed it if she weren’t watching carefully but she’d seen the tiniest shake in his shoulders. The movement had reverberated through her own arm as she’d touched him.
Her gaze narrowed and she cocked her head. “Perhaps she wasn’t the right woman.”
He glanced over her shoulder toward the water. “Perhaps.”
Her hand was still on his arm; warm, hard muscle flexed under her fingertips. “Will you marry someday or has she scared you from all women forever?”
“She didn’t scare me,” he rumbled moving closer. “And, of course, I’ll marry. I only said that I won’t fall in love.”
“But you understand that Chase and Ophelia are in love? Yes?”
He cleared his throat looking away. “Love is an illusion.”
“What do they share then?”
“Infatuation at best,” he answered, frowning. “I’m not saying that it doesn’t grow into a bond but that’s different than—”
“Your parents,” she interrupted, grasping his hand with her free one. “Were they an arranged match?”
“Yes. Why?”
He’d never seen love. Not real love, the kind that grew rather than diminished as the years passed. That much she was certain of. “Just curious.” But then she drew in a breath. “Instead of judging Rathmore and Ophelia, try watching them and see if it changes your mind.” Her mouth parted in a grin. “Mine certainly did. When I see them together, I want what they have.”
