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“I’ll see you after dinner,” she said. “Will you arrange his evening tea?”
Jack nodded and went back up the stairs.
Giulia trudged to the parlor where she had been told to meet the earl prior to dinner and was relieved to find it empty. She crossed to the fireplace and warmed her hands on the heat emanating from the hearth.
She could not remain here much longer, now that Nick was beginning to heal. A fortnight of searching the papers at every spare moment, and still she had not found a suitable position. Given Nick’s slow recovery and the occasional fever, she had not had much time at her disposal to inquire with any of the larger houses nearby. She’d thought to ask the doctor’s sister for a recommendation, but the woman had yet to visit. Anxiety built in Giulia’s chest as she considered her dilemma. She would need to find something quickly if she was to secure a place to go once her duties at Halstead were complete.
Admittedly, she’d already had more time than she had previously expected. Nick’s case was an odd one. He’d started out with a low fever that had hovered for a few days before advancing dangerously. She’d gotten it down though, and it had broken. But then he did not awaken as she had expected him to. Not for days and days. The doctor said it was likely the blood loss that had weakened him so.
Given Nick’s demeanor, she was fairly certain no one had explained to him just how closely he had brushed death’s door. Perhaps it was better if he did not know.
Heavy footsteps trod the carpet in the hallway and preceded the earl’s entrance. Giulia looked to the doorway, smiling in anticipation of his arrival. She was not rewarded with an answering smile. In fact, she wasn’t rewarded with a look of any kind. The earl simply walked into the room and took a chair facing away from her where he waited until Wells announced dinner. She was sure he would glance at her at that point, but apparently he planned to ignore her for the duration of the evening.
The earl made it through offering his arm to escort her into dinner, the entirety of the meal, and even a gruff ‘goodnight’ without once looking at Giulia’s face. He had even walked her all the way to the foot of the table and deposited her there, which would have flattered most women, since it was the seat of hostess and thus a seat of honor, but Giulia knew the truth. Lord Hart was simply placing her as far away from himself as possible. Which was quite far when one considered the grand table that spanned the length of the entire gargantuan dining room. They could not have held a conversation if they’d wanted to. No, they would have had to participate in a yelling match in order to even hear one another at so great a distance. What did any man need a table that large for, anyway?
Giulia vented her frustration as she marched up the stairs and into the east wing. By the time she reached Nick’s door, she was fully stomped out, but she could not get the botheration from her bones. Why was the earl so predetermined to hate her? She was not her father.
Her knuckles rapped on the door twice before she heard the “enter” from the other side.
“Is it safe?” she called.
There was muttering that she could not decipher so she pressed her ear closer to the door and then said again, “Is it safe to enter?”
She heard movement again and pressed her ear toward the door further. Drat the solid oak! It was impossible to hear through.
Suddenly Giulia felt herself falling before strong hands jutted through the open door and came around her waist, holding her up. She glanced into Jack’s amused face and laughed. “I’m sorry; I could not hear. I was pressing my ear to the door.”
Jack chuckled. “It is probably well that you could not.” He speared a look toward the bed and the hard gaze that was trained on them from the pillows. Nick’s green eyes were glaring.
Giulia placed her hands on Jack’s arms and righted herself. “Thank you.”
“It was my pleasure.” Jack bowed. Then he spoke over his shoulder, “I will see about that tea.”
Giulia waited for him to leave and promptly opened the door wide before crossing to Nick. “May I look at your injury?”
His hard glare had softened to a piercing gaze, flicking to the open doorway and back to her. His eyebrow hitched up.
“Propriety, sir.”
“I see,” he said in a low murmur. “You are protecting me. That is so kind of you.”
She flashed him a smile. Two can play at this game.
“Absolutely,” she drawled with dramatic flair. “We wouldn’t want to tarnish your spotless reputation, now would we?”
“I am a paragon of virtue,” he said, lifting his good hand to lay over his heart.
“Perhaps you ought to inform the servants of that.”
Nick’s brows drew together, and she held his gaze as she claimed her seat beside his bed. “What have they said about me?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Giulia said in a bored, airy way. “Only that you have a tendency to collect hearts. But that is neither here nor there. I wonder if you could answer a question for me?”
There was only one way she would discover the author of the letter drawing her to Halstead, and it was not through the earl himself.
“I suppose that depends upon the nature of the question.”
“The earl,” Giulia said without pause. “Why did he hate my father so?”
