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“Little Jo? As in Mama Jo’s little girl?”
“Yes.” He laughed, nodding. His grin grew wide and unrepentant. “Although, she is not such a little girl any longer.”
“I would hope not,” Giulia said, laughing. “Oh, Ames.” She took his hand in her own. “I own that this is quite odd, but I am so very happy for you.”
He looked at her intently for a moment before saying, “You mean that.” It was not a question, but a statement, rather. He could tell she was pleased for him. Perhaps, all this time, they truly had the sibling relationship Giulia used to imagine. She certainly loved him as though he was her brother.
“What will you do?” Ames asked. “Shall you remain here?”
“Lord Hart has asked for my help regarding a ball he is putting on in Nick’s honor. After that”—she lifted one shoulder in a shrug—“I suppose I ought to find a position as a companion or governess.”
Ames dropped his chin, not unlike Nick’s odd display at dinner earlier. Whatever had that been about? The man seemed to have lost some of his marbles.
“You cannot work in service, Jules. You are the granddaughter of an earl! You deserve to marry and raise children and live a life of peace. I promised your father…”
She did her best to give Ames a look of reassurance. “Father’s wishes were well-intentioned, but you and I both can accept that it is better for you to marry for love than to marry me for obligation.”
“But it is not an obligation, Jules. I do care for you. I promised your father I would see you taken care of.”
“I believe when you made that promise you meant as a sister,” she added. “It was always that way for you, wasn’t it?” She expected to fear his answer but found that she wasn’t frightened at all.
Ames looked at his hands. “I know your expectations were somewhat different. But I loved you for so long as a child, Jules, as I would a little sister. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
Giulia nodded. “I know, Ames.”
“And I will care for you, Jules.”
She smiled warmly. “I can promise you now that if I find myself with nowhere to go, you will find me on your doorstep.” She could not help but grin. “I am sure your new wife will appreciate that very well.”
“If she agrees to become my wife,” Ames said. “I have not so much as breached the subject, for I needed to speak to you first.”
“And when had you planned on doing so?” Giulia asked, before she could think better of it.
Ames shook his head. “You have never been one to shy away from difficult conversations, have you? To be perfectly honest, I have written you a half-dozen times, at least.”
Giulia lifted her eyebrows. She had not received a single letter from him.
“I did not send them,” he said, his mouth tilting into a half-smile. “I could not find the right way to explain the situation to you. None of them seemed to feel quite right.”
She nodded. He’d caused her undue pain over the last few months, but the end result had been good. She had been forced to examine her own feelings and came about right in the end. Ames would always be her brother. Her youthful fancies were just that—a desire for love, perhaps. But it was not the real thing.
“We better locate Wells,” Giulia said as she rose. “I am sure you are exhausted from your trip.”
He nodded and joined her, stretching his arms high above his head before following her out the door. She turned before they made it to the hall and embraced him once more. “I am so glad that you have come.”
“So am I, little Jules. So am I.”
* * *
Giulia could not sleep. She tossed and turned on the feather mattress long enough to claim that she had given it a valid try before pulling her trunk out from under her bed and dragging it toward the fireplace. Stoking the embers, she revived the fire, warming herself and warding off the chill emanating from the cold, stone floor.
Facing the fire, Giulia opened the trunk and emptied the contents onto the floor. The stack of periodicals featuring her father’s stories beckoned her, but she pushed them to the side. She would have time to enjoy them later.
Surveying the interior of the trunk, Giulia felt along every nook and cranny for a bump or latch out of place. Anything to indicate a hidden compartment or sewed-in key. Nothing felt out of the ordinary, so she took a deep breath and began tenderly ripping the seam out of the lining until she had thoroughly investigated the trunk and determined that it was, in fact, void of any key. She tamped down her disappointment and frustration at the work ahead of her when she realized she would have to resew the lining back into the trunk and moved on to her valise.
After checking her two pieces of luggage, her small sewing box and slightly larger letter box, the seams of her few books and even the lining of her beautiful fur-lined pelisse, she determined that her father had not hidden the key within her things. The setback was discouraging, but there were always the things Ames had brought from London. They would be able to sort through them tomorrow and she was certain they would discover it then.
A small piece of her wished she had discovered the key within her things. To prove to herself that her father had trusted her as much as he had trusted Ames. That given the choice, he was sure his darling Jules could be counted on.
