Reluctant Heir by Barbara Miller

Author:Barbara Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-07-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Juliet had the news from her maid that Gerard had broken open bleeding again. Sophie had said it smugly like she knew everything and Juliet was incompetent. It made her wonder if the girl had gossiped to the other servants about their hasty exit from France. No matter how intimately Juliet had nursed Gerard on the voyage home she felt isolated from him now and worried that he would not confide his hurts to her. But when he appeared in the drawing room before dinner he only moved stiffly, his coat hanging loosely on him as he came to sit next to her.

“What will you do for an encore tomorrow?” she asked. “Get yourself killed?”

“Tomorrow it will rain so there is no possibility of riding.”

“How do you know?”

“Tully told me.”

“Tully? What does he know about weather?”

“I think he is right. The wind is from the east.” Gerard nodded toward the smoking fireplace.

He surprised a giggle from her. Gerard had a sense of humor about everything.

Impelled by an elbow from Helen, Claude crossed the room and grabbed Juliet’s hand, almost dragging her to her feet. The general rolled his eyes and took Helen’s arm to escort her in to dinner. Juliet was disappointed. Until Gerard proved his claim he was still being relegated by protocol to poor relation. Less than a poor relation. A pretender.

But the seating ran counter to her expectations. She had the mountain of Claude on one side and Helen on her other as though they were hemming her in. Gerard was next to General Cochran on her side of the table so that she could hardly see him. Charles was studying Claude and Nash was eyeing Gerard with a dent between his eyebrows. All the Cochran men had it, that mark of concentration between their straight eyebrows. That and the so charming smile just at the corners of the mouth. Claude had a trace of that smile but the rest of his face was different. No one would take him for a Cochran. And it suddenly struck her that possibly he wasn’t one of them. He was large and purposeful, not lithe and graceful like the Cochrans. What if it was Claude who was the pretender?

When Gerard saw her comparing Nash and Claude he shook his head. So he realized it as well yet was subtle enough to warn her off the topic. Helen addressed some comment to her and she snapped her head around when she realized the word wedding ended that sentence.

“What wedding?”

“Yours and Claude’s.”

Juliet dropped her spoon in her soup and the spatter made Helen flinch backward. “There can be no wedding between us.”

“Why not? It has been spoken of in the family for years.”

“Not by me.”

“But you must marry.”

“Why?” Gerard asked.

The general cast him a warning look.

Helen gritted her teeth. “That is what women do.”

Gerard sent Chandler a speaking look.

“Many an heiress has chosen to remain single and in charge of her fortune,” her brother said.

This was not exactly true, Juliet thought. A few heiresses had managed it.

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