Chapter 19

CHAPTER19

Julia left him.

In the middle of the night, when Andrew had been asleep, spent, and sated from the release she had coaxed from his body, she had picked up her clothes and run away.

Never, ever in his life had he ever had a woman leave him in bed. Mostly, they begged him to return. He was always the one to leave first.

But Julia Lewis had sneaked out in the middle of the night like a damned thief.

Well, you did ask her for just one night. She could not possibly be faulted for not waiting until the morning.

But she should have had the decency to inform him that she intended to leave. At least, she would have allowed him the courtesy to escort her back to her home.

Then again, she did say that she was quite used to sneaking out. He just never thought that she would sneak out of his bed, too. The notion simply did not occur to him until he woke up to an empty bed and an erection that still craved her touch.

“One night, indeed,” he scoffed as he poured cold water all over himself.

After last night, he was not so sure that one night was going to be enough, but he would have to contend with that. For now.

The worst part was that he had already agreed to consider her ridiculous plan of faking their courtship, so she could get out of one with the Viscount. If he reneged on his promise now, heaven only knew just what a furious Julia Lewis would unleash on him.

As the day progressed, Andrew found that he could hardly focus on any of the mundane tasks before him. All he could think about was the pleasure he found with Julia last night, the recollection of her sweet sighs and moans echoing in his mind and heating his blood. And then, the sheer coldness when he realized that she had left him in the middle of the night.

It was no use. He needed to get out. Perhaps alcohol would cure him of the spell she had cast over him.

He dropped by Barrington Estate, much to the surprise of his sister, who had been playing with her kitten.

“Andrew, I did not expect you today!” Selina exclaimed, scooping the feline up into her arms.

When he saw the furry beast, he was once more reminded of Julia, and his mood became progressively worse.

“Where is your husband?” he snapped.

Selina immediately bristled in response. “Do not take your anger out on me, Andrew.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “Apologies, Selina. May I know where William is?”

“He is upstairs in his study,” she replied, tilting her head to the side. “Are you sure you are all right, Brother?”

“Positive.” He managed to smile at her before bounding up the stairs towards William’s study.

William was none too pleased with the sudden intrusion as well, but one look at Andrew, and he quickly changed his mind, grabbing his coat and kissing Selina on the cheek.

“I shall be back in a while, Sunbeam,” he told her.

She frowned. “Do take care of my brother, will you?”

Andrew glared at William when the latter looked back at him.

“If he can muster the strength to glare at me like that, I daresay he is still fine,” William remarked dryly.

They made their way to a newly opened yet highly exclusive gentlemen’s club. It was still quite early, so the tables were expectedly empty which was just fine with Andrew because he certainly was not eager to attract any more attention to his situation.

They found an isolated table by the corner and arranged for a screen to be set up to provide them with more privacy as well as a bottle of the finest brandy the establishment had to offer.

“All right, now tell me what the hell is wrong with you,” William muttered as they sat down. “I have not seen you in such a state since… well…” He shrugged. “Probably since we were feckless youths at Oxford.”

“You were never a feckless youth, Barrington.”

The flash of William’s smile made Andrew want to bash his perfect teeth in.

“And you are right about that,” William replied smoothly. “I was only saying that to make you feel better about yourself.”

Andrew glared at him as he downed the glass of brandy before him and poured himself another one. “Well, now you have gone and made it even worse,” he groused.

“Are you not going to tell me what caused you to be in such a state?” William asked with a raised eyebrow. “You are worrying Selina, and I do not like having my wife worry—even if it is just her brother being nonsensical.”

“Well, I will have to face Julia Lewis for the rest of the Season,” Andrew bit out. “Who would not be resentful about that?”

“Lady Julia can indeed be quite a handful,” William agreed. “But why would you need to do that?”

“Because I have made a deal with her,” Andrew explained.

The Duke leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “Did the Dowager Marchioness never teach you not to make deals with the devil?”

If there was ever a more devilish woman, it was Lady Julia Lewis. She was also the most tantalizingly seductive creature Andrew had ever had the misfortune to be introduced to and the one with the most potential of dismantling his orderly life.

“Well, what sort of deal did you make with her, then?” William demanded.

“We have agreed to enter into a courtship.”

William raised an eyebrow in inquiry. “With whom, specifically?”

“With each other,” Andrew clarified. “Well, a fake courtship, actually. She wishes to escape marriage to Lord Cosby, and I wish to have my mother off my back for at least the Season. It seemed like a reasonable arrangement at that time.”

William snorted. “I do not know what sort of insanity came over you to actually agree to such a thing. This is Lady Julia Lewis we are talking about.” He leaned closer. “You two have been adversaries since you were first introduced to each other.”

“As if I need another reminder of that,” Andrew groaned.

But the truth of the matter was that he knew exactly what made him agree to that harebrained scheme of hers, and he had gotten what he thought he wanted the night before.

However, now, he was not quite sure if one night was enough and if he should have asked for another night. Maybe two more, just to get her out of his system. Instead, she had branded herself on him, so she was all he could think about.

“So, what do you intend to do about your predicament?” William asked.

“I do not know, really. I mean, I cannot just call it off without—” Andrew cut himself off when they heard a slight scuffle behind the privacy screen.

William frowned and immediately got up. “There is no one here,” he remarked coldly.

“It must have been the staff.” Andrew shrugged.

“I somehow doubt it.”

He knew his best friend was given to suspicion, having lived through death and betrayal by his own family.

“We had best take this conversation somewhere more private,” William grunted. “I do not like the feeling I am getting here.”

Andrew nodded in agreement. “Well, there is hardly anything else I want to discuss, anyway.”

“You can have dinner at Barrington Estate. Perhaps Selina will have some more useful advice for you.”

“No, I would rather not have her involved in any of this.” Andrew shook his head.

Selina would only give him an earful if she knew what he and Julia were up to. However, if he was supposed to be courting Julia, then perhaps he could get his sister’s opinion on the matter if only to make it seem more believable.

* * *

“Julia, my dear, you have been uncharacteristically quiet all afternoon. Is something amiss?”

Julia shook her head out of the clouds and saw her best friend looking at her in concern. Mary, too, was looking rather worried about her although, unlike Selina, she chose to keep her opinions to herself.

“No, nothing.” Julia smiled. “I was merely thinking about the house party at Lady Colman’s.”

“Indeed, Colman Park is such a lovely place to be in the summer.” Selina nodded. “I will be heading there with William a little later.”

“I do not think you will miss much, though.” Mary sighed. “This Season seems to be quieter than the last.”

“You mean without my courtship with William stirring up gossip.” The Duchess laughed.

“True, true.”

“Well, there is still that matter with Andrew…” Selina pursed her lips.

Julia’s head turned so swiftly towards her best friend that she thought it would snap. “What about A—your idiot brother?”

The Duchess looked taken aback for a moment before she regained her composure. “Why, he barged into the house earlier, demanding to see William. The strangest thing is, though, he looked like he barely had a wink of sleep last night.”

Julia nearly tripped when she heard that.

That was because we were together last night, doing… what we should not have been doing together.

“Well, in any case, he and William left earlier, so I thought I should amuse myself by coming out for a walk with my two dearest friends.” Selina beamed at Mary and Julia.

Mary nodded and smiled while Julia chose to keep quiet once more for fear that she might blurt out something that would only make her sister and best friend even more suspicious of her.

“Oh, look, there is Miss Ferguson and Lady Cosby!”

Julia slid her gaze towards where Selina was pointing, and true enough, she saw the Dowager Viscountess of Cosby, along with Miss Ferguson, heading in their direction.

The ladies exchanged greetings with each other, and Miss Ferguson turned towards Selina with gratitude in her eyes. “Your Grace, thank you so much for kindly taking in the kitten,” she said with a soft smile. “May I ask what you have named it?”

Selina beamed at her. “Why, we have decided to call him Bean, and he is such a joy to behold, I promise you!”

Julia felt a twinge of guilt at having unnecessarily roped Miss Ferguson into her schemes, so she stepped forward with an apologetic look on her face. “Miss Ferguson, I hope you will forgive me for misleading you about gifting Lord Trowbridge with a kitten,” she said. “I really just wanted to get back at him for teasing me awfully that night.”

“Oh, that is nothing at all.” Miss Ferguson giggled. “I understood that you were just a little… well, jealous.”

“Jealous!?” Julia croaked.

“Why, it is rather obvious,” Miss Ferguson replied with a wide smile. “And Lord Trowbridge… well, he might be teasing you just to get a reaction out of you. I would not want a man who clearly has eyes for another woman.”

“B-but it is nothing like that at all—”

“Oh, Lady Julia, you might try to deny it, and he might try to deny it, but it is rather obvious to anyone with eyes.” Miss Ferguson smiled at the three young women and bobbed a curtsy. “Well, my mother and I must be off. Good day to you, Your Grace, Lady Julia, Lady Mary.”

Once the Dowager Viscountess and her daughter were out of earshot, Julia quickly turned towards Selina and Mary. “What Miss Ferguson is saying… well, it cannot be true, can it?” she demanded. “I do not look like I have feelings for Andrew Walford, right?”

Selina pursed her lips. “Well, when you put it that way… But I suppose that is between you and my brother.”

“You do not look like you are too sure about your feelings,” Mary remarked softly. “Perhaps if you were to spend more time together, the truth would come out eventually.”

“Me? Spending more time with him?” Julia scoffed.

Mary smiled beatifically at her. “Well, Lady Colman is holding a house party next week, is she not? I suppose we will find out then for sure.”

Julia regarded her sister with a mixture of horror and amazement. It really boggled the mind how Mary could be so calmly astute at times. As for the house party, perhaps Julia could avoid it. Call in sick or something.

Anything to avoid having to face Andrew again.

A house party. It sounded like the perfect opportunity for a disaster!