Lady Revealed (10 page)

“Please?” he begged quietly.

“The day after tomorrow, in the flower market.”

Acker let his hand drop and Juliette walked away without glancing back. She was a fool for agreeing to meet with him but how could she live not knowing what he wished to say to her.

Maman was sitting in the small parlor just inside the door when Juliette returned home. “Where have you been?” Her voice was weak, nor was there any color to her skin. She shouldn’t be out of bed.

“I’ve been looking for work,” Juliette answered as she hung her cloak on a hook.

“I’ve been thinking, Juliette.”

Her mother’s firm tone concerned Juliette. “Yes, mother.”

“I don’t believe you should dance any longer.”

Juliette’s heart stilled. Certainly her mother didn’t mean this. She began dancing thirteen years ago and knew nothing else. Ballet was a part of her, who she was. If she wasn’t a ballerina she wasn’t sure what she was.

“You haven’t danced in a year,” Maman reminded her with a weak, sad smile.

But that didn’t mean Juliette didn’t practice the steps of every ballet she had ever learned each night in the parlor after everyone had gone to bed. If she were to keep her skill it was something she had to do.

“Why?” Juliette finally asked after she determined she was sufficiently recovered from the shock of her mother’s words.

Her mother signed. “It is for the best. You won’t dance this year and next will be too late.” She turned her head away when a cough came upon her. Juliette rushed to her side and poured a fresh cup of tee. Maman was careful to crumple the handkerchief and ball it in the palm of her hand but there was a drop of dark blood on the edge of her lip. Juliette smiled sadly, took her own handkerchief out and patted her mother’s lip.

The woman looked up at her, slightly alarmed. “You know?”

Juliette nodded and settled into a chair beside her mother. “I’ve not told Genviève or Hélène.

“Thank you.” Maman picked up the cup of tea and sipped slowly.

“Why don’t you wish for me to dance?” Her heart wanted to pound out of her chest. If she didn’t dance what would she do?

“I don’t wish Lord Acker to discover you are in London.”

Juliette simply stared at her.

“He attends the ballet as I am sure does his mother. It is better this way.”

“For who?” Juliette cried. “What is wrong with Lord Acker?”

“He is one of
them
.”

“Them?”

“Gentlemen of society and you are better off having nothing to do with them.”

Juliette fell back on her heels. She did not care about her mother’s prejudice against English gentlemen but she did care about dancing. She was a ballerina. “I don’t know how to do anything else,” Juliette reminded her.

Her mother pursed her lips in thought. “Find a school and teach.”

Maman made the suggestion as if it were an easy task.

“This is for the best.” He mother dismissed and looked away as if the topic was finished. She leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. Perhaps Juliette should insist the woman return to her bed. She was not well enough to be up and how could she ever get better if she did not rest.

Juliette didn’t understand her mother and possibly never would. It was maman who first took Juliette to the ballet and encouraged her when Juliette said she wished she could dance. She was the one who insisted Juliette never miss a lesson, even when ill. The one who yelled at her when she didn’t think Juliette was practicing enough and now the woman wanted her to give dancing up as if it were a past hobby and find something else to do! She was a ballerina and her only source of income.

Now she wanted her to simply teach? What if there were no schools? What if they didn’t want to hire her? It wasn’t as if she were known in London. There were no other options available. She was five and twenty, on the shelf by the standards of Society, not that she was in Society. Now she was probably too old to be of interest to anyone wishing for a wife, and she was being denied the one thing she loved. She couldn’t give up the ballet. Where would that leave her?

Juliette took deep breaths and fought not to let the panic overcome her.

Her mother opened her eyes and turned her head toward the open window. “We should have never come back,” her mother said quietly.

“Why?” Was her mother finally going to tell her what had been so upsetting that afternoon they arrived in Dover and she read the newssheets?

Her mother blinked and looked at Juliette, as if returning to the present. What had her mother been thinking or who had she been thinking about?

“I was never to return to England. I was paid well to never return so they cannot know that I have.”

Juliette didn’t understand. Why would father’s family want maman away?

“There is bitterness,” she said after a moment. “I fear they will send me back to Paris or Milan.

“If you were afraid of being discovered, why did you come back?” Juliette questioned her mother.

“I thought the past could be forgotten, but it cannot.”

“It wouldn’t be so bad to return to Milan,” Juliette offered. She could dance there, though she would never see Acker again, which was probably for the best.

“You don’t understand.” Her mother grasped Juliette’s hand. “They would send me, but would insist on you and your sisters remaining here. I was lucky enough to have taken you with me before. I know they would not allow it a second time.”

“They cannot dictate what we do,” Juliette argued. She hadn’t even known this family existed and she surely wasn’t going to let them suddenly have control over her life.

“They have more power than you know. Not only is Bentley an earl, but the family has connections with a very powerful duke.”

Juliette blinked. Her potential connections were getting loftier by the moment. Who would have ever dreamed that she was distantly related to an earl and a duke?

“My fear is that they will send me away and keep my daughters here and I will never see you again.” A coughing fit took hold of maman again.

Juliette gently patted her back and then added hot tea to her cup.

“Don’t underestimate their power, Juliette. Trust me in this.”

Though Juliette had a hard time grasping the idea that these strangers could have such control over her life, and balked at the very idea, they had managed to exile maman for a number of years so it was best to heed her warning.

“Now, I must have your promise,” her mother said a moment letter.

“Anything,” Juliette assured her.

“If anything were to happen to me—”

“—Don’t say such a thing.”

Tears filled her mother’s eyes and she shook her head. “I am ill, please hear me out.”

Juliette swallowed. She didn’t want to listen to her mother speak of her demise. Maman would get better. She simply had to.

“If something were to happen to me, you will go to Bentley.”

Juliette opened her mouth to argue. Her mother just warned her that he was not to know they were here.

“I don’t want him to know I am here so we are not separated. But, if something were to happen, he will take care of you and your sisters.”

Did she want to be in the care of a family that had sent her mother away and one she feared still?

“Promise me, Juliette.”

Maman was growing weaker by the moment and really should be in bed. In order to bring the conversation to a conclusion, Juliette nodded. First, she refused to accept something could happen to maman, and second, she would determine, if and when the time came, if she would contact Earl Bentley. Her small family had survived well enough all these years without their interference and she saw no reason for that to change.

Maman moved to rise from her chair.

Juliette stood. “Here, let me help you.”

Her mother smiled gratefully and leaned heavily on Juliette’s arm while she helped her mother to her room. Once inside maman settled on the side of the bed and sighed. Juliette knew she would be asleep within a moment of her head resting on the pillow.

“One more thing,” her mother said. “Take this,” she opened the small drawer beside her bed and pulled out a delicate ruby and diamond necklace. “Please sell this and purchase a copy of Debretts.”

Juliette held out her hand and maman dropped the necklace into it.

“Use the rest of the funds to buy food or pay the rent.”

Also inside the drawer was a sealed letter addressed to Lord Bentley. His direction was written in mother’s elegant hand. Juliette noted that it was located in Mayfair and put the memory away in the event she needed to find him, though she doubted it would ever be necessary to locate someone who treated her mother so cruelly.

The metal of the necklace bit into her palm and Juliette loosened her hold on the jewelry. Why would her mother wish for such a book? It really didn’t matter. Juliette would obey her mother’s wishes regardless of how unusual if it allowed her to rest. She helped her mother settle back against her pillows and pulled the blanket up to her chin. Juliette bent and placed a kiss on the woman’s brow and sent a quick prayer that her mother recovered from this illness and then left to do as her mother requested.

Her sisters where home when she returned, carrying the tome in her arms. When questioned she explained her mother’s odd request.

“Is she better at least?” Hélène asked.

Juliette shook her head. “I think she fears the worst.” Should she tell her sisters that maman was coughing up blood? No, they didn’t need to know now, if ever. But, they did need to know what maman had told her about the Trents and Bentley. Even if her mother wished that she keep it a secret her sisters needed to know as well.

*

Acker leaned against the wall, glass of wine in his hand and wishing he was anywhere but here. The ballroom was crowded and he had little patience for the budding debutants. There were some very pretty young ladies, but none of them matched Juliette’s beauty and grace, nor did any of them have the brilliant red hair.

“You are not giving any of them consideration.”

Acker turned to find his mother standing at his side. “Who?”

She gestured to the throng in the room. “Any of those lovely young ladies.”

He fought the urge to roll his eyes. “I’ve tried mother, none of them interest me.”

She pursed her lips and snorted. “As if a country dance was enough to establish whether a young woman suited.”

It was enough for him. Had one engaged him in even a mildly interesting conversation perhaps he would have taken a turn about the room. But there were only so many comments he could stomach with regard to rain and fog. Actually, mentions of rain only reminded him of kissing Juliette in Milan and how he bungled the entire situation.

He certainly didn’t want to gossip either. A lady who delighted in speaking ill of others would drive him to Bedlam within the week. Why did others think they were so superior that they felt they could judge the actions of others?

Besides, how could he enjoy their company when Juliette was somewhere in London and he wouldn’t see her again until the day after tomorrow.

A footman passed and he placed his empty glass on the tray. “I think I will leave.”

“But it is early yet,” his mother insisted.

Acker lifted an eyebrow. “It is past midnight and this is the last waltz, if I remember correctly.”

“You haven’t danced.”

“I don’t wish to dance,” he insisted. How could he dance with anyone now? Waltzing with Juliette had ruined him for any other dance partners.

Damn and blast, why did he have to wait another day to see her? Why wasn’t tomorrow, or actually today, good enough? Was she so busy that she couldn’t spare an hour of her time? What kept her occupied?

“I wish you would forget about your ballerina,” his mother insisted, as if she knew who he was thinking about. “It isn’t as if you will ever see her again.”

Acker slowly smiled.

“What?”

His grin widened. “She is in London.”

She tapped his forearm with her fan. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I haven’t had the chance,” he defended. In fact, until he escorted his mother this evening he had not spoken with her since before he came across Juliette outside of Drury Lane.

“Well?” she demanded.

“I’ve seen her twice, quite by accident. I believe they recently settled in Covent Garden, though I am not positive.”

“Go on,” she encouraged.

“I will see her the day after next.”

“Thank goodness,” his mother sighed. “You won’t even consider another young lady until you have decided what this Juliette means to you. And I am glad you have the opportunity.”

In that his mother was correct. What did Juliette mean to him and what did the future hold? What if the future was a more permanent one? “Mother,” Acker leaned in and whispered so as not to be overheard. “I know you wish me to marry a young lady of the
ton
and give you the grandchildren you wish for, but what if I choose a ballerina instead.”

She placed a gloved hand against his cheek. “If you love her and she is what makes you happy, then you would have my blessing.”

“Society will take issue with a ballerina becoming the next Viscountess.”

His mother smiled. “Life is too short not to be happy, and too long if one is miserable. Your friends will stand by you, as will I. That is really all that matters.”

He should not be surprised by her response. Mother had been raised in a modest household, the daughter of a vicar. It was her uncle that saw to her coming out. Despite marrying a viscount and wealth, mother retained her moral sensibilities lacking in much of Society. “Thank you.” Acker bent to place a kiss on his mother’s cheek. “I will walk and leave the carriage for you.”

He was glad to be rid of this place. He was never one to look forward to a ball, but he had never really minded attending in the past either. Now they were a complete bore. Acker suspected that until Juliette could join him he would never find enjoyment at these functions again.

He may have his support of mother, but that didn’t mean the
ton
would welcome Juliette. It was something he would need to think very carefully about in the event she became more important than she already was, such as becoming his wife.