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Juliana leaned down and picked up another stone “Ten more minutes”
Carla sighed, long and dra at her lips As contrary and immovable as she was, Juliana was comforted by her presence She was a piece of hoe neorld
This bizarre world that was filled with brothers and sisters and rules and regulations and balls and bonnets and incredible, infuriating men
Men to who notes in the middle of the day, on one’s brother’s stationery
She closed her eyes as a wave of eh her
It had been the worst kind of idea, the kind that arrived on a wave of triuht into a stroke of brilliance She’d returned to her bedcha before the rest of Ralston House had risen, drunk on excitehton, thrilled that she had shaken that enormous, immovable man to his core
He’d kissed her
And it had been nothing like thekisses of the boys she’d known in Italy, stolen as they teasingly lifted her from her father’s merchant ship onto the cobblestone wharf Nothis kiss had been the kiss of a man
The kiss of a man who knehat he wanted
A man who had never had to ask for what he wanted
He had tasted just as he had done all thoseboth unbearable and irresistible
Passion
She’d dared him to discover the emotion but had been unprepared to discover it herself
It had taken all her energy to mount her horse and leave hiht
She had wanted more
Just as she always did where he was concerned
And when she returned home, heady with the success of their first interaction and full with the knowledge that she had shaken him to his core, just as she’d pro her success Before Ralston had risen, she had crept into his study and written a hton, more dare than invitation
A harsh gust of wind blew through the ed ripples across the surface of the lake Carla protested colorfully as Juliana turned her back to the blunt force of the wind, clutching her cloak tightly together
She should not have sent the note
She skipped a stone across the water
It had been a terrible idea
And another
What had made her think he would come? He was no fool
And another
Why didn’t he come?
“Enough, idiota He doesn’t come because he has a brain in his head Unlike you” She muttered the words aloud to the lake
She’d had enough of waiting for hi home Immediately
Tomorrow, she would consider her next course of action—she was by noup And she had one week and five days to do everything she could to bring the arrogant man down
The fact that he’d ignored her sue her on
Her commitment renewed, Juliana turned and made her way toward the tree where her coo home”
“Ah, finalmente,” said the maid in a happy little burst as she leapt to her feet “I thought you would never give up”
Give up
The words rankled She was not giving up She was siers and toes for the next battle
As though the eleain, harsh and angry, and Juliana reached to secure her bonnet just as the silly thing flew off her head With a little squeak, she turned to watch it fly toward the lake, tu across the water like one of the stones that Juliana had skipped earlier It landed, unbelievably, on the far end of a wide fallen log, the long ribbons floating in the dark cold lake, taunting her
Carla snickered, and Juliana turned tobrown eyes “You are lucky I do not send you to fetch it”
One of Carla’s dark eyebrows raised “I a”
Juliana ignored the impertinent re her fro place She would not allow a piece of ht this afternoon
Even if she had to march into the middle of the Serpentine Lake to make it so
Re up and throwing her arms wide for balance toher from several yards away
“State attenta,” Carla called out, and Juliana ignored the urging for care, singularly focused on the bonnet The wind began to pick up, teasing at the blue frills on the hat, and Juliana stilled, waiting to see if the hat would bloay
The wind slowed
The hat remained
Well As her sister-in-law, Isabel, would say, noas the principle of the thing
Juliana continued her journey before the hat was sacrificed to the gods of the Serpentine
Just a few more feet
And then she’d have the bonnet in hand and she could go home
Nearly there
She crouched slowly, shifting her balance and reaching out The tips of her fingers touched a curl of blue satin
And then the hat was gone, blown off the log, and in a ot her precarious position and lunged
The waters of the Serpentine were as cold as they appeared Colder
And deeper
She ca like a Veronese dockworker to Carla’s raucous laughter Instinctively, she rolled her body to face shore, only to find her skirts entangled in her legs, pulling her under
Confusion flared and she kicked out, breaking the surface again briefly, gasping for air and not entirely understanding as happening
So
She was an expert swimmer, why couldn’t she stay afloat?
She kicked once ht in a mass of muslin and twill, and she realized that the heavy skirts eighing her down She could not reach the surface
Panic flared
She extended her ar wildly in one last desperate attempt at air
To no avail
Her lungs were on fire, straining under the burden of holding in the last of her precious airair she knew she was about to—
She exhaled, the sound of the air bubbles rising to the surface of the lake punctuating her fate
I a to drown
The words drifted through her mind, eerily calm
And then sorasped one of her outstretched hands, jerking her upuntil she could—
Thank God
She could breathe
Juliana took a great, gasping breath, coughing and sputtering and heaving, focusing on nothing but breathing as she was pulled froround
Not that her legs could hold her upright
She collapsed into her savior, wrapping her arms around a warm, sturdy neck—a rock in a sea of uncertainty
It took a few moments for her to co like a Sicilian grandmother from the lakeshore, to feel the cold bite of wind on her face and shoulders, to register the movement of her rescuer as he held her, chest deep in the water, as she trembled—either from the cold or the fear or both
His hands stroked along her back, and he whispered soft, calm words into her hairline In Italian
“Just breatheI’ve got youYou are safe nowEverything is all right” And somehow, the words convinced her He did have her She was safe Everything would be all right
She felt his chest rise and fall against her as he took
a deep, cal breath “You’re safe,” he repeated “You little fool” he whispered, the tone just as soothing as ever, “I have you now” His hands stroked rhythmically down her ar in the lake? What if I hadn’t been here? ShhI’ve got you now Sei al sicura You’re safe”
It took her a nize the tenor, and when she did, she snapped her attention to hi at him with clear eyes for the first time
Her breath caught in her throat
Simon
Disheveled and soaked to the skin, his blond hair turned dark with the water that dripped down his face, he looked the opposite of the poised, perfect duke she had come to expect him to be He looked sodden and unkempt and winded
And wonderful
She said the first thing that came to her mind “You came”
And he’d saved her
“Just in ti that she was not ready for English