Authors: Beth Trissel
Sunshine dimmed behind
the
gathering
clouds.
On
ly a few rays slanted through.
These shafts disappeared and all was shadowed
.
Thunder rumbled, clapping
more loudly
with each burst, and the sky
blackened.
Rain s
patters
struck the window, lig
htly at first, then ha
rder as the torrent descended.
Lulled by the drumming
on the roof
, she dozed.
When Julia awoke again, she found
the att
ic gray with dusky light
and
a
can of orange soda
and greasy
bologna sandwich lying beside her on a
paper napkin.
Paul
must have
snuck in to bring her food
.
Her heart nearly stopped
.
Was
he holding her prisoner
indefinitely
?
Parched, s
he opened the
now
tepid
drink and swallowed
. It was pointles
s not to keep up her strength.
She
ate the unappetizing sandwich
smashed between layers of
white
bread
.
Who knew how long s
he’
d
be
up
here?
Forever, if Will didn’t search harder, or at all.
Had he even missed her yet?
Charlotte h
ad to have noted
her absence.
Then
Julia realized with a sinking feeling right next to the lump of undigested sandwich that Charlotte might assume she
’
d
taken the afternoon off to recover from her upset
and was resting in her apartment
.
The sympath
etic woma
n might even have passed this news onto Will.
Julia could be here all night.
It would
rapidly
get very dark
.
Battling
near
panic
, she took deep breaths.
One comforting thought—Nora Wentworth would definitely miss her at rehearsal.
Still, the minutes ticked by.
Where was Will?
R
esentful
that
he hadn’t scoured every inch
of Foxleigh
to find her
,
she slumped back on
to
the floor and shut her eyes to all evils.
A cooler breeze blew and she covered with the coat, her security in this sea of uncertainty.
Gradually it seemed to her
that
she didn’t lie here alone,
that
Cole’s strong arms
embraced her
.
“Shhhh,” he whispered
.
“I’m here.”
S
he drifted in a strange state
, not certain which one had
uttered the soft
assurance
.
It had to be Cole, but
he
sounded
reassuringly
like Will
.
L
aught
er and
the rise and fall of
refined
voices
floated
up
to Julia
as she lay in the dark
attic
.
And it
se
emed to her that
s
he lifted
heavenward, like
a bird in flight,
and
swirled
back throug
h the mist
into
the
faceted li
gh
t
of the great hall
.
Never had it looked finer.
T
he expansive room
was
illuminated
in the
cut-glass prisms of the
magnificent
chandelier
.
C
andles
glowed in the
polished
sconces
on the walls.
T
he
burgundy
and
gold
tones in the
furnishings
shone in the same way
fa
ll leaves
did
when autumn was
almost
too
beautiful
to bear
.
Beauty sometimes struck her this
way, perhaps because it was
often
so
fleeting.
A potpourri of floral and spice perfume wafted to
Julia
,
poised
in the doorway
, watching
the
g
orgeously costumed people
and
listening
to the flow of conversation
.
The loud guffaws of men punctuated
t
he tinkle of
women’s
laughter
.
How sedate and poised the ladies were.
One stunning woman
in
a shell pink evening dress
turned toward Julia. O
strich feathers
fluttered
from
the chestnu
t curls mounded on her head
and
pearls roped her elegant neck
.
O
f cour
se
,
this was
Cole’s mother, Lady Pembrook
Wentworth
.
Her
dark eyes
mirrored his
in a warm smile.
The ex
quisite duchess lifted her
gloved hand
and beckoned
with a beaded fan
. “
Julia, darling.
Come j
oin us
.
We expect Cole
back
any moment.
You know how these men are when they’re
off
hunting,
” she said
with a rippling
laugh.
Julia smiled in
re
turn, honored by the
regard
in Lady
Pembrook’s
face and voice, so different from the critical inspection of Nora
Wentworth
.
She’
d
bet
those
pearls
at the duchess’s throat
were the same
that
the
regal
Nora
now
wore, though, and their formal
bearing was similar.
“I
adore
your hair
in that style
.
So becoming,” Lady Pembrook said
.
“Thank you.” Julia
touched gloved fingertips to the curls
spilling from the
gathering high on her head.
The style was
similar to the ponytail of this
morning
––
or was it two hundred years
since then?
She
smoothed
the flowers tucked in her hair
, and
glanced down at the
white
rosebuds
nestled
in
her
butter-yellow
sash.
She’d been
transformed
from the grimy
girl in the attic.
That frightened young woma
n
fade
d
away.
Once again, she was
the high
born
lady, Julia Maury.
And
,
l
ike Cinderella, she
’
d
come to the ball.
Lifting her
creamy
skirts
, she walked
in satin
slippers
over the Persian
tapestry of
mauve and
blue
to
where
the duchess
stood
.
Only, this Julia didn’
t simply
walk, she glided.
Lessons in deportment had seen to that and endless instruction in
dance.
She was all elegance
and
as
regal as a princess
.
Envious glances
followed
her
from
the fashionable
l
adies
draped in
chairs
or
spread
along the
fainting couch
.
O
thers
fluttered through
the roo
m
like
gossamer
butterflies while s
umptuously outfitted g
entlemen buzzed among them
.
Their f
aces blurred as Julia awaited
the
one
she
cherished
to
her
very
depths
.
“Miss Maury!”
Sh
e swiveled at the gruff
call.
There was something familiar about him, but a
lady did not shout
in reply
at a formal function.
S
he waited silently as the
tall
young
man
strode
a
cross the hall
in gleaming
black boots
.
She
shouldn’t stare either at
t
he approaching figure
, but noted his
bottle green double-
breasted coa
t
. W
ide
sleeves
fit
ted
his broad
s
houlders
a
nd the skirt
of the jacket
reached
to the
knee
s
of
light green breeches
that
were
molded to
his muscular thighs
.
She definitely shouldn’t notice a man’s thighs, but his were distinct.
She lifted her eyes.
The thick lengths
of his reddish hair
were trimmed around his ears and
dressed high in front
a
nd over the forehead in curls.
As he drew
near
, she saw
that t
he old-fas
hioned hair
and lacy cravat
at his broad
neck
seemed
particularly
out of place
when the face was eerily
like Lyle
McChesney’s
.
Halting
in front of Julia
, he
scowled
down at her
.
“Where have you
bee
n keeping yourself
these
past three
days
?” he asked
in a
decidedly
Scottish brogue.
“Cannot
a fellow other than
Wentworth
be allowed the pleasure of your fair company?”
Julia nearly fainted.
This was
the
very
man
said to have
killed Cole
,
who
had
fled,
and
never
be
en
found
.
She wanted to strike him down
at once
like a venomous adder
.
B
ut with wh
at
and how?