Chapter Six
Julia made the bed that she had shared with Devin and tried not to think about how tense he made her feel. Her insides were wound up like a ball of yarn, impatient to be released.
Such nonsense!
Devin would be gone all afternoon and she did not wish for him to think that she had shirked her responsibilities.
She tidied the rest of her room and would have helped Mrs Mack with her own chamber if the good woman hadn’t already told her that she was putting her daughter down for a nap.
Julia went next to the bridle culls’ room and was unsurprised to see it disordered.
At least Devin took good care of his togs.
She huffed before stepping over the dirty garments to the bed.
It was too messy to remake: she had to start again.
She tore off the coverlet and sheets, straightened the saggy mattress and heard a clatter.
Something had fallen out of the bed. Her first thought was a varmint and she grabbed her throat to stop herself from screaming and waking little Lizzy—who was a most unpleasantly behaved child without a nap.
Shaking her head, Julia realised that a mouse would not have made such a loud sound.
She gathered her courage and got to her knees.
Underneath the bed was a beautiful diamond necklace that she doubted belonged to either man.
Her breath quickened. She wanted no trouble.
Not while they were isolated at this unknown inn.
She put the necklace back underneath the mattress and determined to tell Devin.
Julia took a deep breath before making the bed and tidying the room.
Her pulse was heightened, but she didn’t wish for anyone to guess that something was wrong.
She quietly closed the door and was about to go back to her own room when she realised that she hadn’t tidied the driver and groom’s room.
Perhaps she could bring the sick man some tea.
She knocked quietly on the door across from the thieves’ room, but there was no answer. Julia slowly opened the door and saw Joe sound asleep in bed and the mailbag by the door. She could tidy the room and get him some tea when he woke up.
Returning to her room, Julia remembered that it was Christmas Eve, the night of gift-giving, and she wanted to finish the doll for Lizzy.
Julia sewed the dress together, along with arms and legs, and finally the head.
She braided ribbons for the hair. Now all she needed was some stuffing and she knew just where to find it.
Using the scissors from her chatelaine, Julia cut a small hole in Devin’s pillow and pulled out the feathers and carded wool.
She stuffed the doll until it was full and then carefully sewed the final piece shut.
Lizzy would have a Christmas Eve gift after all.
The door to her bedchamber swung open abruptly and Julia gasped in surprise—it was only Devin—and he gave her an exasperated look. His face was red from the cold and his expression could have frozen milk. ‘Have you already forgotten that you have a husband for Christmas?’
Julia covered her mouth with her hand and got to her feet. She was so relieved that it wasn’t Rhys or Pip that she could have kissed Devin. Instead, she added another log to the fire and helped him take off his cold and wet things and his boots. ‘You poor, totty-headed man.’
He gazed at her warily. ‘Why were you scared of me just now?’
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘I wasn’t. I am not. Scared, that is. Of you.’
Devin walked to the fire and held his hands near the flame. ‘You have cut me to shreds with your words and your wit dozens of times in the last twenty-four hours. Perhaps you could tell me the truth.’
For a moment, Julia thought that Devin meant the truth about why she called off her engagement to Joshua. But then she realised he was asking about why she was afraid now. She opened her mouth to tell him but then shut it.
‘You can trust me.’
Those four words seemed pretty ironic coming from a man who didn’t know her and didn’t trust her in return. But Julia was truly scared of the thieves.
‘I was tidying the rooms and I found a diamond necklace in Mr Rhys and Mr Pip’s room when I made the bed. I put it back, but I think it has been stolen.’
Huffing, Devin rubbed his face with his hands. ‘I am certain that it has.’
‘I think that we should lay information in Pickwich about those bridle culls.’
Sighing, Devin shook his head. ‘Those what?’
‘Bridle culls, at least that is what little Felix Heap called thieves. He was one of my charges when I was a governess, and he learned the term from one of the young cockney grooms.’
A small smile played on his lips. ‘An apt term.’
‘What do we do about the criminal pair until we reach Pickwich?’
One word melted his frozen heart: we.
Julia didn’t ask what she should do, but what they should do. They weren’t truly married, but at this moment they were no longer strangers who hated each other. They were partners in crime—or, rather, to report a crime.
‘Will Rhys and Pip know that you entered their room?’
‘Of course they will. I cleaned it and made the bed. It was a disaster before.’
‘But they didn’t see you in it. For all they know any person in the inn could have entered their room and tidied it.’
She scrunched up her nose in the most adorable way. ‘Won’t they realise that all of the men were helping with snow removal? Which would only leave myself or Mrs Mack as suspects.’
‘And the sick groom,’ Devin pointed out. ‘Unlike your snoopy self, I don’t think they have searched his room.’
Julia touched her heaving bosom, her face a beautiful picture of indignation. ‘I wasn’t snooping, I was tidying.’
‘You were brilliant and clever to put the necklace back where it was.’
His compliment seemed to catch her off guard and instead of smiling, she regarded him with suspicion.
‘What are you waiting for?’ he asked.
‘The insult at the end.’
‘There is no insult.’
‘How unlike you.’
‘I know,’ Devin said and remembered Mr Mack’s words from before breakfast about trying to be a better person each day.
His behaviour the last two days had been petty and embarrassing.
He was a twenty-six-year-old man and yet he had acted like a spoiled boy, who was petulant because he couldn’t have something that he wanted very badly—Julia.
She was off-limits to him, as a woman formerly betrothed to his brother.
Still, Devin’s behaviour towards her had been unworthy of a gentleman. ‘I am trying to do better.’
She inhaled sharply and Devin realised that his compliments were far more staggering to her than his rudeness had been.
Only now, he no longer wished to injure her feelings.
Julia was right. Devin did not know the reason for the end of the engagement with his brother—although, he still wished that it had not been the night before the wedding and that somehow she could have prevented the scandal that followed.
Julia said when they arrived at the inn that she had caught Joshua with his true love and broken off the wedding.
When Julia told him this, Devin had been too angry to listen or to try and understand her side of the story.
But if that was the case, Julia had sacrificed a title and her own happiness for his brother Joshua.
And for her trouble, she’d been disowned and forced to become a governess.
Julia wasn’t the villainous vixen he had created in his mind but the heroic heroine.
It felt as if his entire world had been turned upside down.
Devin would have to ask Joshua for his truth, but something deep inside of Devin’s heart believed that his brother’s words would match Julia’s.
But why had Joshua not confided all of this to him three years previous?
Did his elder brother not trust him with the truth?
Did he think that Devin would not love and accept him no matter whom he loved?
Joshua was welcome to marry a barmaid or a servant for all he cared.
His brother’s happiness meant more to Devin than their family’s position in Society or even his own reputation and business prospects.
It hurt him deeply that Joshua had not confided in him.
Perhaps if he had, Devin would not have behaved so poorly towards Julia.
The beautiful woman across from him gave him a sceptical look and Devin remembered Mr Mack’s other piece of advice about listening and asking what his wife needed. ‘What do you need me to do?’
‘I—I thought you would tell me.’
‘I have learned that telling you things is rarely helpful—for either of us.’
Julia laughed in his face and Devin found his own lips twitching with amusement. Warmth filled his chest. ‘You’re right. But I do not wish to put you into any danger.’
Another misconception on his part. Julia didn’t purposely try to hurt people, even taciturn strangers. Devin was trying to be better, but he was still a man with pride. He flexed his arm muscles. ‘I am not afraid of those men.’
This time she giggled and his entire body hummed in awareness of her.
‘I thought we could stay together for the rest of the time at the inn and then perhaps you could contact the local constable when we arrive in Pickwich.’
Devin wanted nothing more than to stay by her side.
Before, he hadn’t been a true gentleman, but he was determined to be one now.
He returned her steady gaze and felt his pulse race.
He needed to calm down, even if that meant jumping back into the snow.
His eyes moved to the floor and he saw that Julia had dropped whatever sewing she had been working on.
Devin stooped to pick it up and saw that it was a doll. ‘For the Macks’ little girl?’
‘To replace her lost one.’
As he held the delicate doll, Devin realised that he did not know Julia at all. But oh, how he wanted to. If only she wasn’t the woman who had jilted his brother.