“No. You weren’t,” Ralston drawled.
“Do you know why she is here?” Juliana interrupted, outrage pushing her to her feet. “Do you know she wants money from you?”
“Yes,” Gabriel said matter-of-factly before noticing Juliana’s gown. “What on earth happened to you?”
“I think now is not the time to discuss it, Gabriel,” Callie interrupted.
“You’re not going to give it to her, are you?” Juliana asked on a squeak, ignoring everything but the most important matter at hand.
“I have not yet decided.”
“Gabriel!” She resisted the urge to stomp her foot.
He ignored her. “I would like you to leave, Mother. If you have need of us, you may send word. Nick has an excellent staff. They know how to reach us.”
“She is living at Nick’s town house?” Juliana said. “He shall be furious when he finds out!”
“Nonsense. Nick was always the child who liked me best,” Louisa said casually, rising and heading for the door. “I wonder if Bennett has set my cloak aflame. That man always loathed me.”
“I suspected that he had excellent taste,” Juliana said, unable to keep quiet.
“Tut-tut, Juliana, one would think no one had ever taught you any manners.”
“I was lacking in a feminine influence in my youth.”
“Mmm.” Louisa gave Juliana’s gown a long inspection. “Tell me . . . do you think that if I had remained in Italy, you would still be covered in seeds and wheat tonight?”
She turned and exited the room, Juliana staring after her, wishing that she’d had a final barb to sling at her mother.
When Louisa had left the room, Callie turned to them, and said, “It is incredible that the two of you turned out so very normal with a mother such as that.”
“I am not so very normal, Empress. And I am not sure about Juliana, either.”
Callie looked at her with a wry smile. “The evening’s great mystery has been solved—you toppled Lady Needham’s harvest centerpiece?”
He turned to Juliana and raised one brow. “Dear God. And you ran off like an errant child?”
Juliana chewed on her lower lip. “Perhaps.”
He scowled.
“What was I to do? It would have ruined the evening for everyone.”
He sighed, then crossed to the sideboard and poured himself a scotch. “Just once, Juliana, I’d like you to attempt to refrain from causing a scandal. Not every time. Just once.”
“Gabriel,” Callie said quietly. “Have a care.”
“Well, it is true. What did we discuss this evening before we left for the ball? We all needed to be on our very best behavior to even attempt to ride out the tornado that is our mother.”
Juliana winced at the frustration in his words. “I didn’t mean for it to happen, Gabriel . . .”
“Of course you didn’t. You didn’t mean to fall in the Serpentine or be accosted in our gardens or be nearly compromised by Leighton either, I’m guessing.”
“Gabriel!” Callie was not so quiet this time.
Color washed over Juliana’s cheeks. “No, I did not. But I see that you don’t believe that.”
“You have to admit that you make it rather difficult, sister.”
She knew he was angry. Knew he felt trapped by their mother’s arrival and her requests and the threat she was to their family reputation, as strong as spun sugar. She knew she should not take his criticism to heart. Knew that he was lashing out at her because he could.
But she was tired of everyone pointing out her flaws.
Especially when they were right.
“I have not exactly had the easiest of evenings. Aside from tumbling down a flight of stairs and having my first conversation in a decade with my mother, I’ve argued with you, ruined my gown, fled a ball, and watched . . .”
Watched Simon pledge himself to someone else.
“Watched?” he prompted.
Suddenly, she felt very tired. Tired from the day, from the last week, from the last seven months. Tired of London.
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
There was a long pause as he watched her, and she deliberately evaded his gaze until he finally sighed. “Yes, well, I’ve had enough of this disaster of a day, myself.”
He exited the room.
Callie watched him go before heaving a sigh herself. “He did not mean it, you know. He’s just . . . she’s not easy for him, either.”
Juliana met her sister-in-law’s kind eyes. Callie had always been a calm to Gabriel’s storm. “I know. But he is not entirely wrong.” They sat for long minutes in companionable silence before Juliana could no longer stay quiet.
“Leighton is marrying.”
Callie nodded. “Lady Penelope has made a good match.”
“She does not love him.”
Callie tilted her head. “No, I don’t imagine she does.”
The silence stretched between them until Juliana could no longer bear it. Looking down at her hands, clasped tightly together, she said quietly, “When are they marrying? Was anything said?”
“I heard sometime in late November.”
One month.
Juliana nodded, pressing her lips together.
It was done. He was gone.
She took a deep breath.
“I think I am through with London.”
Callie’s eyes widened. “Forever?”
“At least for now.”
Simon needed a drink.
More than one.
He tossed his hat and gloves to the footman who had waited for his return home, relieved the man of his duties for the rest of the evening, and threw open the door to the library, taking perverse enjoyment in the way the great slab of oak crashed against the inside wall of the room.