TemptingJuliana by Unknown Page A

set it carefully by his plate. “I have an idea, Mother.”
    “Hmm?” She flipped a page of her magazine.
    “Why don’t you move back in with your sisters? You could help them redecorate and get rid of some of thatpeach. I’m sure you’d enjoy that more than living here with me.”
    Cornelia hadn’t always lived with him. When he’d returned to England following his years in the army and at medical school in Edinburgh, he’d established his own household. After his father’s death, when James inherited Stafford House and the country estate that went along with his title, his mother had moved in with her widowed sisters, wishing not to intrude on his life with his wife. But then Anne died two years ago, and Cornelia came running back home to “help” him.
    And there she’d stayed. For too long. He loved her dearly, but a man was entitled to some privacy and autonomy. He’d truly appreciated her “help” while he’d needed it, but he had long since recovered some semblance of a life, even if he didn’t feel ready to fall in love and remarry.
    “Don’t be foolish, James. Should my sisters ever decide to redecorate, I can help them from here. Who would run this household if I abandoned you? Stafford House is one of the largest homes in London.”
    One thing he wasn’t lacking was money. “I have a staff. And I can hire more people should I need to.”
    “That’s not the same as having family oversee matters.” She flipped another page, tilting her head to peruse the dress pictured. “I won’t even think about moving out until you have a wife.”
    Yet another reason to marry. But he’d have to fall in love first, and that wasn’t going to happen.
    “Very well, then,” he said. It was senseless to pursue this any longer. That would only cause hard feelings, and the last thing he wanted was to hurt his mother. “I must be off.” He pushed back from the table and rose. “I wish you a pleasant day.”
    She looked up. “I trust you haven’t forgotten that Bedelia is expecting you this morning?”
    Damnation. He had. His mind had been on other things. Especially a hazel-eyed sprite he had no business thinking about.
    Most annoying.
    “I haven’t time, I’m afraid.” He shrugged into the tailcoat a footman held out. “Only one doctor volunteered today, so I must fill the other spot,” he said, buttoning the coat. “I’m expected at the Institute by ten.”
    “The people can wait a little longer for their vaccinations. Bedelia has been suffering with chest pains.”
    “Bedelia is fine, Mother.”
    “I’m sure you’re right.” She paused for a sip of her tea. “But what if she isn’t?”
     
    “This doesn’t look like a nice neighborhood,” Aunt Frances said with a worried frown.
    Reaching over the basket of Shrewsbury cakes on her lap, Juliana pulled the carriage’s curtains closed. “It’s perfectly safe, I assure you.”
    “Herman doesn’t like the dark,” Emily said, reopening them.
    “Herman should have stayed home,” Juliana told her. Aunt Frances was peering out the window again, looking even more nervous, so she reached into her reticule for something to distract her. “Here, Auntie. I forgot to give you this letter. It arrived in the morning mail.”
    Emily stroked Herman’s olive green scales, for all the world like he was a real pet. “I never get letters.”
    “I never get letters, either.” Eyes wide behind her spectacles, Aunt Frances broke the seal and held the paper up to the light. As she scanned the single page, she sucked in a breath. “Goodness gracious!”
    Juliana stifled a smile. “What does it say, Auntie?”
    Frances’s cheeks were suddenly so rosy, she looked like she’d eaten an entire bowl of trifle. “It’s a poem.”
    “A poem? Does it rhyme?”
    Frances nodded violently.
    “Who is it from?”
    “I’m not at all certain. He didn’t sign his name.”
    “How do you know it’s a ‘he,’ then?” Emily asked. “It might be from a