“Your Grace.”
“I was told you had come here.”
“Lady Honoria kindly showed me the way.”
He approached slowly.
“Has Sir Edmund upset you?”
Clara considered denying it.
Then she remembered the letters.
The lies.
The weeks of misunderstanding.
She was tired of false appearances.
“Yes.”
Julian's expression hardened.
“What did he say?”
“That I should not interfere with the marriage settlement.”
“I see.”
“And that you are proud, difficult, and unlikely to welcome contradiction.”
Julian gave a faint smile.
“On that subject, at least, he possesses some accurate information.”
Clara did not smile.
“He also implied that your finances are in considerable difficulty.”
The duke looked away.
For a moment, the fountain was the only sound.
Then he said, “They are.”
Clara waited.
Julian moved toward the windows.
“My father regarded income as something that appeared by virtue of his title. He borrowed against rents, speculated in timber, and signed obligations he seldom bothered to read.”
“And your brother?”
“Matthew attempted to put matters right.”
Julian's face tightened.
“He was a better man than I understood.”
Clara turned toward him.
“You have mentioned him several times.”
“He inherited the responsibilities I spent my youth avoiding.”
“By entering the army?”
“Yes.”
“Did you wish to be a soldier?”
“Very much.”
“And did he wish to be a duke?”
Julian gave a short, bitter laugh.
“I never asked him.”
The admission surprised Clara.
Julian stood for several moments with his hands clasped behind his back.
“When Matthew died, I returned to find that the creditors had begun to circle. There were mortgages upon properties I had believed free of debt, unpaid bills stretching back years, and disagreements between tenants and agents which no one could explain.”
“That must have been overwhelming.”
“I was a fool.”
“You were inexperienced.”
“I was thirty-two.”
“One may be inexperienced at thirty-two.”
“Not without consequences.”
Clara said nothing.
Julian looked toward her.
“I appointed committees. Consulted advisers. Signed what I was told must be signed. And when each difficulty appeared resolved, another emerged.”
“Sir Edmund offered assistance?”
“Yes. He had known my father for years.”
“And Mr. Vane?”
“He assured me that the estate could recover through improved navigation rights and agricultural investment.”
Clara drew a slow breath.
“Then perhaps the same men who created the difficulties have been offering to solve them.”
Julian looked at her.
The possibility was humiliating.
Worse, it was plausible.
He turned back toward the window.
“Miss Langley, I must tell you something.”
She waited.
“When Sir Edmund first proposed the marriage, he spoke of your fortune. He spoke of your land, your connections, and the excellent understanding between our families.”
“But not of me.”
Julian hesitated.
“No.”
Clara lowered her eyes.
He continued.
“I agreed to consider it because I believed marriage might provide stability. I thought we could establish a respectful arrangement.”
“Without affection?”
“Yes.”
“And without knowing one another?”
“Yes.”
She remained silent.
Julian faced her.