Free The Granville Sisters by Una-Mary Parker Page B

grip tightened, hurting her.
    ‘Alastair …!’
    He stood over her, almost menacingly. ‘We were meant for each other. You know that. What’s wrong? I was going to ask you to marry me tonight.’
    There was an electrified silence. People shuffled closer.
    Juliet’s temper rose. ‘Well, I don’t want to marry you, so will you please let go of me …?’ she retorted shrilly.
    ‘But you said you loved me!’ He dropped her wrist abruptly and ran his hands through his hair in frenzied anguish. ‘You
told
me … You said you felt the same …’
    She’d regained her poise, and her anger was calculated now, fine-edged and savage. ‘I didn’t know then you were a well-known fortune-hunter and that you’re on the brink of bankruptcy. I actually thought you loved me for myself. Silly me! Now that I know it was my family’s money you were after, I want nothing more to do with you.’
    Then she turned and walked away along the corridor and vanished from sight.
    ‘Poor old chap! Did you see his face?’ Colin Armstrong whispered to Archie Hipwood, as they made their way to the bar, in need of strong drinks.
    Colin nodded, shaken. ‘He was actually crying. He must be devastated.’
    ‘I feel very sorry for him, but it was a bit silly of him to think Juliet would actually marry him, as he’s penniless, wasn’t it?’
    Colin sipped his drink, and lit a cigarette. ‘I blame his cousin, Lady Heysham. I hear she told him that there are lots of girls from very rich families who would marry him for his title.’
    Archie looked doubtful. ‘Lots of
American
girls, perhaps, or industrialists’ daughters, but one look at Juliet should have told him she’d never marry someone who was poor.’
    Edward Courtney strolled up to them, looking worried. ‘I feel awful, you know. I warned Juliet earlier today that Alastair was broke, because I had a feeling she didn’t realize it.’
    ‘Probably just as well you told her,’ Archie said reassuringly, ‘but I’m surprised she didn’t know. Two lots of death duties have clobbered him. A shame, really. Basically, he’s a decent chap, desperate to save his estates.’
    ‘He’s always been very neurotic, though,’ Colin pointed out. ‘I mean, the way he was going on! Rather bad form, all that hysteria.’
    ‘I tell you one thing,’ Edward mused, drawing deeply on his cigarette.
    ‘What’s that, old fellah?’
    ‘I’d hate to get on the wrong side of Juliet Granville.’
    The three men gulped their whiskies and puffed away and thought about the responsibility of having a strong wife who would expect them to provide a lavish style of living.
    ‘I’m not getting—’ began Edward.
    ‘Neither am I,’ said Colin with feeling.
    ‘Nor me. Let’s have another drink,’ Archie added.
    ‘Is it true?’ Rosie hissed. She’d cornered Juliet in the cloakroom and she was looking deeply shocked. Having missed the altercation because she and Charles were dancing, she’d heard, to her mortification, rumours of what had happened.
    ‘Is what true?’ Juliet asked loftily, as she collected her furs from the attendant.
    ‘You know perfectly well.’ Rosie was hunched forward, her arms held across her front as if she had stomach-ache. ‘Everyone’s talking about you,’ she whispered, white with anger. ‘They’re saying you behaved like a virago. How
could
you, Juliet? How could you treat Alastair like that?’
    ‘If that’s what they’re saying about me then it must be true,’ Juliet flashed back, shrugging.
    ‘Where do you think you’re going?’
    ‘Mind your own business.’
    Rosie protested in panic, ‘I can’t go back to the ballroom on my own. People are
talking
.’
    Juliet had had enough. She turned recklessly away, five foot six and eight stone of champagne-fuelled venom. ‘Let them bloody talk! I’ve done you a favour; you’re so stupid you’d have married him if he’d asked you, and
then
found out he was after your money.’
    Tears of rage and