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in Mrs. Forbes’s voice that Sophia almost believed the future was hers to see. “I do not understand,” she murmured.
    “Of course you do not!” retorted Mrs. Forbes. “You are not meant to. Hurry along now, the others are waiting for you. Your niece will be along shortly.”
    Juliana waited until the coachman was attempting to help Lady Grenville into the carriage, with the aid of Charlotte and Aunt Sophia, before she made her way to Mrs. Forbes’s kitchen. She found her in the walled garden pruning the rose bush from which Dominic had plucked her bloom.
    Mrs. Forbes looked up when Juliana approached. “I’ve been waiting for you, young miss. Knew you would come to say farewell.”
    Leaning over, Juliana brushed the weathered brown cheek with her lips. “You have been so kind to us. I shall never forget this place. Or you.”
    Mrs. Forbes’s face changed and a ghost of a smile touched her mouth. “Come, Juliana, give me your hand,” she commanded.
    Uncertain, Juliana hesitated before slowly holding out her right hand. It lay on Mrs. Forbes’s thin palm, pink and white and young against the dark aged skin.
    A pain in her chest suddenly made Juliana aware that she was holding her breath, and she let it out carefully before Mrs. Forbes lifted her eyes. Juliana was captured in the older woman’s dark gaze and stood absolutely still.
    “There are two things you want, Juliana. One you know well. The other you are just discovering. One you shall never have, nor is its loss worth your sorrow. The other shall be yours, although the road twists and turns, bringing pain and tears. Go with your feelings … here…” She placed her left palm over Juliana’s heart. “Not with the rules you know well. And all will be as it should be.”
    A large tear ran down Juliana’s cheek. At the same moment, Mrs. Forbes abruptly covered the palm with its fingers and returned the folded hand to its owner. “Be happy. You now have the key.”
    Minutes later Juliana climbed into Lady Grenville’s newly painted traveling coach. It was over: their strangely unsettling, strangely exciting time at the Blue Boar Inn. There would be no more adventures on her journey. She would reach London, find a comfortable husband, and establish her brother firmly in the bosom of the
ton
. That was what she wanted, the plan she and Aunt Sophia had devised. But what else did she desire?
    Instantly her thoughts flew to the two sleepless nights she had spent filled with visions of the Marquis of Aubrey. Those moments they had spent in Mrs. Forbes’s garden almost seemed like a dream now, a dream spun by the magic of Robbie’s Romany music. A dream that must be put behind her. The marquis had occupied too many of her thoughts already. She was behaving like the veriest peagoose! It was simply a kiss. Nothing more.
    Incurably honest with herself, Juliana closed her eyes, brushing her fingers lightly over her brow before opening her lids wide again. It had been like no embrace she had ever known, she finally admitted. The Marquis of Aubrey drew her to him in a way she had never imagined possible. In Mrs. Forbes’s cozy parlor she had thought he also sensed this thing between them, that in some way he was reaching out to her. But the next instant he had closed himself away from her as surely as if a door had clicked shut between them.
    Forcing herself not to think any longer about the marquis, she glanced at her aunt, who appeared to be lost in her own thoughts, her eyes holding a strange brightness. So Juliana turned to look out onto the countryside. Soon they would be in London. Their future lay there. It would be just as she wished, she felt sure, for she was determined the plan would succeed. But, nonetheless, she could not keep Mrs. Forbes’s words out of her mind.

Chapter 4
    ROME
    Jules Devereaux, Comte de Saville, intended only to pause for one last glance into the bedroom, but the seductive golden beauty of the woman clearly discernable behind