She'd noticed. She'd walked arm in arm with women before, but it had never felt like this. The tingly sensation rather stole one's breath. Amanda was going to love it.
Aunt Frances and Emily walked in front of them, the two of them getting more and more ahead. People were crossing the street to avoid them. "We should catch up to them," Juliana said.
James didn't change his pace. "I believe a gentleman should walk leisurely with a lady, to accommodate her shorter stride."
"That's considerate," she allowed. "You really are quite an apt pupil, James."
Amanda was going to fall in love with him for certain.
"I'm famished," Emily announced the moment they stepped through Harding, Howell & Company's grand mahogany double doors. "May we visit Mr. Cosway's Breakfast Room?"
"It's not breakfast time," James said, "and, in fact, it's past luncheon."
Juliana laughed. "Mr. Cosway's Breakfast Room serves refreshments all day long." Located on the floor above, the restaurant offered wines, teas, coffee, and sweetmeats. "Have you never been here before, James?"
"I'm a man," he said.
The department store was patronized mostly by women. Juliana hadn't ever noticed that before, but she did now. Especially because a good number of the women were emitting little squeals and hiding behind the delicate pieces of furniture that were for sale.
Emily started up the wide staircase with Herman and Aunt Frances. When Juliana went to follow them, James held her back. "She really should leave that snake at home," he said once Emily was far enough ahead of them to be out of earshot.
Juliana was getting a bit tired of hearing that. "Are you hungry?" she asked.
"I'm a man," he said, and she laughed.
He really was quite a man.
Upstairs, Mr. Cosway's Breakfast Room had a glorious view over St. James's Park to Westminster and the Surrey hills beyond. Aunt Frances and Emily were already seated across from each other at a table for four. Juliana slid into the chair beside Aunt Frances, but James just stood there, more frozen than the ice cream in the restaurant's glass display case.
And that's when Juliana realized he didn't want to sit beside Emily. Or walk beside Emily. Or have anything to do with Emily at all—at least not while she was holding a snake.
Though it wasn't very kind or ladylike, Juliana couldn't help herself. A little smile quirked on her lips. A tiny giggle escaped. And finally—inevitably—she burst out laughing.
FIFTEEN
"YOU-YOU-YOU'RE afraid of Emily's snake," Juliana chortled. "Don't tell me you're not."
James felt heat creep up his neck and into his face. He'd never seen a woman quite so consumed by hilarity. It was humiliating.
Every diner in Mr. Cosway's Breakfast Room was staring at them, and he wasn't sure whether that was because of Emily's snake or Juliana's laughter. Either way, it was humiliating, possibly the most humiliating moment of his life.
Juliana thought him laughable.
But he couldn't deny her accusation. "Deathly afraid," he confirmed with as much dignity as he could muster. "I was bitten by an adder at the age of seven."
"Oh, my," Juliana said. Her peals of laughter dwindled to giggles as she apparently tried to control herself. "That must have been dreadful."
"Very. It was quite painful, and my ankle swelled up horridly, and I was consumed by fever." He had also cast up his accounts several times, but he wouldn't say so in the presence of ladies. "I should never want to experience that again," he added, eyeing the damned snake with contempt.
"But Herman isn't an adder," Emily said, stroking the terrorizing creature with gentle fingers. "He's a harmless grass snake. He doesn't have any poison, and he doesn't bite."
James knew that. He was well aware that adders were the only venomous snakes in England, and Herman was quite obviously not an adder. Herman was longer and more slender than an adder and had different markings. James knew his fear was irrational.
But irrational as it was—and he was cognizant of the fact that, in the twenty-two years since he'd been bitten, his fear had expanded beyond all proportion to the incident—he couldn't bring himself to get close to Herman or any other snake.
Even now, though he was standing a good six feet away, the sight of Herman made his pulse feel thready and his guts clench. If he got any closer, he feared he might cast up his accounts right here in Harding, Howell & Company's froufrou little restaurant.
Juliana was no longer laughing. Instead, she was watching him very closely, so closely he was half convinced she could see right into him, see his churning stomach and his racing heart. See just how pathetic a man he was, a man too weak to conquer his fear of a simple grass snake.
Still watching him, she suddenly pushed back from the table. "I've just realized I'm not hungry."
"But I am," Emily said.
Juliana turned to her with a bright smile. "You can stay here with Aunt Frances while Lord Stafford and I find a few gifts for Lady Amanda."
Lady Frances began rising. "You and Lord Stafford cannot go off alone."
"Of course we can." Juliana eased her aunt back onto the chair. "We're in a public place, surrounded by dozens of people. We'll be back in a few minutes." And with that, before Lady Frances could voice another protest, Juliana placed her arm in James's and headed out of Mr. Cosway's Breakfast Room.
James wasn't certain, but he thought Juliana might have just saved him from complete humiliation. In any case, she'd definitely saved him from losing his luncheon. His stomach was feeling better already, and his pulse had gone back to normal.
"Thank you," he said as they headed down the staircase. "You must think me an utter coward."
"Don't be silly. We all have our fears."
He doubted that. "What's yours, then?"
"Blood," she said without hesitation. "I would make a terrible doctor. And unlike you, I don't have a legitimate reason for my fear. No traumatizing bloody events in my childhood."
She laughed, but this time it
