A Beast Sees No Beauty

Chapter Twenty-Four

Juliet leaned over Vincent's desk, watching him make a list of everyone she wanted to invite to their party. She rattled off several names at first as if she was back at home talking to her father who knew all the same people she did. It was courtesy more than anything else.

"Florizel, Lysander, Ophelia, Duncan, Cordelia, Titania, Cassio, and all of their husbands and wives, of course, then my father, Mr. and Mrs. Norris from the plantation next to my father's, and I'm sure Jane and Olivia Forester want to come as well. They're some of my old friends from church, a little girlish but overall nice young ladies. I'm sure there are a couple of people I'm forgetting, so let me think for the day before we start the invites. Perhaps we should invite-"

She had to stop halfway between saying a neighbor's name before she realized that Vincent McCoy didn't know a single person in Mabelle - besides those who owed his family money. Most of her siblings didn't live here anymore either, so he had no way of knowing them or their families.

"Juliet, I have limited space available. Surely there's no one else of high importance to you?" Juliet bit her lip and thought of all the sly comments she could make. Her childhood crush may want to come, or the boy next door that constantly pined for her attention. She even considered saying something along the lines of writing an invite to himself for being so important to her, but the thought made her blush at how forward it was.

"Oh ho, look at this! Is there someone you're dying to see Juliet? A long lost lover? Are you betrothed? Perhaps a star-crossed lover of sorts?" Vincent forced a smile throughout his joke, wanting to throttle someone's neck for all the frustration he felt. Of course beautiful, young Juliet Chambers had a beau waiting for her return. How did he not think of it sooner?

Instead of answering with a whispered sigh of some fop's name, Juliet scoffed and straightened herself. "You think I would be fraternizing with you up North of I had a man in my heart or mind?" She turned to face him then, leaning her frame against the oak desk and crossing her arms. Surely he thought better of her.

Juliet waited for the sarcastic comment or some backhanded compliment, but instead, Vincent gave her a small smile. She was startled for a moment, half expecting him to revert to the old ways and spring some creative insult on her, but he remained in his good humor for several moments before speaking.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't be 'fraternizing' with me if that were so," Juliet uncrossed her arms in disbelief, not knowing how to react without there being some sort of battle of wits. "Any man would travel to the ends of the earth and battle every terrifying beast just to get you back in arms reach."

Juliet felt her cheeks darken at such a sweet remark, but she refused to let Vincent win at his new approach. He couldn't silence her with insults, so his new approach must be silencing her with kindness. "Battling terrifying beasts, eh? Does that include you, Vincent? Do you count as one of those terrifying beasts that stole me away from my home?"

Vincent's smile morphed into a grin as his arms swooped out and grabbed her before she could even comprehend what was happening. Juliet squealed in surprise at the motion but was silent when she found herself now seated in Vincent McCoy's lap. "I suppose that I am a beast - the worst of them all. I won't let any man, woman, or child take you from me."

Juliet's surprised expression fell into a soft smile. He may be in a playful mood, but his words translated in other ways. Ways that made Juliet forget about society long enough to imagine Vincent scaring away any suitors she may have, hiding her away here for the rest of her days. Perhaps, one day, they might even come to love one another, but that was something Juliet couldn't wrap her mind around. She did care for Vincent McCoy, perhaps she could say this feeling was love, but she felt nothing but doubt when it came to his feelings. While she was sure he cared for her in some ways, which were apparent in the ways he held her and kissed her, she wasn't sure if his affections could be considered love.