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“I am trying, Juliet. My work is essential, and I am doing everything that I can to provide for our future. I do not understand why you have a problem with my methods.”

“You claim it is for our future, yet I am excluded from knowing what it is you are doing. You tell me nothing, you travel, you barely write to me. Yet you claim your actions are for our collective benefit. Please pardon me if I doubt that is the case, Hector.”

“Why do you doubt it?” Hector snapped as his heart sank.

“I believe that you are doing everything in your power to keep a wall between us. At the start of our marriage, I did not understand what you were doing. Now, you are still doing whatever you wish and are pretending it is for my benefit!”

Hector felt as though the floor had fallen out from under him.

He had been doing his best to protect them both from the consequences of his business deals falling through, and yet, she still believed he did not want her when the reality was that he wanted her more than anything but felt he was undeserving of her as he always had.

“You know that is untrue. I really was far too occupied to reach out.”

“Far too occupied? Hector,please. It is quite clear that you have chosen to focus on work in order to once again keep me at arm’s length.”

The bitterness within him rose even higher and mingled with the jealousy he had tried to repress.

“Keep you at arm’s length? You have taken to meetinganother manin our home! I know of Lord Somerton’s visits and how he fawned over you, expressing his concern over your situation. If our marriage truly meant everything to you, you would not be sitting for hours on end in his company reveling in his attention!”

Juliet looked offended, throwing her hands up in an exasperated manner.

“Lord Somerton and his sister came by multiple times, offering their company and friendship in your absence. They are the only acquaintances I have, the only ones who are not bound to me by service, who were kind enough to visit and enquire about my well-being. You did not even pretend to care when you sent word to the housekeeper asking about the state of the household. You did not bother to inquire if I was all right, despite the fact that I kept insisting that we werefineto strangers I didn’t care about. Even though you left me, I believed that you would return, and we could still…”

Her words tapered off into a tired sigh, and her shoulders dropped, causing something unsettling to unfurl within Hector.

He could see Juliet pause to think. He had watched her enough times to recognize what she looked like when she was about to decide and steeled himself as his lips parted.

“I am tired,” Juliet admitted softly, eyes downcast. “I have been tired since the very first day I arrived in London. I have been pulled every which way, and I am quite exhausted by it all. I have lost too much of myself and accepted all sorts of uncomfortable situations, and now, I no longer recognize who I am. I wish to return to St. Catherine’s, Hector. Unlike here, I am needed there. I want to help the girls as much as possible and gain some clarity about what my future should hold while I’m there. With luck, my absence shall also be a benefit your work.”

Something broke within Hector and consumed his heart with pain.

She intends to leave me?

His instincts screamed at him to forbid it, to refuse her the way he had done in the past. He wanted to give in to the voice in his head that told him to confine her to a room if she tried to leave.

But he was tired too. All his running around, scrambling to keep a goddess he knew he was unworthy of, had drained him immensely.

And so, Hector sighed, and his shoulders dropped in defeat as he conceded.

“All right. If…if that is what you wish. Perhaps some time apart might do us some good.”

Juliet raised her head, held it high for a moment, and then nodded curtly. She turned and left the study without saying another word.

Protests welled up and clawed at Hector’s insides, demanding that he stop this foolishness, begging him to stand against such an idea.

But his body remained planted in place, intent on carrying on with his stubbornness.

Juliet managed to contain herself until she reached her room. As the door closed behind her she burst into tears, sinking to the floor with a shattered heart. She’d had so many hopes and dreams for them. She had believed that he would come to feel for her as strongly as she had grown to feel for him.

However, when she had decided in a moment of weakness to expose a part of her heart, he had dismissed her feelings. He had paid no attention to the loneliness she had endured and had refused to see that she had been absolutely terrified of being left alone once again.

There was and will always be someone or something more important than me. I am doomed to be no one’s priority.

Her father had chosen himself over her and now her husband had picked his work over her.

With a sigh, Juliet stood, wiped away her tears and reached for the servant’s bell.

Leila walked into Juliet’s chamber, immediately worried as she took in the distress on Juliet’s face.