" I didn’t sneer!” said Juliana hastily. “I’d no notion you behaved so dreadfully badly to her. You said
you forced her aboard your yacht, but I never supposed that you really frightened her enough to make
her fire at you. You need not be in a rage with me for saying so, Dominic, but when I saw Mary at
your house she was so placid I made sure you’d not treated her so very brutally after all. Had you?”
“Yes,” said Vidal bluntly. He looked at Juliana. “You think it was vastly romantic for Mary to be
carried off by me, don’t you? You think you would enjoy it, and you cannot conceive how she should
be afraid, can you? Then think, my girl! Think a little! You are in my power at this moment, I may
remind you. What if I make you feel it? What if I say to start with that you shall eat your dinner, and
force it down your throat?”
Juliana shrank back from him involuntarily. “Don’t, Vidal! Don’t come near me!” she said, frightened
by the expression in his face.
He laughed. “Not so romantic, is it, Ju? And to force you to eat your dinner would be a small thing
compared with some other things I might force you to do. Sit down, I’m not going to touch you.”
She obeyed, eyeing him nervously. “I—I wish I hadn’t come with you!” she said.
“So did Mary, with more reason. But Mary would have died sooner than let me see that she was afraid.
And Mary, my love, is not my cousin. "

― Georgette Heyer , Devil's Cub (Alastair-Audley, #2)