This time, Rebecca wouldn’t be one of those women. She had alreadybeenone of those women. Already knew what it was like to have her name never again cross his mind. It had perhaps been the most difficult lesson of her life, but at last she had learned it.
Daniel Goodenham was not forever.
He wasn’t even for right now, or for a few days. For all Rebecca knew, he had already completely forgotten their conversation from the night before. The man was unreliable and inconstant and only interested in whatever pleased him at the moment. Everyone knew it. Thetongossiped about it. The society papers reeked of it. And yet every Season, another wave of ladies tried to be the one to change him.
If Rebecca had learned anything over the years, it was that no one could change another person’s mind.
Much less his entire personality.
If and when Daniel decided to take a wife, he’d do so. Until then, no trembling bodice, no big kohl eyes atop a flirtatious painted fan, no passionate waltz beneath the light of the moon could tempt him away from his freedom. Only a fool would try.
Rebecca was practical. Her harried uncle was willing to provide a five hundred pound dowry, which she had no intention of squandering on musicales and opera gowns in the hopes of attracting a marriage proposal from any number of self-importanttongentlemen like Daniel.
The farther she stayed from London, the better. Besides, when fashionable Lord Stonebury did take a bride, she didn’t want to be around to see it.
After a self-deprecating glance in a handheld looking glass, she quit her bedchamber. This would have to do. She hated herself for spending an hour on curling her hair and straightening her hems, but his idle comment about her gown had pricked her.
Shedidcare about his opinion, damn him. And yes, shewasstill wearing the same gowns as her come-out Season, because that was the last time she’d purchased anything new. Her parents had died shortly after, and Rebecca’s entire world had shrunk to fit inside these castle walls.
Guests rarely appeared, and never to visit her, so it was easy to forget she had become a moment frozen in time just as surely as the cracked painted faces moldering in the hall of portraits. She smiled sadly. Without realizing it, she had become one of the castle ghosts.
When she reached the stairs, she saw him pacing in the entryway below.
He hadn’t caught sight of her yet. He was too busy straightening his greatcoat and tugging at the edges of his cravat. To the untrained eye, such pacing and muttering might resemble nervousness.
To anyone who had ever read a society paper, on the other hand, the most likely circumstance was that indolent Lord Stonebury was cursing Rebecca’s name for waking him before noon. The maids had promised they wouldn’t mention who had sent a tray of fragrant soft-boiled eggs at seven o’clock in the morning. But Daniel would know.
Rebecca grinned to herself.
“Have you devised a plan yet?” she called out as she descended the staircase. “I ought to practice on the eligible bachelors who come for the reading of the will.”
“Ineed to make the plan?” He pivoted toward her, his handsome face twisted in consternation. “I don’t even know where to start. This isyourplan.”
“That can’t possibly be true.” She stared at him in wide-eyed innocence as she reached the bottom stair. “You’re the man and I’m the woman, are we not? I could have swornmenwere the only ones capable of making plans. Particularly clever ones.”
“Ha,” he growled. “You’re the clever one. You always were.”
“You dreadful brute,” she gasped with an extra flutter of her lashes. “What a horrid insult. Of course a lady is careful not to beclever. However would she find a husband then?”
“Do you want an intelligent man or an imbecile?” he countered sourly. “Many men might prefer a vapid wife, but that’s the last sort a woman like you should accept.”
She arched a brow. “You haven’t seen me in five years and haven’t spoken to me in nine, but you know what kind of gentlemen I prefer? Do tell. Inform me what it is that I desire.”
“Very well. You need someone as smart as you, for one thing. Otherwise you’ll either eat him alive… or become a shadow of yourself from trying too hard to stay down at his level.” Daniel’s green eyes were deadly serious. “Promise me you won’t let that happen.”
Rebecca did not promise. Her throat had tightened uncomfortably. She forced herself to look away before he realized how much his words had affected her.
No. Not his words. The idea that the blackguard mightcarewhat happened to her. Or perhaps would someday care. When she found a man who wanted her and proved she didn’t need Daniel at all.
“Come,” she said. “Do you want a tour of the castle?”
“I hate this castle,” he said with a shudder. “I always have. The shrieking in the turret, the icy drafts, the way nothing is ever quite where I left it… I wouldn’t have come back at all if it weren’t for wanting to see you and finally apologize.”
“How curious.” She tapped her chin as if deep in thought. Such flummery might work in London, but not in Delmouth. “Are you absolutely certain you showed up here after nearly a decade’s absence because you were dying to see me, and not because you received a summons pertaining to an inheritance?”
His cheeks flushed. “I don’t wish to quarrel with you, Rebecca. At least believe that much.”
“Miss Bond,” she reminded him. Boundaries were the only shields left to safeguard her heart. “I love Crowmere Castle. It has become my home. I am not looking forward to leaving it.”
