With growing anxiety, he searched in vain for her throughout the castle. She wasn’t with any of the other guests or secluded in the library. It was raining too hard for her to be in the maze or the garden, or to have taken a soaking wet stroll into the village.
In growing frustration, Daniel strode faster through the twisting corridors. Rebecca wasn’t in the solar or any of the sitting rooms. She certainly wasn’t in the music room. And according to the maid he’d bribed with a shilling, Rebecca was not in her chamber—nor had she left the castle.
She had vanished.
He leaned the back of his head against the closest wall and closed his eyes.
His shoulders slumped. What if one of the men from Delmouth had invited her for a ride in his carriage? What if Rebecca was even now falling in love, pushing Daniel a little further out of her heart with every passing minute?
The delicious scent of sweets being baked wafted into the drafty corridor. Daniel opened his eyes. It couldn’t be. Itwas.
Cinnamon-raisin biscuits.
Rebecca.
He dashed around the corner and into the kitchen before his heart had a chance to slow.
Her eyes widened when she saw him. “How did you know I was down here?”
“Easy.” He tried to look nonchalant. “You weren’t in any of the other rooms.”
“It was the smell, wasn’t it?” She gave him a considering look. “I always did know how to bring you running.”
Daniel held his silence rather than admit just how literal her power over him truly was.
“Do you want to wait?” Rebecca glanced at an hourglass on a shelf above the oven. “Less than two minutes to go.”
He dragged one of the empty wooden stools closer to her. “What’s the occasion?”
She tilted her head and fixed him with a perceptive gaze. “You probably thought I forgot. I didn’t. When you first arrived, I was still too hurt and angry to wish you a happy birthday.”
“I’m not sure I deserve it now,” he confessed.
“You probably don’t,” she agreed. “I’ll check on the biscuits anyway.”
She pulled the tray from the oven just as the last few grains of sand slipped down the neck of the hourglass.
Daniel’s mouth watered. The biscuits lookeddivine. Perfectly round, perfectly golden, with an aroma so cinnamon-sweet the very air tasted like sugar. He reached for the one closest to him.
Rebecca smacked his hand. “Not yet, goose. You’ll burn your fingers. Give the biscuits a few minutes to set.”
Properly chastised, he returned his hands to his lap. “Thank you. I mean it.”
She lifted a narrow shoulder. “They’re just biscuits.”
He shook his head. “Nothing is ever just biscuits.”
She blinked. “What does that mean?”
“I…have no idea. It sounded deep until I said it.” He reached forward and took her hands. “Rebecca, believe me. I never meant to hurt you. When I was awful to you outside that ballroom when we were children, it was because we werechildren. I don’t know if you know this, but seventeen-year-old boys are incredibly stupid. Me, more than most.”
She arched a brow in silence.
At least she hadn’t slapped him. That was encouraging.
He took a deep breath. “I was dying to impress you. But I wanted to impress my grandmother even more. My father had never been good enough for her. Then he died, andIbecame heir. To this day, I have never lived up to her standards. Back then, I was still young enough and scared enough to want to try. You never deserved to be caught in the crossfire.”
“You’re right,” she said quietly. Her voice shook. “I didn’t.”
