Page 76 of The Lady Knows Best

Feeling a blush rising to her cheeks, Daphne dropped her gaze. “Thank you for coming all this way. And please, give Lord Stalbridge my thanks as well.”

“It was our pleasure,” the countess insisted, leaning in to press a kiss on Daphne’s cheek. “I’m sure we’ll see one another again soon.”

Realizing she had left the door to her chamber open, Daphne stepped back across the corridor as Lady Stalbridge’s door once more closed behind her. Voices came from farther along, near the top of the staircase. Miles and Lord Ryland.

Suspended on her own threshold, Daphne could not help but overhear.

“I’ve already told you, I had something to take care of.” Miles’s voice, tinged with good-natured annoyance. “I won’t say another word at present, so it’s no use asking.”

“Not, I hope, more wild oats to sow before your wedding day,” said Lord Ryland.

Miles laughed. “You know I prefer my oats carefully cultivated, old chap.”

“Oh, I see. You were paying a call on that widow in St. Albans.”

“Every bit as lovely as rumored,” Miles said, not denying it. “But you mustn’t—Daphne?”

She had shut her door—almost slammed it shut, to be honest—both to make them aware of her presence and to block out the sounds of their conversation with the noise.

“What are you doing up here?” Miles asked, wearing a smile that looked not at all guilty. If she hadn’t known better, she would have said he was happy to see her. “I assumed you were with your family below. I was going to greet them after a quick word with my grandmother.”

“Of course. They will be pleased to know you’ve returned from—wherever it is you’ve been.”

“Alistair,” he said, turning toward his friend, “would you tell Grandmama I’ve a message for her? I’ll be along with it as soon as I’ve bid the Ashboroughs welcome to Lyneham Park.”

“Certainly,” said Lord Ryland with a dip of his head.

As he went on his way down the corridor, Miles took Daphne’s hand and wrapped it around his arm. “This was well met,” he said, as he led her back toward the stairs.

“Was it?”

“Yes. I have a surprise for you.” Boyish charm beamed from him like sunlight. “Meet me at the rose garden gate tomorrow at dawn.”

“At dawn?”

Was tomorrow meant to be her wedding day?

“If anyone asks, say you couldn’t sleep and fancied a breath of fresh air.”

“I don’t think—”

They were almost to the last step. Miles turned before she finished speaking. “Why, Lady Stalbridge. Dressed for traveling?”

“Yes. Now that Miss Burke’s family has arrived, Lord Stalbridge and I are eager to get back to—er, on to Ferncliffe,” she fudged.

“Certainly,” Miles said with a bow. “But please know, my neighbors especially are always welcome at Lyneham.”

“You are too kind, my lord. Miss Burke,” she said, inclining her head.

Daphne curtsied as Miles turned toward the drawing room door, calling out a greeting to Cami and Gabriel that sounded genuinely hearty to Daphne’s ears. Out of his sight, Lady Stalbridge patted her reticule and winked.

Daphne watched as she left the house, carrying her words to the printer, and wondered whether she’d done the right thing.

CHAPTER 24

Though the sun hadn’t even fully crested the horizon, Miles paced before the garden gate—a kissing gate, it was sometimes dubbed, for the squeeze required for two people to pass through it together. Daphne wasn’t late for their dawn rendezvous, not really. But he was nervous, nonetheless, sweat prickling beneath his arms, despite the coolness of the morning.

There had been a moment, yesterday afternoon, standing in the hall, when he’d thought she meant to go after Lady Stalbridge. Had she wanted to beg to be taken up in their carriage and hurried away from the future that awaited her here?