Page 45 of No Ordinary Lady

“Yes, the days have been warm, but many are in the countryside. Father says when he was in London as a young man, he hardly ever saw the sun or felt warm.”

“The brief glimpse of stars is a fine compensation at night,” Daniel told her, not that he ever really looked up to notice if he could see the stars. “After a while, you become accustomed to the lack of sun.”

“That must be why you’re so pale now,” she murmured.

He rubbed his jaw. “A few weeks in the saddle roaming the estate and I’ll be tanned again.”

“I did not say the pallor didn’t suit you,” she promised, and took a deep breath. “You’re as handsome as you were the last time we met. Very much like your father must have been at that age.”

“Is that right?” Daniel released Amy so she could pick up her skirts for the walk up a short flight of steps. “I hardly remember him.”

“One only has to look at his painting in the master suite to be reminded,” she suggested with a tight smile.

But Daniel’s hackles rose. Had Amy been in the master bedchamber while he’d been gone? Invaded the privacy of his bedchamber without his permission? Mother had gone too far this time if she knew. He and Amy were not even engaged!

The chamber should have been locked unless servants were cleaning it.

He worked to subdue his temper, but it wasn’t easy. “What were you doing in the master suite?”

“Oh, your mother had a bee in her bonnet about cleaning it in readiness for your return a few weeks ago. She wanted to take your father’s picture down, but I assured her you would want it to stay hanging over the mantle.”

Daniel had always wanted the picture of his father removed from the wall overlooking his bed and placed in the long gallery, beside his ancestors. But Mother had insisted it remain private. They’d argued over who was master here at the time. And because she wouldn’t cede to his authority over the portrait and a dozen other inconsequential things, he’d left the estate yet again in a huff one day and stayed away for a good many years after. “I will take it down.”

Amy stopped and stared at him. “Oh, but why?”

“Because I do not want to be reminded of how I will age every time I wake in that chamber,” he announced.

That wasn’t the whole reason. Seeing his father as soon as he opened his eyes every day made him miss the man all the more. The father he’d hardly had the time to know. A man much respected and whose memory was almost worshipped by everyone else.

Amy fixed her gaze on the path ahead. “Well, if you want my opinion, I think it should stay right where it is to remind you of all you could be.”

“It comes down today,” he said, but looking at her with genuine interest to see how she might respond to him exerting his authority. He would not let any wife of his countermand his orders the way Mother had done so often.

“He was very handsome, and you look more and more like him every day,” Amy promised, and then laughed. “I still remember when you first got those horrible spots on your nose.”

“Those days are far behind me,” he said, annoyed she was talking about his appearance at fourteen. He thought he’d aged well. No longer lanky and awkward. No spots at all to mar his skin. He was certainly not the young man she had grown up beside.

He’d been shy once, and the loss of his father so young had made him an object of pity, no doubt. Not to mention that horrible stammer he’d developed around pretty girls when he’d finally discovered they existed. But he was a man now, with all the maturity that came with age and experience in the world. He rarely stuttered…except around Marian, it seemed.

“I’m glad,” she admitted, looking up at him cautiously. “It’s gratifying to have you by my side again.”

They had completed a half circuit and kept in full view of their chaperones the whole time, but he knew nothing more about Amy than he’d always known—she was opinionated and always interested in knowing what his family would do.

But even after such a short walk, he was keen to have it over and done with.

He led her back to the outdoor seating and was relieved when she left his side to immediately return to Mother and whisper in her ear.

He noted Marian was gone.

He tried not to show his interest in where she might have disappeared to, but Granny caught his eye and grinned slyly at him. “My companion went to fetch something for me from inside.”

“Very good,” he said, as if he didn’t care.

He stood around in the baking sun for a moment longer and then decided he’d done enough courtship for one day.

So, he excused himself and returned inside, claiming estate business took him away when there was nothing at all pressing for him to do.

The manor was blessedly cool, and there were no servants in sight to report his lack of decorum to his mother later, so he threw off his coat and launched himself onto the long chaise. “Bollocks.”