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“My Lord, is a young lady not capable of looking after herself?” Daisy asked firmly, crossing her arms over her chest, slightly satisfied when she saw the horror upon Mr Radcliffe’s face as though he believed he had truly offended her.
“My Lady, I …” he began, but she quickly cut him off with a shake of her head and began to laugh. His face spread into a deep smile then, and he even started to blush a little. Daisy only smiled further when he added, “You are pretending with me, aren’t you?”
“Always, Mr Radcliffe.” Daisy smirked back at him, and he seemed to draw a little closer. Their closeness was far less awkward to Daisy than she thought it should be, and she even found herself leaning into him in return.
“You are a cruel woman, Lady Lockhart.” Philip sighed, and his eyes darkened, yet he never took his gaze from hers as he repeated, “What are you doing out here alone, My Lady?”
“I was meeting a friend in the park, and it was such a lovely morning that I decided to send Garratt, my father’s coachman, home ahead of me,” Daisy explained, her cheeks blushing as she realised how wrong she had been about the weather.I ought to have listened to Garratt,she thought again, though she would never admit such a thing to the coachman himself or any other man for that matter.
She would not add to the fact that most men believed women too silly to determine things for themselves. It was bad enough that most noblemen who looked at her already saw her as little more than marriage material.
“I think your lovely morning might well be over, My Lady,” Mr Radcliffe announced, glancing out at the rain still driving heavily from the heavens and only seemed to be getting heavier. “I think perhaps I ought to wait it out with you.”
“Oh, no, My Lord,” Daisy responded automatically, although there was nothing she would have liked more than for him to remain at her side. “I am sure you are quite busy and have places to be.”
Daisy was entirely surprised when Philip stepped forward and lifted his hand to her cheek, brushing a strand of wet hair from her face before beginning to shake his head. “I was just coming from a visit with a friend. I have nowhere else to be.”
“Well, the rain shows no sign of stopping anytime soon,” Daisy pointed out, “we might well be stuck here for a while if you remain.”
Philip glanced out at the rain once more and shrugged his shoulders as if it had little consequence.
“And your poor coachman is getting drenched,” Daisy pointed out, glancing towards the carriage to see that the umbrella the coachman was holding above his head was having a hard time in the rain. It looked as though it was struggling not to tear to shreds with the pounding raindrops on top of it, not to mention how the handle was bending and threatening to break in the wind that had begun to pick up.
“I do believe we might be in for a real storm,” Philip agreed with a deep sigh. “Perhaps instead, I might be able to escort you home?”
Before Daisy could respond, Philip unbuttoned his jacket and started to shrug it off his shoulders.
“What are you …” she started to ask, cutting off when Philip draped his jacket over her head and held it so that he could still see her face. Then he turned, still holding the jacket, and slipped beneath it beside her.
“Here, hold this side,” he instructed, and when she took the edge of the jacket closest to her, he released it. Holding on with one hand to the other side of the jacket, he wrapped his now free hand around Daisy’s waist and began to sweep her towards the edge of the shelter. “Are you prepared, My Lady?”
There was little time to respond because the earl’s son suddenly swept her out into the driving rain. The jacket was much thicker than Daisy had realised, and it at least kept her head from getting any wetter than it already had been, and as they approached the carriage, the coachman hurried down from his seat to pull the door open once more.
“My Lord, My Lady,” the man greeted them with a bow, his face twisted with discomfort against the rain still driving against his umbrella. He used the instrument to protect the lord and lady as they scrambled into the carriage, and almost as soon as they were inside, he slammed the door shut behind them.
“Well, I never,” Daisy exclaimed, panting and pushing back her soaked hair from her face. She could only begin to imagine how much of a state she looked.Why should I care how I look?she thought, though when she looked up and saw Philip watching her, she couldn’t help feeling self-conscious. After all, even with his hair wet and slicked back from his face and his shirt soaked right through, he looked just as handsome as always, perhaps even a little more.
Daisy felt the oddest of sensations to reach out and stroke her fingers through his hair. Instead, she forced her hands beneath her skirts, forcing shivers in the hopes that he might believe it was because she was cold and not because she was fighting the urge to touch him.
“Here, My Lady, take my jacket,” Philip insisted, and it was clear that he had noticed her shivering. She trembled again as he leaned over from his side of the carriage and wrapped his jacket around her shoulders.
She couldn’t help scoffing slightly at the gesture, and when he raised one perfectly dark eyebrow at her, she pointed out, “I am already drenched through, Mr Radcliffe. I am not sure that your jacket can help me now.”
The corners of the nobleman’s lips twitched upward in a smile, and he admitted, “I think you may be right, though I was just hoping to help.”
In the next moment, he was reaching under the seat of his bench, and Daisy looked at him with curiosity when he pulled out a fine cotton towel. As if he saw how she raised her eyebrow at him, he shrugged and explained, “I often find myself getting caught in the rain.”
Unable to think of anything to say, Daisy found herself turning into one of those women she hated, looking at him from lowered eyelashes and fluttering her lids because she had never felt quite so content in the presence of a true gentleman before.
“I shall escort you home, My Lady,” he assured her with another smile, and with that, he lifted his hand and bumped his knuckles loudly against the carriage roof to instruct the coachman that they were ready to move.
As the carriage began to pull away from the lawn, Daisy glanced out the window and saw that the carriage was already taking the route that would lead right to her home in Oxford’s Summertown.
“How does he know where we are going?” Daisy asked aloud, unable to hold back her curiosity. When she looked at Mr Radcliffe again, she saw he was blushing slightly as if something had embarrassed him.
“I had already decided to be your knight in shining armour when I noticed you running to the shelter,” he explained and lifted his shoulders as if it was of little consequence to him. “I told my coachman of my intentions before running to join you.”
Chapter 11
