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Her cheeks instantly grew hot as she admitted that she had risked being out all night for practically nothing to happen. Bertha huffed out a sigh of disappointment and shook her head, “I was rather hoping you might have something more exciting to tell me.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Daisy shrugged, though she felt her blush deepening when she thought of the dream she’d had, how she had kissed Philip, and it had felt like the most magical kiss she had ever experienced.
“Perhaps I might have something more exciting to tell you when you help me sneak out!” Bertha exclaimed then before pursing her lips as though she hadn’t meant to speak so loudly. She glanced quickly in the direction of the open garden behind them as if she half expected her mother to appear.
“Excuse me? Why would I help you to sneak out?” Daisy asked, her brow arching.
“Because I did it for you, and now you owe me!” Bertha replied quickly, placing her hands on her hips and looking quite irritated.
“I didn’t mean it like that, and you know it,” Daisy protested. “What I meant was, why would you need to sneak out?”
Bertha’s gaze dropped then, and her cheeks flushed so red they were practically crimson. “There’s umm … there’s a boy.”
Daisy gasped in astonishment. “Who?”
Still looking quite embarrassed, Bertha turned her gaze up to meet Daisy’s and said, “You promise you won’t laugh?”
“This is no laughing matter,” Daisy responded firmly. She gripped hold of her sister’s shoulders and fought the urge to shake her. “You must tell me immediately.”
There was silence for a moment, and Bertha stared at Daisy as if she were trying to decide how much to tell her. Then she finally seemed to suck in a huge breath before blurting, “Thomas Henderson.”
“Thomas Henderson! The groom?” Daisy exclaimed in utter astonishment. “Your mother would …”
“I know, I know, and that is why you have to help me!”
Seeing the desperation in her gaze and hearing it in her voice, Daisy pulled her sister into a tight and comforting embrace and said, “You deserve to be as happy as I am. We will figure this out.”
Chapter 17
It was a relief to finally return to their usual lessons, though as Philip sat in the Lockharts’ parlour beside his beautiful student, he couldn’t help thinking of the time they had shared together several nights earlier.
It was the first time he had seen her since finding himself waking beside her on the blanket at Christ Church Meadows, and yet it was not nearly as awkward as he would have expected … that was until halfway through their session when there was a knocking upon the parlour door, and the butler entered then announced, “Lord and Lady Balfour.”
Philip glanced at Daisy, who glanced back at him in return, looking just as perplexed as she did. Clearly, she had not been expecting her father and stepmother to interrupt them either. The two of them quickly jumped up from where they had been sitting on the couch together. They had been sitting so close that when they did so, they were forced to take several steps away from each other to make it look far less intimate just moments before the duke and his wife entered.
Even the maid who had been chaperoning them looked quite surprised, standing with her head bowed and her cheeks flushed. So long as there was no obvious funny business, the maid had been entirely happy to allow them to pretend that she wasn't even there, keeping her nose buried in a book of her own for most of the time, obviously enjoying the chance it gave her to have a break from her usual chores.
“Lord Philip, it is good to see you,” Lord Balfour announced, entering the room with his wife on his arm.
“Yes, my husband is quite right,” Lady Balfour added, stepping away from her husband and releasing his arm to take the lead into the room. “Do forgive us for interrupting, but the two of you have been studying for quite some time this morning, and we rather hoped we might join you for some refreshments.”
Philip's chest tightened at that. So far, his lessons with Lady Daisy had been undisturbed by the duke and his wife. Though Daisy's stepsister had sometimes stopped in to sit with them for an hour to hide from her mother, they had rarely been disturbed, and the young woman did not make anything awkward, though it was debatable from the way Daisy sometimes blushed when the other woman spoke.
Yet the moment Lord and Lady Balfour entered the room, Philip felt a change in Daisy. He sensed her tensing to the point that he was sure if she did so any harder, she might well snap in two. He could see the way her jaw clenched and how she glared at her stepmother out of the corner of her eye as she offered a respectful curtsey to her parents.
Remembering himself, Philip quickly bowed to the lord and lady and smiled. “Some refreshments would be much appreciated.”
Is this the part where the duke and his wife come to clarify their true intentions for these study sessions?Philip thought begrudgingly, although a small part of him was almost hopeful. Maybe these sessions had been nothing but a veiled courting from the very beginning, and although Philip would never admit it out loud, he was beginning to think they'd had the desired effect.
“You heard him,” Lady Balfour snapped at the butler, and Philip offered the man an apologetic glance out of the corner of his eye moments before he left the room to fetch the refreshments.
Though Philip had never had many close encounters with Lady Balfour, he was quite certain he had already got her measure. She was cold and calculating, much like many noble mothers who were determined to see that their daughters got all they deserved.
“Please, don’t stand on ceremony for us,” Lady Balfour continued the moment the butler disappeared from the room. She gestured with a wave of her hand for them to seat themselves once more, but before they could do so, she added, “Daisy, why don’t you come and sit beside me so that your father might sit with Lord Philip for a while? I am sure the two of you could do with a break from your studies.”
Philip stifled a groan at that. The last thing he wanted was to sit beside the duke, though it was certainly a better option than sitting beside the duchess herself. Daisy glanced at Philip with an apologetic gleam in her eye, and he fought the urge to reach out and stop her from moving away.
Instead, he watched her silently as she crossed the room and sat on the couch opposite the one they had been sitting on together. She looked most uncomfortable when her stepmother dropped down onto the seat beside her.
