AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he glanced in Daisy’s direction, she was looking at him with sympathy, clearly able to feel how awkward Lady Balfour was making things. Philip found himself wishing that he and Daisy were alone, wishing that he had been brave enough to invite her out of the evening rather than merely attending their tutoring sessions, using the time as an excuse to be in her company and only longing for more.
“Daisy, why don’t you accompany me downstairs while Lord Philip and Bertha go down to the carriage with the maid?” Lady Balfour suggested when they had all been prepared to leave. “There is no need for us all to go and give our appreciation to the performers. I am sure we would only clutter the place up.”
Philip fought the urge to blurt out a protest. The thick smile on the duchess’s face and knowing what elder noblewomen were like, told Philip there would be no changing her mind. Though he couldn’t quite figure out her motivations for the evening, he was sure she was playing some kind of game.
They always were.Just play along and bide your time,he told himself, remembering how he had once said the same thing about his sessions with Daisy and how he had once hoped that he might be able to put an end to them entirely.
The last few weeks had certainly taught him that riding with the wave was better than trying to fight it.
“Lady Bertha, please allow me to escort you down to the carriages,” he suggested, offering Daisy’s sister his arm. She glanced at Daisy as if she were feeling awkward, and Philip couldn’t help following her gaze, relieved to see that the elder of the two sisters did not look upset. Instead, she smiled at them and gave a gentle, almost unperceivable nod.
“Go on with you both,” Lady Balfour urged when nobody made any attempt to move. Philip watched Daisy stiffen the moment her stepmother grabbed hold of her arm and urged her away from the exit so that he could guide Bertha out.
I would much rather be escorting you,Philip thought, glancing over his shoulder at her as he escorted her sister from the box and they started to make their way down the stairs.
“I feel I must apologise to you, My Lord,” Bertha told him when they were alone apart from the maid who was shadowing them. “My mother can be quite persistent.”
“Can the same not be said for all mothers?” Philip responded with a smile, hoping the young woman did not blame herself. “I have grown quite used to it; I am afraid to say.”
Bertha nodded in agreement and sighed. “That is true, though I sometimes fear that I might have the worst of them all.”
They laughed together for a moment. Philip wasn’t sure what made him do so, but he found himself glancing over his shoulder just in time to see Lady Balfour watching them from the top of the stairs.
There was a barely readable expression on her face that told him whatever she was thinking, she was pleased about it, and he couldn’t help feeling a shiver run down his spine as he realised that it had something to do with him. It wasn’t until Daisy appeared at her side that she quickly looked away, leaving Philip feeling more uncertain than ever about whatever the duchess was up to.
Chapter 18
“I have come to warn you,” Bertha announced the moment that she flitted into Daisy’s bedroom one evening. “There is a gentleman downstairs who appears to have been invited for dinner.”
Seeing the smile on her sister’s face, Daisy found herself hoping for just a moment that she was being playful and merely meant Lord Philip. It could not be such a surprise that the earl’s son would be invited to dinner.
After all, he had been spending an increased amount of time at the Lockhart residence, and yet, as far as Daisy was aware, he had not been invited that day. In fact, she hadn’t seen him since their trip to the theatre three evenings earlier, and they did not have another tutoring session yet scheduled.
Fighting her hopefulness, Daisy focused on finishing getting ready for dinner. She concentrated on fastening the pearl earring clasp as she asked Betha, “Who is it?”
“I do believe his name is Lord Lloyd Bessington,” Bertha announced with a shrug, coming to fiddle with Daisy’s hair as if she had found a few strands that were out of place. “Mother told me he is a baron and that he lost his wife and daughter in childbirth several years ago.”
Daisy winced at that, both because she couldn’t imagine the pain that something like that could cause and because she couldn’t help wondering why her stepmother would divulge such information before anything else. Was it because husbands and marriage were the only things on the old duchess’s mind?
Has she got nothing better to do?Daisy wondered.
“He is reportedly thirty-five years old with a great deal of money and a grand estate,” Bertha announced, mocking her mother’s tone as if the words had come directly from the duchess’s own mouth, and the two sisters began to laugh almost immediately.
“Anyone would believe that your mother was reading from a catalogue of the most eligible bachelors half the time she is talking.” Daisy chuckled, though her humour was merely to mask everything else she was feeling.
“Indeed,” Bertha agreed, clearly feeling quite the same way as her elder stepsister. “A part of me wonders whether I ought to marry just to shut her up sometimes.”
“Oh, Bertha! Never think like that!” Daisy protested. She whipped around on her stool and gripped hold of her sister’s forearms. Holding her at arm's length, she looked the younger woman directly in the eye and added, “Please, promise me you will never give up your own happiness just to give your mother hers!”
Bertha glanced down for a moment as if she couldn’t bring herself to look Daisy in the eye. Then she finally lifted her gaze again, and a determined expression crossed her face. She nodded firmly and smiled. “I promise.”
“Good. Now that is settled, I suppose we ought to go and meet this Lord Lloyd Bessington before your mother sends one of the poor maids looking for us.”
At dinner, though he was not in attendance as Daisy would have liked, Lord Philip was entirely present in her mind. Sitting sandwiched between her stepmother and Lord Lloyd Bessington, thinking of Lord Philip was perhaps the only thing she could do to stop herself from screaming with frustration. The conversation throughout dinner was boring, with Lady Balfour leading most of it thanks to her husband’s allowing her to do so.
Sitting opposite her, Bertha looked quite sympathetic, and whenever she was not looking apologetically at Daisy, she was glancing at the grandfather clock as if she had somewhere better to be.
Daisy couldn’t help wondering whether perhaps she had made up some plan or other to meet with her groom, Thomas. If she had, she hadn’t enlisted her help, and that worried Daisy. If she weren’t aware of all their plans, then she wouldn’t be able to help if something went wrong.
