AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And if you do not, society will merely regard her as another one of your cast-offs. A woman you were vaguely interested in before you tossed her aside the way you do with your dress shirts.”
His blood ran cold at his mother’s words.
“Dammit!” he swore.
“Language, Daniel!” she admonished him. “You might be a grown man, but I will not tolerate such foul language in my presence!”
“Sorry, Mother,” he apologized with a sheepish look. He stood up and started pacing restlessly in the salon, his handsome features carved into an unreadable expression.
“Daniel?”
“Hmm?”
“Why can’t you marry the young lady you so clearly love?”
He turned to her with anguish clearly written all over his features. “Can’t you see, Mother? I will only make her unhappy. I will only cause her pain, and that is something I cannot bear to do!”
His mother stood up and held his face gently in her hands. “And that is the very reason why you are the best man for her—because you are so afraid of breaking her heart that you would rather break yours.” She smiled sadly at him. “You are not your father, Daniel. You are the farthest thing from the man that he was.”
He closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were filled with steely resolve.
* * *
When Melissa sailed into the dining hall at her usual time, she found only her aunt sipping delicately at her tea with a soft smile on her face. The Dowager Duchess had always presented such a calm and serene figure, but on this particular morning, there was an unbridled smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes.
“Bonjour, Aunt Joyce!” the young woman greeted her aunt cheerfully. She sat down and served herself a slice of honey cake. “Has my dear cousin been indulging in the evils of alcohol again?”
The Dowager Duchess smiled mysteriously. “I gather he won’t be doing so again for an indefinite period of time, my dear.”
“Good!” Melissa bit into her honey cake with a nod of approval. As insufferable as he was, Daniel was far worse company when he was foxedandornery.
“Not if he wants to secure the most important deal in his entire life.”
Stunned, Melissa looked at her aunt with wide eyes. “You cannot mean to say—”
The Dowager Duchess nodded simply.
“He did it! He actually manned up!” the young lady crowed. “You arebrilliant, Aunt Joyce! How did you ever manage to knock some sense into that thick head of his?”
Any other guardian would have been appalled by Melissa’s behavior and her choice of words, but the Dowager Duchess must have been in quite a celebratory mood as she made no effort to reprimand her niece.
“Oh, it was quite simple,” she laughed softly. “I merely showed him that it was in his beloved’s best interests if he did right by her.”
“That is what I told him before, but he would not listen to me!” Melissa complained. “But I supposeyouhave your ways of dealing with him.”
“I suppose I do, being his mother and all,” the Dowager Duchess shrugged delicately. “Now, do mind your manners at the table, dear Melissa. How are we ever going to find you a suitable match if you carry on like this?”
“Aunt Joyce!”
CHAPTER24
Daniel hardly slept a wink.
At the earliest possible hour, he had roused Percy from his slumber and instructed his valet to dress him as best as the valet could. When his valet had looked at him with a mildly confused expression on his face, Daniel’s mere explanation had been that he was about to close the greatest merger in his entire life.Thatseemed to snap Percy out of his stupor, and within minutes, the Duke of Gilleton was ready to meet the Marquess of Rutbridge.
It would seem, however, that the Marquess was not quite ecstatic to meet him—which was understandable, considering his appalling behavior towards his daughter. Daniel was even under the impression that Emily’s father was perhaps deliberating whether he should let him in at all as he was forced to wait in the doorstep like an absolute fool for nearly half an hour before the surly butler finally opened the door for him.
My staff would never be so rude, he thought to himself. But then again, he realized that it was not due to a lack of discipline in the staff of the Montgomery townhouse that left him standing in the cold. Rather, it was their great loyalty to the Marquess of Rutbridge and their beloved Lady Emily that had them treating Daniel so.
