Those amber eyes suddenly narrowed on her. She was reminded of a snake about to strike.
And yet she realized his anger wasn’t actually directed at her when he snarled, “D’you know how bloody many of you he’s trotted before me?”
It appeared he’d drawn some conclusions of his own, the very one she’d been warned to deny. She wondered if the animosity between father and son went so deep that Daniel would even spite himself just to thwart his father. Or if he’d rejected all the potential brides his father had brought him simply because he refused to be controlled. But did it even matter why he was so lacking in a sense of familial duty? It did if he actually liked her but would still refuse her if he knew Albert had arranged their meeting.
So she mustered a little indignation to say, “He? No one trots me.”
“Don’t lie,” he retorted. “You’re my father’s idea, aren’t you?”
“Actually, my own mother recommended you to me because she thinks so highly of your family. But Mother can only recommend, she can’t control me. To be honest, I’m rather fascinated by you or I wouldn’t be here.”
“Fascinated why? Because I don’t want you? Are you really that vain?”
“Are you really beyond redemption?” she countered.
“I bloody well don’t need redeeming, and you’re barking up the wrong tree if you want conformity,” he retorted.
“Not a’tall. But I do so love a challenge.”
He snorted. “You might be pretty, chit, but I’m already bored with you. Go away.”
She stood up, close to tears. Daniel’s stance, his expression, his every word, told her just how much he disdained her. She made one last attempt, but only because he was still standing there.
She smiled, though it was truly hard to do at that moment, and said wryly, “Benefit of the doubt, etcetera, that you might have been having a bad night—and possibly a bad day? I merely thought we might become better acquainted today—and so we have. Youarestill here talking to me, after all.”
He glared. “You thought wrong. Get out.”
He walked out of the parlor and disappeared into other regions of the mansion. Trying hard to hold back tears, Vanessa asked the butler to tell her mother she was ready to leave. Daniel was impossible. There was no getting around his complete lack of attraction to her, which left her with absolutely nothing to work with.
Kathleen arrived with Lady Margaret, who was wearing that old-fashioned wig again. But they both looked so concerned she started crying.
“He was rude again?” Kathleen guessed as she put an arm around Vanessa’s shoulders.
“Not so much rude as not cordial, but the exact moment he suspected his father had arranged my visit, he got very angry.”
“I was afraid of that,” Margaret said with a frown.
“You were supposed to deny it,” Kathleen reminded her.
“I did. I said it was your idea. But the maggot had still got in his head, so there was no reasoning with him after that and he left.”
Lady Margaret sighed. “I will try to salvage the situation and confirm that your mother dropped the hint to me today that she wouldn’t be opposed to a possible match between our families. It should defuse Daniel’s anger at least.”
Kathleen continued to console her on the ride back to the town house. “If you can get beyond his rudeness and if anger doesn’t get in the way again, there still might be a chance, darling.”
When he simply wasn’t attracted to her? There was no getting around that. Kathleen merely dropped her back at the town house because she had an appointment to meet her friends. But at least the tears had dried by then and her eyes might have stayed dry if Monty weren’t leaving the parlor when she walked in.
He saw her defeated expression and demanded, “What did he do?”
In answer she burst into tears again. He immediately pulled her into the parlor and closed the door before leading her to the sofa. Sitting down next to her, he drew her close to offer his chest to cry on. She took immediate advantage. Just being this close to him was soothing.
“Tell me what that cur said to you and I’ll go throttle him.”
He said it so calmly, gently, as if he were trying to console her or even make her laugh, but it alarmed her instead, and she leaned back from him. “No! I want to marry him.” She railed at herself for being such a disastrous debutante. The one thing she wanted to accomplish this Season she’d failed at—attracting Daniel Rathban. “I don’t know what to do!”
“Nessi, do you really want to settle for a loveless marriage?”
“Yes, if it means my father can come back.”
