She turned back to the cabinet to continue inspecting its contents.
“Everyone needs a place like that.”
“Where was your place, Duchess?” Daniel moved behind her to look over her shoulder.
“A small shed tucked in the forest behind my father’s home.”
She had a shed to hide in while he had a whole museum. “Well, now you can share my museum.”
She didn’t look at him but he heard her softly spoken words. “I’d like that.”
“Now I think we should leave the rest for another day.” Daniel took her arm and started propelling her toward the exit before she found something else to inspect.
“Must we? I am sure there is still time before closing, and I wanted to see everything,” Eva batted her eyelashes at him, then licked her lips for good measure.
“That only works in the bedroom, and yes, we must,” Daniel ignored her pleading, instead taking her hand in his. “We will stop at Gunthers for an ice and you can have another first,” Daniel said, which mollified her slightly.
She’d lost her inhibitions in the museum and chattered like a small child the entire carriage trip, telling him all the things she had seen, which, naturally, he had also seen, but Daniel did not remind her of that fact. Instead, he simply listened. She made him feel young again, less jaded. Here and now the shadows he often saw in her eyes had vanished and the secrets he was sure she still hid from him were, for a while, forgotten.
“You should probably draw a breath before you pass out, wife,” Daniel drawled as she launched into another detailed description of a statue.
Hers was lemon; his, rum, and they ate their ices seated at a small table in the shade of a tree. Around them, other people were engrossed in the same activity. Only the occasional hum of conversation could be heard as everyone enjoyed their delicious treats.
“This is surely the food of angels, Daniel.” Eva sighed as she took another lick of the treat.
“I fear I am setting you up with several vices, Duchess.”
“Ahhhh, but what a vice, Duke.”
“Did you have any visitors this morning?” Daniel watched the smile fall from her face and her eyes flit away. She lowered her lashes to hide her expression from him. Damn her bloody family. Wernham had told him about the visit from her father and how Winchcomb had threatened Eva. His first instinct had been to go round to the man’s house and beat him to a pulp, but he had restrained himself and decided to speak with her first.
“Visitors, Daniel?” Eva was looking everywhere but at her husband.
“Namely your father.”
“Wernham promised me he wouldn’t tell you.”
“He didn’t. I just knew he had something to say because he followed me around the house talking incessantly until I threatened to thrash him if he didn’t tell me what was on his mind.”
“My father simply called on me to see if I was all right.”
They both knew that was a lie and Daniel wondered why, as she had last night with Huxley, she was protecting her father now.
“I’m not sure why you’re defending him or Huxley, Eva, but it does not sit comfortably with me.”
Her eyes shot to his and then back to her hands.
“Th-they are no threat to me now.”
Neither of them believed that, either.
“Your father and Huxley will always be a threat to you if you let them, Duchess. Therefore you must come to me with any attempts from either of them to hurt or threaten you.”
She didn’t respond to that comment, but he saw the tension in her shoulders. She was no longer the laughing, relaxed companion of minutes before.
“I should not have found out about your father’s visit from our butler, Eva. You should have told me,” he said, giving her a look that spoke volumes about his disappointment in her.
“I have no wish for you and my father to confront each other, Daniel.”
