Regina’s eyes darted to the side. She looked anything but convinced that keeping him company was her best option, but she allowed Nicole and Madame Duval to whisk behind the burgundy velvet curtains in the back of the shop without her.
Daffin busied himself by standing guard near the front door to look for any sign of someone watching them. Regina folded her hands behind her back and strolled toward the window that faced the street. She sighed. “Nicole is attempting to play matchmaker, but I want you to know I’ve done all I can to discourage her.”
Daffin smiled. “Did you… tell her about your trip to Bow Street?” he asked, not entirely certain he wanted to know the answer. Damn. Why couldn’t he stop thinking about that proposition? He’d told himself a hundred times to let it go. Obviously, he couldn’t.
“I did,” Regina admitted, biting her lip in that adorable way of hers. “After the fact.”
He winced. “I guessed as much.”
The hint of a smile tugged at Regina’s lips. “She had totalk me out of hiding in my bedchamber for the rest of my days.”
Daffin chuckled. “It wasn’t that awful, was it?”
Regina folded her hands behind her back and took a few steps away. “I quite thought so at the time.”
Daffin kept his gaze trained out the window, still looking for any signs of trouble. It was best to concentrate on his duty instead of Regina’s pretty face. “My apologies. You took me by surprise.”
“I took myself by surprise, too.” She took a deep breath. “Daffin… I… about last night.”
He winced again. “Did you tell Nicole about that, too?”
Regina shook her head. “No. I didn’t. And I don’t intend to.”
He turned toward her. “I want to apologize to you, for what happened last night.”
“I should have told you I was going to the conservatory to meet Lord Morvenwood.”
“No, not that.” Daffin stepped closer to her. “I meant I’m sorry for kissing you.”
Regina straightened and turned away to look out the window. “Yes. You made it quite clear last night that you thought it was a mistake.”
“It was a mistake.” Was she… angry with him for calling it a mistake? She must realize it had been one. “It’s not that I didn’t want to, it’s that I had no right.” Damn it. He was making this worse. Whyhadhe kissed her last night? He asked himself the question for the hundredth time. They’d just got off on the right foot, and then… he’d gone and kissed her. They should only be friends. Like he and Nicole were friends. But Nicole had never flirted with him. Nicole had never propositioned him. Nicole didn’t have ink-black hair hewanted to sink his fingers into. She didn’t have dark blue eyes he wanted to get lost in. Damn it. Not helping.
Regina turned to him and her face softened. “It’s all right, Daffin. I’m glad to know you wanted to. I thought perhaps bymistakeyou meant that you wished you hadn’t.”
“I wish I didn’t want to,” he replied, biting at his lip. “I would hate for Grimaldi to come back and murder me.”
She turned to face him. “He wouldn’t do that. He adores you.”
Daffin arched a brow. “Would he still adore me after knowing I kissed his engaged cousin?”
“Not-yet-engaged cousin,” she corrected, smiling.
“Almost-engaged cousin,” he replied.
Daffin scanned the bustling street again. No one seemed out of the ordinary. No one appeared to be lurking or watching. Who would want to hurt either of these women? The thought raced through his mind for the thousandth time. He glanced over to see Regina stroking a bolt of deep purple velvet. She had crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed them as if she were cold again. She did that often, he’d noticed. It made him want to take off his coat and wrap it around her again, but he couldn’t do that here.
“You know, before Cousin John was murdered, I never thought any sort of crime would ever happen to any of us,” Regina said, her voice strained. “Certainly not something as ghastly asmurder.” She shuddered and glanced down at the floor. “Now… I cannot help but feel as if anything could happen.”
Daffin nodded. It was true, but she shouldn’t have to worry about such things. “I’m sorry to say you’re right, and when it comes to the safety of both you and Nicole, we should take every precaution until we know what is happening.”
She nodded. He’d never noticed how long and gorgeous her eyelashes were.
“My fitting is finished,” Nicole announced, coming out of the back of the shop with Madame Duval in tow. “We can go now.”
Regina whirled around. “That didn’t take long.”
Nicole pulled the strings of her reticule tight. “I only had to try on one gown. The rest will be fitted the same way.”
