She rubbed her forehead as if she had a headache. “I suppose Dryden will want children.”
“Why didn’t you want them, before?” Daffin prodded.
“It’s difficult to explain, really.”
He leaned back in his seat, making himself comfortable and crossing his booted feet at the ankles. “Try explaining it to me.”
Regina took a deep breath. She traced a fingertip along the edge of the blanket. “I… I never wanted my children to go through what I went through.”
Daffin froze. The answer was so close to his own thoughts about children, it unnerved him. He’d never met another person who’d articulated it to him before. “You don’t want to raise children who might possibly become orphans,” he finally said.
“Precisely,” Regina replied. “I know that must sound mad.”
“On the contrary.” He pressed his lips together. “I know exactly what you mean. I never wanted to sire a child only to have him go through what I went through.”
Regina leaned her head back against the seat. “Your hideous father?”
He nodded. “Among other things.”
Regina touched her foot to his. “But Daffin,you’renot hideous.”
His breath caught. He wanted to shrug off those words, too. “Regardless, it’s always been my fear.”
She pulled her foot away. “Mine, too.”
Daffin leaned to the side and braced himself against the seat on one elbow. “Do you think that fear might have also been what kept you from making a match?”
Regina poked at a curl that had escaped her coiffure. “I’ve never considered it before, but I suppose that may be true.”
“It might explain why you’ve been ‘on the shelf,’ as you said, all these years. You’re the niece of one of the most powerful dukes in the kingdom. You must have had your share of offers.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, and when you’re the niece of one of the most powerful dukes in the kingdom, many fortune hunters come looking for you.”
Daffin studied her face. “Isn’t that to be expected?”
Regina lifted one shoulder, then looked back at him and sighed. “I suppose so. Everyone in thetonknows my parents left me a great deal of money, and with my grandmother’s fortune and my dowry, I’m worth quite a purse.”
“Better than being a pauper, one would think.”
Regina snuggled the blanket up higher. “Perhaps, but at least a pauper knows her husband truly loves her. I’m afraid I’m always suspicious of any man who attempts to court me.”
Daffin studied her face. He’d misjudged her. She might not be used to the kind of crime he saw on a regular basis, but she was savvy. She could see the truth about people. She had a spine of steel. After losing her parents, she’d obviously become toughened to the world to keep from falling prey to fortune hunters. She had reasons to keep men at arm’s length.
“In all these years, you haven’t found one man who wasn’t interested in only your dowry?” He tilted his head to the side. “Given your beauty, I find that difficult to believe, my lady.”
“My beauty?” She flushed.
“You must know how beautiful you are.” He watched her carefully. Her eyelids lowered. “I suppose it’s as you said,” she admitted. “It wasn’t just the fear of falling prey to a fortune hunter. It’s also been the fear of becoming a mother. Though I’ve told myself all these years that love was my goal.”
“Love?”he asked, his voice incredulous.
She laughed out loud, causing Nicole to twist in her sleep. Regina clapped a hand over her mouth. “I mustn’t wake Nicole,” she said in a loud whisper. “But the way you said the wordlovewas so comical. It was as if it were the verbal equivalent of a cockroach on your lips.”
Daffin scratched at his chin and chuckled softly. “I suppose I’m not the biggest believer in love.”
“Perhaps I’m not, either,” Regina said, focusing her gaze out the window once again. “That may be why I’ve yet to find it.”
He lowered his brow. “How did you expect to find a husband in London before Christmas then?”
