“Yes, Lucy. Though I must say it feels quite queer to have a duchess acting as my lady’s maid.”
“We must adapt to our circumstances, mustn’t we? Now, stop trying to stall. I’m ever so familiar with that tactic. You’re speaking to the lady who came up with the idea to hire a nonexistent chaperone for Jane Lowndes. In fact, I was explaining the concept to your cousin Delilah earlier. I like that girl. She reminds me of me when I was a child.”
Daphne had to smile at that. “Very well, I’ll explain. But promise me you won’t tell Julian.”
Lucy clucked her tongue. “Of course I won’t tell Julian, but you’re going to tell me. What exactly is going on between you and Captain Cavendish?”
Daphne expelled her breath. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.”
“You are still married to him, aren’t you?”
Daphne groaned. Lucy and Derek had been there last spring when Daphne had announced to Julian and Cass that she was married to Rafe and she needed an annulment. At the time it had seemed logical to tell her brother and his friends all at once. Daphne knew for certain that Julian would tell Cass and Cass would tell Lucy and once Lucy knew, there was little hope of Jane Lowndes and Lucy’s cousin Garrett Upton not finding out. The six of them were as thick as thieves, after all. And all of them could be trusted, but now Daphne wished she hadn’t been quite so loose-lipped. “Yes.” Daphne glanced around. “But please keep your voice down.”
“No one is here.” Lucy pushed a pin into Daphne’s coiffure.
“Ouch.” Daphne rubbed her head.
Lucy bit her lip. “I’m terribly sorry. I never claimed to be good at filling in as a lady’s maid.”
“Oh, Lucy. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”
Lucy stuck another pin back into Daphne’s hair. “You might start by explaining how you came to be alone in here with Captain Cavendish and him kissing you.”
“He wasn’t kissing me. I was kissing him.”
Lucy snorted. “It looked to me as if he was doing a fair amount of the kissing.”
“Heaskedme to kiss him.”
Lucy’s fingers fell away from Daphne’s head. “That’s surprising.”
Daphne slapped her hand to her forehead. “What am I going to do?”
Lucy reached over and squeezed Daphne’s shoulder. “You just so happen to be sitting next to a person who is well versed in both awkward situations and surprising ones. Not to mention scandalous ones. Don’t worry a bit. We’ll figure it out. It’s quite simple, really.”
“How could it possibly be quite simple?”
“You merely have to ask yourself, what do you want?”
Daphne blinked. “What do I want?”
“Yes. What do you want?”
“I…” Daphne tugged at her third finger. “I don’t know what I want.”
“We always know what we want, dear. We usually just don’t want toknowthat we know what we want.”
Daphne furrowed her brow. “That’s exceedingly confusing.”
Lucy smiled at her and resumed her work on Daphne’s chignon. “Allow me to present it another way. Do you want Captain Cavendish?”
“I want to kiss Captain Cavendish. Or at least I did while I was doing it. The whole thing has completely befuddled me.”
“I don’t blame you, dear. The man is positively delicious. And might I suggest you hire Mrs. Bunbury as your chaperone if you intend to go about kissing men who are not your betrothed at house parties.”
