“Yes, well, I’ll just allow you two to chat. Seems you may want to apologize to each other after that nastiness over charades. I’d begin with that.” Delilah trotted past Daphne.
“Where are you going?” Daphne called to her cousin. How could the girl even think of leaving now? “I thought we had an agreement,” Daphne added in a singsong voice.
“Nothing has been settled,” Delilah replied in the same singsong voice. “Besides, I’ve never seen a nosebleed before. I must go look.” She swept out the door and shut it behind her.
Daphne crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Rafe, who had entered the room and was even now looking down at her.
“I’m willing to accept your apology,” he said.
“Mywhat! Oh, how magnanimous of you. The only problem is, I haven’tofferedan apology.”
“Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
“You’ll be waiting till Hades has turned to ice. I have no intention of offering an apology.”
Rafe folded his hands behind his back and rocked back on his heels. “That’s exceedingly rude of you.”
Daphne’s mouth fell open. “You just calledmerude?”
“If the bonnet fits. You’re the one who essentially announced to the entire drawing room that I drink too much.”
She tossed a hand in the air. “That’s hardly news.”
Rafe cupped a hand beneath his chin and studied her. “You know what your problem is?”
Arms still crossed, she tapped her fingertips along her elbows. “I’m on tenterhooks to hear this.”
“Your problem is that in addition to being far too judgmental, you’re also far too coddled. Never a blow that hasn’t been softened for you by your family. Never a blow that won’t be softened.”
Daphne clenched her elbows so tightly they ached. “You don’t know anything about my life.”
“I think I do. Your every moment is planned to the smallest detail. Your clothing, your hair, what you’ll wear tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. What you’ll be doing next week and the next. You wrote a list of men to marry, for God’s sake, and scored them.”
“Who told you that?”
“Do you deny it?”
She simmered but kept her mouth firmly shut.
“You pretend to be outraged but if you’re angry it’s because you know there’s truth to what I’m saying. You’re more interested in titles and lineage than happiness.”
“That’s a lie!”
“Is it?” He sauntered over to her and leaned down. He was a scant inch from her face and Daphne’s damned traitorous knees weakened at the scent of him. “Tell me, Lady Daphne. Is my name on that list?”
The door opened again and Delilah stuck in her head. “Daphne, Aunt says to come quickly. Lord Fitzwell’s nosebleed is worsening and they’re discussing having the footmen carry him up to his room.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rafe jumped. Something, or more preciselysomeone,had pinched him. He was standing in the Swifts’ ballroom, wearing his uniform, formally dressed for the ball that was being held tonight in Daphne’s honor. Daphne and Lord Fitzwell’s honor, more precisely, but apparently the man hadn’t quite offered for her yet. Delilah had informed Rafe earlier that the nosebleed had been stopped by some additional pressure with linens after the footmen had carried the bore up the staircase to his room. Too bad.
Who had pinched him? Rafe looked behind him, half expecting to see Delilah grinning up at him. Instead, he found Daphne’s Aunt Wilhelmina waggling her gray eyebrows in a manner he could only describe as unsettling.
“Captain Cavendish?” The older woman’s voice was sharp and accusatory.
“Yes,” Rafe replied, rubbing the offended spot on his rump.
“With you in the room, I have absolutely no heavenly idea why my niece is looking twice at that Fitzwarton fellow.”
