“I don’t know if I can change who I am this late in my life,” he finally said.
“Maybe it isn’t a change. Maybe it’s sort of like... trees. Nobody says trees are changing when they sprout new leaves. They’re merely... oh, fully expressing what they are.”
This awkward analogy made him smile. “Like me with my terrible poem.”
“Like you with your brilliant poem.”
Daphne gave a start when a sharp rap sounded at the door.
Funny, she thought, how knocks had personalities. The maid’s knocks were polite and deferential, Mr. Delacorte’s was loud and cheerful. This one sounded like thelawwas at the door.
She was unsurprised to find Captain Hardy on the other side when she opened it.
Behind him, Dot was holding a tray bearing coffee and what must be a tisane.
She stepped aside so this little delegation could enter.
Lorcan immediately straightened warily.
And from out of nowhere a wayward sense of protection surged in her. As though she wanted to put herself between the man on the settee and Captain Hardy.
Captain Hardy said, “I brought whiskey.”
He gestured with a flask in his hand.
Lorcan jerked his chin in her direction. “Give it to her first. She’s had quite a shock.”
He winked at her, very subtly.
Both men were looking at her, eyebrows upraised in a question at her now.
She’d never tasted anything stronger than champagne. “Perhaps a little splash,” she said.
Dot settled the tray and departed, and Daphne poured coffee into the cups. Captain Hardy sprinkled a few drops from the flask in hers and tipped a torrent into Lorcan’s.
They all sipped.
Daphne’s eyes widened. It was at once clear that ratafia had nothing on whiskey.
Lorcan closed his hands around his cup, gulped, and closed his eyes in apparent ecstasy.
Nobody said anything for a while.
Gordon apparently found this lull so uninteresting he plunked down, hoisted his leg, and began urgently licking his privates.
“Fetching bonnet,” Hardy said to Lorcan, finally. He gestured.
Lorcan reached up and touched his shawl turban. “Thank you. My wife made it for me,” he said somberly.
Captain Hardy said to Daphne, “Did he tell you what he did?”
“Mr. Delacorte told me. It was an extraordinarily brave thing to do.”
There was a pause.
“Yes,” Captain Hardy said.
Lorcan and Captain Hardy were still staring at each other from across the room, having one of those complicated silent conversations.
