“Hummel must be about to burst,” Dahlia whispered to her sister.
“I’mabout to burst,” Danielle replied. “Our sister is aduchesswith four of the most beautiful children on the planet. I once wondered what it might be like to marry Lord Tiberius,” she admitted, referring to the heir to the Huntington dukedom. She grimaced. “And now I learn he’s my... mynephew?” she wailed.
“I had my eye on Lord Augustus,” Dahlia countered, a glare going to the ghost of her father as she realized Tiberius’ younger brother was also her nephew. “Eww.”
“I would have put a stop to any hint of courtship,” Clarinda said on a sigh. “But I’m quite sure Huntington would have beaten me to it.”
“For many years, he was the only one who knew,” David murmured. “He kept Isabella at Huntinghurst as his ward, completely unaware she was seeing to restoring his stables to their former glory.”
Dahlia suddenly straightened. “Vindication,” she murmured. “Mr. Winston said he came from the Huntington stables.”
“He did indeed,” David acknowledged. “You have your older sister to thank for his perfect breeding. For why it was you didn’t need saving when you let him have the rein this afternoon.” He sighed. “But I must admit to a moment of exhilaration when Lord Breckinridge rode up next to you, with no regard for his own life, and wrapped his arm around your waist, and pulled you onto his brave Irish walker,” he said on a sigh. “Such a display of gallantry. Chivalry—”
“Stupidity,” Dahlia whispered. “I was fine!” she said in a louder voice, Hummel be damned. “I didn’t need saving.”
“Buthedidn’t know that,” Clarinda said as she knelt before her daughter. “He could have died doing what he did, Dahlia. Does that count for nothing with you?”
Dahlia blinked. She swallowed. She blinked again and allowed a long sigh. “It was rather exhilarating,” she admitted after a time. “And he smelled so good. Like limes and sandalwood.”
“Andrew smells like that,” Danielle said on a sigh. “And he tastes like...” She stopped, well aware there were three sets of eyes suddenly fixed on her. “What?”
Clarinda grinned. “So, he kissed you,” she said as her brows waggled. “Did you... enjoy it?” she asked, her happy countenance quiet at odds with what a mother should be displaying upon learning her daughter had been kissed.
Danielle opened her mouth to reply, but David stepped forward and said, “I think she did, but she was so surprised and so determined not to be moved by Andrew’s advances, she refused to consider how much she might appreciate having him as a husband.”
Scoffing, Danielle was about to put voice to a protest but instead only sighed. “What of it?”
“What did you tell him?” Clarinda asked, still kneeling before her daughters.
Danielle furrowed her brows. “I told him I would think about it, even as I had already decided I wouldn’t. That I would eventually turn him down.”
“But why?” David asked in surprise, a hint of anger in his query. “He has loved you his entire life. He’s only ever thought ofyouto be his wife. He wants to take you to Europe on your wedding trip. When I learned that particular bit of information, I gave him permission to kidnap you.”
Blinking several times, Danielle seemed to melt into the loveseat. “Marrying him would be like marrying my brother,” she whispered, not about to react to his comment about kidnapping.
Andrew wouldn’t do such a thing.
Dahlia made a sound of disgust. “Would not,” she countered. “It would be like marrying your best friend.”
Danielle angled her head to one side. “Agreed.” She furrowed a dark brow. “Isn’t that... wrong?”
Sighing, Clarinda struggled to her feet, glancing up at David when he hurried to assist her. “Sometimes marrying your best friend is the very best you can do in life,” she whispered.
Tears once again streamed from Danielle’s eyes. “You say that as if you were best friends,” she accused, her gaze darting between her mother and the ghost.
“Oh, we weren’t,” Clarinda replied. “I was referring to... to Graham Wellingham and Hannah, Baroness Harrington, who I think shall finally be marrying despite two decades of separation,” she said on a happy sigh.
“Emily Grandby and James Burroughs,” David put in, referring to the youngest daughter of Gregory Grandby and the oldest surviving son of Lord Andrew Burroughs. When three sets of rounding eyes settled on him, he added, “I know things.”
“The Torringtons,” Clarinda said on a happy sigh. “Milton Grandby and Adele Slater knew each other from the time they were children, and they finally wed after Adele was widowed.”
“That’s because Milton was a coward,” David whispered.
Clarinda gave him a quelling glance. “But he managed to father children who have been raised with an appreciation for doing their duty.”
Dahlia and Danielle, friends with the Grandby twins, both rolled their eyes at this comment. “We werethere, Mother,” they said in unison, referring to the night William Grandby, Viscount Hexham, had proposed to Anne Wellingham, only daughter of the Earl of Trenton, and Angelica Grandby had accepted an offer of marriage from Sir Benjamin Fulton, probable heir to the Wadsworth earldom.
“I dolikehim,” Danielle admitted after a quiet moment. “Andrew, I mean.”
