“Love me?” Everett scoffed. “He didn’t evenknowme.”
“You’re right. He didn’t. Not nearly as well as he should have, and that was his loss as much as it was yours.” Hollibrook laid his hands flat on the table. “Your parents may be dead, and there is nothing that I can do about that. Nothing I can do to repair the damage that your father’s absence did when he was alive. But you’ve a family waiting for you with the Wayward Dukes. You need only reach out to us, and we’ll be there.”
With an uncomfortable tightness in his chest that had nothing to do with abstaining from alcohol the night prior, Everett watched as Hollibrook stood up from the table and walked off to greet a half dozen guests that had just entered the solarium.
Bloody hell.
When Hollibrook had graciously offered up a suite of rooms while his own estate was undergoing renovations, Everett had assumed he was getting a roof over his head and meals in his belly…not a house party and a look inside his head.
He didn’twantto reconcile his past abandonment with his present feelings of inadequacy, and he damned well didn’t want to think about finding a wife.
Not here.
Not anywhere.
And that’s when Daisy White walked in.
* * * * *
“Where are you going?” Rose asked, trailing behind Daisy’s left shoulder as she preceded her family into the solarium where the house party schedule said that breakfast was being served until ten o’clock. “There’s an empty spot right beside Lady Genevieve and Lord Brookfield.”
Daisy flicked a glance at Lord Hollibrook’s children, but did not waver from her chosen path. “You can go over there if you’d like,” she said, turning sideways to fit around a chair. “But I’m going over here.”
“What’s over here?” Rose demanded.
“Him,” Violet said excitedly, jabbing her finger at a table where Everett sat alone, his expression pensive as he gazed at his coffee.
“No pointing,” Mrs. White hissed, grabbing hold of Violet’s elbow. “And do keep your voices down. I don’t feel well enough as it is without listening to your shrieking.”
Mr. White patted his wife’s back. “Would you like to return to bed, dear?”
“Bed? It’s the middle of the morning, Harold!”
“Just a suggestion,” Mr. White said mildly before wandering off in the direction of the fruit bowl.
“You don’t feel well, Mama?” Violet said, fluttering her lashes. “I wonder why that could be?”
Mrs. White raised her nose in the air and sniffed. “I have absolutely no idea. Now, we must be strategic in where we choose to sit. If we get too close to the Duke Cranbrook, we’ll be presumed to be too bold and above ourselves. But if we join the likes of Lady Gatcomb and her brood, we’ll–where is Daisy going?”
“Didn’t she tell you?” Violet asked with a sly grin.
Rose muffled a yawn. “Tell us what?”
“That she has become acquainted with the Duke of Aikens.”
“She’swhat?” Mrs. White squawked.
“No she hasn’t,” Rose scoffed.
“Oh yes, she has. See for yourself.” This time when Violet pointed, her mother didn’t bother to correct her. “See for yourself.”
“This…this is clearly some kind of mistake.” Rose rubbed her eyes, blinked rapidly, then rubbed them again. “That cannot be the Duke of Aikens.”
“It is,” Mrs. White cried, clasping her hands to her breast. “My darling girls, itis. How I’ve prayed for this day! Admittedly, I never thought it would be Daisy that brought pride and acclaim to our family, but you never can tell how these things will play out. No, you never can tell.”
“She’s just talking to him.” If envy was capable of turning a person’s skin green, Rose’s entire complexion would have been emerald. “It’s not as if they’ve announced a courtship, let alone an engagement. This is all a bit pre–”
“Shhh,” Mrs. White said, flapping her arm impatiently at her eldest daughter. “I am trying to overhear my future son-in-law.”
