And the Miss Ran Away With the Rake(38)

“Dishforth is close at hand,” Daphne said, happy to have someone to confide in, even if it was just Mr. Muggins. “He’s here, within these walls.”

That very thought should have been enough to bolster her spirits, but there was one other consideration.

While Dishforth may indeed be at Owle Park this very moment, so was Lord Henry Seldon.

Daphne pressed her lips together and sighed. Wretched, awful man.

She couldn’t help it. Every time she thought of him, she reminded herself that he was exactly that.

A wretched, awful man.

Speaking of the devil, his deep voice sputtered from the doorway. “Oh, good God! What are you doing here?”

Daphne and Mr. Muggins both looked up to find the very fellow standing in the doorway.

“Lord Henry.” Daphne tipped her head slightly in greeting, while inside her thoughts clattered about like a shop bell.

Whatever was he doing up so early? She had assumed that when they—she, along with Lady Essex, Harriet and Lady Essex’s nephew, the Earl of Roxley—had arrived so late the night before and there had been no sign of him, he’d most likely already been engaged in whatever rakish and devilish exploits a man of his reputation and proclivities pursued.

For some reason the very notion of him with another woman piqued her in ways she didn’t like to consider.

Instead, she’d lent her consideration and pity toward the poor deluded lady who was the object of his attentions.

But that didn’t explain what he was doing up so early and looking as if he was in top form—brushed and dressed, his gaze sharp and piercing. Hardly the appearance of a man who’d been out carousing the hours away.

“Miss Dale, where did you come from?” he demanded as he came into the room and stopped at the far end of the table.

“London,” she replied smoothly, despite the flutter of emotions inside her at the sight of him. “Don’t you recall, we met there but a week ago.”

He flinched. “I had heard you declined Preston’s invitation,” he replied, glancing around the empty room and frowning.

She wasn’t any more pleased to be alone with him than he was. “I changed my mind.”

“Of course you did,” he said, looking ready to throw up his hands in despair . . . or throw her out.

Daphne reached for Mr. Muggins and tried to look braver than she felt. Whyever did this man leave her so . . . so . . . undone? And certainly she couldn’t let him inspire another scene like the one that had transpired at the engagement ball.

No, no, that would never do.

Stealing another glance at him, with his brow furrowed, his blue eyes dark with something she suspected was not a welcoming light, she thought it might help to remind him of her position here. “I know Tabitha will be ever so glad to see that I was able to come down with Lady Essex.”

As she suspected, Lord Henry looked ready to cast up his accounts at the mention of the spinster’s name.

But the devilish man wasn’t completely undone. Composing himself quickly, arms crossed over his chest as if he hadn’t the least notion what she was talking about, he said, “And your family? They approve of you being here? I’d think they’d be up in arms.”

Now it was Daphne’s insides that quaked. “Not in the least,” she lied. “They trust I will not be tempted by your family’s notorious predilections.” Pausing for a moment to look again at his handsome features, she added hastily, “Which I won’t.”

“Thank God for small favors,” he shot back, his deep tone ruffling down her spine with its rich notes of irony, while his gaze raked over her and dismissed her all at once.

“Are there more Dales due to come after you?” he asked, having obviously warmed to his subject: her removal. “A rescue effort so to say? Should we expect the odd catapult to be wheeled over from Langdale?” he said, making light of the Dale property that adjoined Owle Park.

The property resided in by Crispin, Viscount Dale.

That was the one snag in all this. Crispin. She just needed to avoid him. Which would be easily done, since he would never set foot on Seldon land.

Unlike her.

Daphne felt a frisson of guilt but once again pushed it aside. There was more at stake here than deeply held family obligations.

“No, I hardly think that will be necessary,” she said. “I don’t believe my stay will be overlong.”

“No?” Good heavens, he needn’t sound so hopeful.