Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(28)

“But—”

He tossed her up into the carriage.

She peeked her head out. “Auric—”

He closed the door.

Daisy jerked the red velvet curtains back and glared at him.

And, if the driver hadn’t just then slapped the reins and set the horses into motion, he didn’t doubt that Daisy Meadows would have climbed right back down and told him exactly what she thought of his highhandedness. His lips pulled up in a slow, unfamiliar grin. He stood there, as her carriage disappeared down the road, a faint, black mark in the gray horizon, his cloak soaked from the unrelenting rain.

He’d not realized until this moment just how much he’d missed smiling.





Chapter 6

Seated on the robin’s egg blue sofa in the Blue Parlor, Daisy made quick work of her embroidery. She jerked the crimson thread through the fabric. Well, she made work of it anyway. With a sigh, she paused to assess her sixth attempt at a heart that week. There was some improvement. This one rather resembled conjoined teardrops, which was a good deal better than a dejected circle with a droop in the middle.

She tossed the frame down and came to her feet. The sun’s rays filtered through the opened curtains and illuminated the room in a soft, ethereal glow. Drawn to the warmth, she wandered over to the window and drew the curtain back even further, welcoming the soothing caress of the sun on her cheeks. After days of rain, the thick clouds overhead broke to allow a trace glimpse of sun. Daisy studied the bustling streets below. She’d not found the heart pendant. Of course she’d not been so na?ve to believe she’d manage to find the old gypsy, amidst a sea of gypsies after one rather unproductive afternoon.

Not altogether unproductive. A smile pulled at her lips, while her heart thumped wildly. For yesterday, in the cold, dreary London morn she’d come to a staggering revelation. As much as she’d believed Auric had failed to see her all these years, she was not invisible to him, either. If his connection to her was strictly one of obligation, the moment he’d called and found Mother indisposed and Daisy out, he could have turned on his heel and sought out his clubs or done whatever it was gentlemen did. Instead, he’d set out after her.

Nay, he’d pressed Frederick for details of her whereabouts and then set out after her. If she were being truthful, after years of not being seen, heard, or noticed by anyone, there was something enlivening in the discovery that to those who mattered, she’d not ceased to exist, as she’d believed for so long. Granted he’d been brusque and rude and dukelike, but there had also been those traces of gentleness. Her still-sore hands thrummed with the memory of his fingers upon the soft skin of her palm. Her grinning visage reflected back in the crystal pane.

She spun to face her maid Agnes in the corner. “We’re returning to Gipsy Hill.”

The young woman hesitated. “Are you certain, my lady? His Grace—”

“Come, Agnes,” She didn’t want to hear a word about Auric’s highhanded opinion of her excursions. “The sun is shining.” Out. Shining. It was all really the same. “Gipsy Hill is far more enticing in the sun than a dreary, cold, rainy day.”

“As you say.” Which of course meant Agnes heartily disagreed but was too polite to say as much. With all the enthusiasm of one being marched to the gallows, she climbed to her feet. She cast a dubious glance at the open curtains “I’ll have the carriage readied, my lady,” she announced.

A short while later, Daisy made her way from the parlor to the foyer. Frederick stood in wait, her green muslin cloak in his hands. She eyed him cautiously. “Frederick,” she greeted as she shrugged into her cloak. “I intend to go shopping once more.” She gave him a frown. “To Gipsy Hill.” At one and twenty she’d enjoy the freedom to shop where she would.

The ghost of a smile played on his lips. “Very well, my lady.”

“If a certain…gentle person,” duke “should happen to come by inquiring as to my whereabouts,” which she certainly didn’t anticipate as Auric had put in his requisite visit. “Would you be so good as to not mention where I’ve gone off to?” After all, she’d hardly manage to find the pendant if her efforts were thwarted by both a protective butler and a stubborn fool, too blind to see she was hopelessly in love with him.

“As you wish, my lady.” Frederick inclined his head. He pressed a hand against his heart. “You have my assurance that I shall not breathe a word of your whereabouts to His…er…some gentleman.”

Daisy eyed him a moment in an attempt to gauge his veracity. Frederick had been quite loyal to her through the years. He’d never betrayed her whereabouts to stern governesses, and even, in some instances, when Mother had been in one of her tempers, to the mistress of the house.

He arched a bushy, white eyebrow. “Is there anything else you require, Lady Daisy?”

Just his discretion. “No, that is all.” With a nod, she sailed through the open door and down the handful of steps to the waiting carriage. She accepted the waiting coachman’s assistance into the carriage and settled into the seat across from her maid.

The servant closed the door behind her and then the carriage dipped as he climbed atop his perch. Daisy settled into her seat with a renewed vigor. All these years she’d believed Auric failed to see her. And yet, their last exchange revealed he, in fact, saw her. Mayhap not in the light she hoped. But according to Lady Stanhope, all Daisy required was that pendant. Her lips turned up in a smile. How wonderful it felt to turn herself over to hope. She’d lamented her mother and Auric’s perpetual state of seriousness all these years, but had Daisy truly been any different? With her sad thoughts and agonized regrets, she really wasn’t unlike either of the two remaining people left to her.