Loved by a Duke (The Heart of a Duke #4)(34)

She continued down the corridor, toward the sweeping staircase that spilled out into the foyer. Her mother stood silently at the base of the stairs, her blank gaze trained on the wall. Daisy had learned to smile. Her mother, however, had not. She took the steps quickly. “Hullo, Mother.”

Her mother started. “Daisy,” she murmured.

Odd, Daisy had spent the first thirteen years of her life wishing her mother could have been someone other than the consummate hostess who relished any and every ton function. Now, she’d trade her right hand to have that familiar, now missed, woman back.

The butler gave Daisy a quick, supportive smile and then pulled the door open. Her mother stepped outside. Daisy trailed behind to the carriage. She accepted the footman’s assistance with a murmur of thanks. He closed the door behind her and then the spacious conveyance rattled onward toward Lord and Lady Windermere’s townhouse.

“I expect Auric will be there.”

Long accustomed to only her own thoughts and words for company, Daisy’s body went taut. She glanced around a moment.

Then, her mother spoke once more. “It was so wonderful seeing him again. He is always such a dear boy,” Mother continued in a wistful, faraway tone.

Yes. Yes, that was her mother talking. Emotion clogged Daisy’s throat and just then she dared believe that maybe her mother could live again, finding some reason to once again smile. Even if it was for the memory of Lionel’s friendship with the duke. That could be enough, would be enough. For this whispering soft woman was vastly preferable to a silent ghost. “Yes, he is.”

Then her mother shook her head and the blankness fell across her expression, erasing the hint of life.

Daisy shifted her attention out the window at the passing streets. Yes, her life had resumed spinning on its slow, predictable axis but still, for that, she wanted more. She wanted to reclaim Auric, the memory of him anyway. The dream he represented.

Lord and Lady Windermere’s townhouse pulled into focus. Candlelight set the impressive, white stucco structure awash in a soft orange glow. She dropped the curtain back into place when the driver pulled the door open. Her mother made her way out and to the townhouse, with Daisy trailing along behind her.

Daisy picked over the puddles and climbed the handful of steps to the townhouse. A butler pulled the door open and accepted their cloaks. He proceeded to lead them up to the first floor sitting room.

Ten or so of Lady Windermere’s guests had arrived. The woman rushed over to greet the marchioness. While the two exchanged pleasantries, Daisy scanned the opulent space. Her gaze landed on Lady Leticia seated in a neat, little row alongside Daisy’s childhood nemesis, the sisters, Ladies Caroline and Amelia Davidson. Leticia said something that set the other girls giggling.

She sighed. For all the great many aspects of life that changed, the mundane matters continued to march on with a tedious predictableness.

At that moment, Viscount Wessex appeared at Daisy’s side. “Lady Daisy Meadows. It is a pleasure seeing you once again,” he said, ever the charmer.

Daisy smiled. “If your younger self could hear you this moment, he’d be calling you the worst sort of liar.”

His lips tugged at the corners. “But then, we all grow up, don’t we? Life shows us the errors we’ve made and the mistakes.”

“Yes. I suppose that is true.” Unbidden, her gaze wandered off in search of the viscount’s childhood friend.

“I daresay that wistful expression belongs to a lady seeking out a particular gentleman,” the viscount drawled, jerking her attention back. He quirked an eyebrow. “Mayhap the same gentleman you were searching for at the Harrison ball, hmm?”

Heat flooded Daisy’s cheeks. “No.” She gave her head a hard shake. “I wasn’t. That is to say…” His soft, blue eyes glinted with warmth. “Oh, you’re teasing me,” she finished, realizing too late that she’d confirmed a supposition that hadn’t really been any kind of supposition, but rather good-natured teasing merely continued from their last repartee.

“I was teasing you,” he added quietly. “Now I’m asking for altogether different reasons.”

Daisy shifted on her feet. “I don’t prefer you serious and protective. I prefer you—”

“Self-absorbed and uncaring?”

“I was going to say smiling and carefree,” she added dryly.

Lord Wessex lowered his voice. “In this case, it would seem carefree has, in fact, been careless.”

Daisy made a sound of protest. “Do not be silly.” She gave a wave of her hand. “You’ve responsibilities enough of your own with your sister and mother and—”

“And I could certainly have taken some care to note that some bounder had captured your attention.”

“He’s not a bounder.” The look in his eyes indicated she’d stepped very neatly into his trap. “He’s not even real,” she mumbled under her breath, which wasn’t altogether a lie. She may as well be invisible, in the ways that mattered, to Auric.

“Call me a fool,” he whispered. “But do not think me a lackwit who’d believe that weak lie.”

Daisy sighed. She should be grateful for both his and Auric’s concern and, with the rather solitary existence she’d lived since Lionel’s passing, should relish any and every bit of attention thrown her way…and yet, she didn’t want either him or Auric to act out of some misbegotten sense of obligation to her brother. Neither of them would replace him, nor did she want them, too. Particularly not Auric, whose heart she’d decided long ago she must possess.