The Irresistible Rogue (Playful Brides #4)(23)

“No one is here.” Lucy pushed a pin into Daphne’s coiffure.

“Ouch.” Daphne rubbed her head.

Lucy bit her lip. “I’m terribly sorry. I never claimed to be good at filling in as a lady’s maid.”

“Oh, Lucy. I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”

Lucy stuck another pin back into Daphne’s hair. “You might start by explaining how you came to be alone in here with Captain Cavendish and him kissing you.”

“He wasn’t kissing me. I was kissing him.”

Lucy snorted. “It looked to me as if he was doing a fair amount of the kissing.”

“He asked me to kiss him.”

Lucy’s fingers fell away from Daphne’s head. “That’s surprising.”

Daphne slapped her hand to her forehead. “What am I going to do?”

Lucy reached over and squeezed Daphne’s shoulder. “You just so happen to be sitting next to a person who is well versed in both awkward situations and surprising ones. Not to mention scandalous ones. Don’t worry a bit. We’ll figure it out. It’s quite simple, really.”

“How could it possibly be quite simple?”

“You merely have to ask yourself, what do you want?”

Daphne blinked. “What do I want?”

“Yes. What do you want?”

“I…” Daphne tugged at her third finger. “I don’t know what I want.”

“We always know what we want, dear. We usually just don’t want to know that we know what we want.”

Daphne furrowed her brow. “That’s exceedingly confusing.”

Lucy smiled at her and resumed her work on Daphne’s chignon. “Allow me to present it another way. Do you want Captain Cavendish?”

“I want to kiss Captain Cavendish. Or at least I did while I was doing it. The whole thing has completely befuddled me.”

“I don’t blame you, dear. The man is positively delicious. And might I suggest you hire Mrs. Bunbury as your chaperone if you intend to go about kissing men who are not your betrothed at house parties.”

Daphne shook her head. Mrs. Bunbury was Jane’s fictitious chaperone, whom she’d used to fool her mother last spring when she’d attended Cass and Julian’s wedding house party. “I have no intention of employing Mrs. Bunbury. I don’t need her. It’s not as if I could marry Rafe. He’s completely unsuitable and—”

“I do believe you’re forgetting that you’re already married to him, dear.”

Daphne sighed. “Yes, but we’re not married, married. Not really. And Julian’s already agreed to help me with the annulment as soon as we—”

“As soon as you what, dear?”

Daphne leaned her neck against the settee and blew out a long breath. “I’m so confused.”

Lucy pushed another pin into place. “I know all about confusing kisses. Derek once punched a tree, climbed into my window, and kissed me. I had no idea what to do.”

Daphne pressed a hand to her still-warm cheek. “What? That seems ever so much more complicated than my little kiss in the library tonight.”

“It wasn’t little, my dear. And I might further point out that you kissed a man at your supposed engagement party. But you’re missing the point. What about Lord Fitzwell? Do you want him?”

Daphne thought about it for a moment. “I can’t say I’ve imagined kissing him. But I do want him to ask me to marry him. At least I think I do.”

Lucy’s hands fell away from Daphne’s coiffure again and Lucy eyed her closely. “You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

“Entirely certain?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then. Problem solved. Don’t get yourself alone with Captain Cavendish again and don’t kiss him again. Lord Fitzwell is sure to propose. He hasn’t done so yet so there is absolutely no harm done. Think of it as a last moment of being unattached. And your hair is set to rights again, by the by.”

For the first time since Lucy had entered the room, Daphne smiled. “Yes. Yes. That’s just what I’ll do. It meant nothing. It was completely harmless, really. Thank you, Lucy. Thank you!”

“It’s my pleasure, dear.”

Daphne tugged at her bottom lip. “I do think he only asked me to kiss him as a prank. It went too far, that is all. He didn’t believe I had the courage to do it.”

“I think he knows you well enough to know you have courage in spades, Daphne. But at any rate, clearer heads often prevail when one thinks things through rationally.”

“Yes. I quite agree. The good news is that now that I’ve kissed him, he’s agreed to leave.”

“Really?” Lucy arched a dark brow over her blue eye.

Daphne nodded. “That’s right.”

“Well, then. It’s all sorted.” Lucy patted Daphne’s hand again.

Sorted until Daphne was left alone with him on the True Love for a sennight. But that wasn’t the point at the moment and she wasn’t about to tell the Duchess of Claringdon about her scandalous mission. All of that could be sorted later. At the moment, Daphne was merely desperate for Rafe to leave so that she could progress with her engagement. It was true that she was normally not one to make plans or follow rules, but she had a plan at present, by God, and the man was disturbing it. Check one, get rid of pesky husband. Check two, ensure engagement to handsome, titled, eligible bachelor. Check three, help to exact revenge upon the men who killed Donald. Check four, secure annulment. Check five, return to Mayfair, marry said eligible bachelor, and live a long, happy life with a blue-eyed son and blond daughter. Both of whom would hopefully be considerably taller than their poor mother.