Page 29 of Romancing Daphne

“I do.” He knew the moment he spoke the words that they were true. He did like Miss Lancaster. He didn’tloveher, nor did he truly wish to marry her, but he most definitely liked her. “I believe you will like her as well.”

Mother’s concern only seemed to grow. “I do not know that she will take much notice of me. Your father said her sister is a duchess. Duchesses do not care for unimportant people.”

“They will all be very kind to you.” James prayed that proved true. He held out no hope of civility from His Grace, but what he knew of Miss Lancaster told him he could depend upon her kindness. “Rest now, Mother.”

“Will you check on my puppy?”

He nodded his agreement.

“And see if the housekeeper can tell us of a reliable physician?”

He nodded again.

“And where the nearest apothecary can be found?”

“Of course, Mother.” He pulled a light throw from the back of the couch, settling it over her as she lay down once more. “I will see to it all.”

She reached up a frail hand and lightly touched his face. “You’ll make everything right. You always do.”

So he did. Mother’s well-being and Bennett’s future had always been his responsibility. For years, he’d held them all together. He had dedicated himself to caring for his family, to sacrificing for their happiness. That wasforever the role he fulfilled, and it was an often lonely one.

Chapter Eleven

“Are you simply dying, Daphne?”Artemisseemed to hope the answer was yes.“Here you are, being whisked across Town”—she made a sweeping gesture, filling almost the entire interior of the carriage—“to meet the mother of”—a hand pressed to her heart even as she sighed—“your dashing hero.” Her look turned very commiserating.“The hero’s mother isalwaysa dragon, you realize.”

Daphne rested her forehead against her upturned hand. Artemis was on her third round of tragic predictions.

“She will be positively horrid and make you excessively miserable.”Artemis’s eyes pulled wide with excitement. “She might even demand thatyou be thrown from the house and the doors locked.”

“That is quite enough, Artemis.” Persephone generally had a large store of patience when dealing with the youngest of the Lancasters, but she had apparently reached the end of her endurance this time.

“But Daphne will be a tragic heroine. Those are the very best kind. They suffer and pine away in destitution, and some don’t even survive. I would be a tremendous tragic heroine. I would suffer with dignity only to faint dead away and quite possibly never revive.” Artemis made a habit of announcing herself on the verge of expiring. Did she even realize how many times she had, by her own declaration, narrowly escaped death in her fifteen years?“It would be heartbreaking.”

“But not unforeseen.” Adam made the comment under his breath, though Daphne overheard. Artemis might have as well had she not been occupied with positioning herself in a dramatic pose of ultimate suffering on the opposite side of the carriage.

“Artemis.” Persephone attempted to gain the girl’s attention.“Artemis.”

She looked up at last.

“Do attempt to act mature enough to warrant the invitation you have received,” Persephone said, a rare show of correction on her part. A bond existed between the oldest and youngest Lancaster sisters that none of the others shared. Daphne certainly had never been the favorite that Artemis was.“Lady Techney did not have to include you.”

Artemis pulled out her brilliant smile.“I know how to behave in public.”

“Adam knows how to dance the minuet,” Persephone pointed out. “That doesn’t mean he actually does.”

“I also don’t attend dinner parties,” Adam grumbled. “But here I am.”

Daphne sincerely hoped he meant to be at least a little cooperative. She wanted to make a good impression on James and his family. If Adam spent the entire dinner glaring everyone into terrified silence, the whole evening would be for naught.

The landau pulled to a stop at Techney House. A lump formed inDaphne’s throat.The hero’s mother is always a dragon.Daphne usually dismissed Artemis’s dramatic declarations. That particular observation hit too close to the mark though. She wanted to believe James Tilburn’s mother was as kind and caring as he.

They were handed out of the carriage in succession, and when Daphne emerged, she glanced up at the house’s façade with a growing sense of trepidation. Falstone Castle was far bigger and more imposing than Techney House, built almost entirely of stone, isolated in the midst of a thick, planted forest inhabited by a pack of formidable feral dogs. Yet the castle felt far more warm and inviting than this grand house did. Techney House felt empty in a way not at all physical.

The Techney butler received them with the correct degree of propriety. Not a single fault could be found with the entryway nor the state of the floors. Even the flowers on the narrow table were fresh and flawlessly arranged. The orderliness of it was reassuring, even as the perfection proved quite the opposite.

During her morning calls with Persephone, a social expectation her sister had seldom permitted her to skip, Daphne had more than once overheard comments questioning James’s motivations. Why, people had asked behind their hands, would a gentleman suddenly take up a whirlwind courtship with a girl so wholly unconnected with his family? Her dowry had come up often in those discussions, as had the likelihood of her acerbic guardian forcing the match to rid his hands of her.

She had borne the curious looks and whispered evaluations with the stoic endurance Adam had taught her more than half a decade earlier. In her heart, however, she couldn’t help but worry a little.

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