Page 26 of The Best of Friends
The polite applause he received rang with more pity than approval. Even Mrs. Brinley’s words of gratitude for his offering were given with a look of condolence.
As Toss retook his seat, he knew two things with utter surety: he’d hurt his cause with Laurence, and he had just earned a point in his game with Daria. A point he was not terribly happy about.
***
Daria came to a very important conclusion during the poetry evening at Lord and Lady Aldric’s home: she wanted to host a gathering ofherfriends. And she was determined to do so before Gillian left London, which afforded her only a matter of days.
Her parents were unlikely to be enthusiastic about her request to hold the soiree at their home. Neither did she expect them to be easily persuaded to allow her to dictate the details of the evening she wished to plan. She would not ordinarily suggest something so likely to annoy them, especially since her presence in London had already caused them bother. Indeed, she usually avoided time with her parents as much as possible.But she wanted so badly to host a gathering. And doing so meant she would earn a point. She might actually earntwo: one for hosting the gathering and the other for bothering her parents with the details of it. She had not expected when she and Toss had devised this game that it would give her courage in moments when she needed it.
Toss was such a wonderful friend. He’d been so kind to her from the very beginning of their acquaintance. And he never treated her like she was dim-witted, no matter that she often provided evidence to the contrary. She would miss the Huntresses when she was not in London in the years to come, but she would also misshim.
The thought stopped her in the corridor as she approached the drawing room. She wouldn’t get to see Toss when she was relegated to the family’s country estate. An acute ache radiated through her heart. She might not ever see him again. Daria swallowed the lump that swelled in her throat. How could she bear years on end without being able to laugh with him, never again inventing delightfully absurd games?
No. She would win their current competition, and the gentlemen would be required to make certain she attended the next house party they planned with the Huntresses. She had that promise, that hope to lean on. But that meant earning as many points as she could.
Her parents were in the sitting room, each engaged in quiet and separate pursuits: Father reading a newspaper and Mother focused on her embroidery. They did not like being interrupted, and she usually took pains not to do so. Some people enjoyed spending time with her parents. Daria couldn’t remember a time when she had. Being away from them was usually a relief rather than a reason for sadness.
She stepped into the sitting room. “Father? Mother?”
“Is this likely to take long, Daria?” Father asked, slowly flipping a page of his newspaper.
“Not long at all,” she said. ”Might I be permitted to have the Huntresses come to the house tomorrow evening for a little gathering?”
“We are engaged elsewhere tomorrow evening,” Mother said, then, with an air of explaining something to a child, she added, “It would be impossible to be here and where we have already committed ourselves to be.”
“You needn’t remain here. Gillian, Ellie, and Artemis are all married and would be considered more than adequate chaperones for the unmarried people.” She could see Mother grow more tense with each word and quickly moved forward with the reassurance she suspected was needed. “I will make all the arrangements for the evening myself. Neither of you would need to expend any effort.”
“Planning an evening is not a simple thing.” Mother spoke as if she were offering Daria a brand-new piece of information.
Never mind that Daria had, in fact, done a great deal of work salvaging Mother’s soiree the Season before when so much of Mother’s planning had fallen through.
“I’ll ask Artemis to help me. She has planned ever so many gatherings.” Daria didn’t think she would actually have struggled to organize such a simple thing. The Huntresses and Toss’s friends required so little to enjoy their time together. Rather than belabor the point, she shifted the approach that had convinced her parents on such matters in the past. “Tobias can be the host of the evening. That is certain to boost his standing amongst the young gentlemen. But he wouldn’t need to do any of the work, which would leave him time to continue building important connections.”
“Is Tobias interested in such an evening?” Mother asked.
“I think he would thoroughly enjoy himself.”
Father raised his paper once more, apparently having lost interest in the topic.
“I suppose it is not a terrible idea,” Mother said. “And there will be no soirees at your aunt Theodosia’s home, so allowing you an additional one while you’re here would be a kindness.”
“Are we visiting Great-Aunt Theodosia?” She lived in the wilds of Anglesey.
“No, Daria,” Father said from behind his paper. “Weare not visiting.Youare going to live there after this Season. Theodosia is getting older and needs looking after, and with the two of you being spinsters, the arrangement makes perfect sense.”
Live there? In Anglesey? She had heard nothing of this. Surely they wouldn’t send her so far away. Surely they could be convinced otherwise. “I am not a spinster. Not truly. I am only twenty-one.”
“With no prospects.” Mother shook her head. “And though you have had a dowry to tempt gentlemen with, there has been no interest for three Seasons now, no matter the high connections of your friends.”
Daria bit back the observation that Mr. Colm Greenberry had seemed to like her well enough, and that Toss had called her brilliant and had been impressed with her contributions to their poems and smiled sweetly at her. Mother and Father would certainly have a dismissive response to that, and she’d not be able to think of a counterargument quickly enough. And if she weren’t very careful, they would manage to confuse her enough that she might inadvertently agree with their scheme regarding Great-Aunt Theodosia or convince them to send her away now instead of at the end of the Season.
“A soiree with your friends, if Tobias’s newest acquaintances are included to make it helpful for him, can be permitted,” Father said. “But do not expect us to twist ourselves in accommodating knots for the remainder of the Season.”
“I won’t. And thank you.” Daria offered an abbreviated curtsy before spinning and speeding from the room, determined to make her exit before her parents changed their minds.
In the corridor, she allowed herself to breathe, though she struggled a little to do so. Her parents weren’t likely to jest about sending her away. They did intend to relegate her to Wales and Great-Aunt Theodosia’s imperious company. And Daria had very little time in which to thwart those plans.
Rose had told her she had choices, that she needed to decide what she wanted to do and be. She’d made one of those choices—to ask for permission to host a soiree—and it had proven successful. That gave her hope that her next choice—to avoid Anglesey—could be successful as well.
