Page 31 of The Best of Friends
He shook his head as he crossed to her. “I’m afraid I arrived here already in somewhat sour spirits. It is a poor reflection on me that I’ve not been able to shake that mood despite the delightful evening we are all having.”
Her eyes darted to the open door behind him, in the direction of the drawing room. “Do you think everyone’s enjoying themselves? I’ve never been the hostess of an evening, and I don’t know truly what I’m doing. I want it to be wonderful.” She met his eye once more. “This kind of evening is my favorite: friendly interactions, enjoyable games. To know I could plan one and give that kind of enjoyment to other people would be a dream come true.”
He took her hand in his, the gesture friendly and, on the surface at least, brotherly. Yet when her actual brother took her hand, her heart didn’t flutter as it was doing then.
“It’s been a wonderful evening. Please do not take my poor mood as a reflection on your soiree.” He was reassuring her with his words, but the weight in his eyes was undoing it.
“What’s happened?” she asked. “What has you so weighed down?”
“Nothing of consequence.” He released her hand once more and appeared to try very hard to look his usual bouncy self.
She was not fooled.
“Please tell me what, Toss. I am a good listener. Even my father has said that I am, and he doesn’t offer me many compliments.”
“I don’t know your father, Daria, but there are times I find myself sorely tempted to throttle him.”
It was a shocking thing to say, and yet, rather than feel horrified, she burst out laughing. And her laughter seemed to lighten him. He even chuckled.
She set her hand on his arm. “Tell me what happened,” she requested again. “I might even be willing to grant you a point in our competition if you do.”
“I’ll take that point.” He set his hand on hers, setting her heart fluttering again. “I had dinner last evening with friends of my brother. It was a smaller gathering than this one, and they ended the evening with musical performances. I took Mr. Layton’s advice and sat myself down at the pianoforte to add my offering to the mix.”
She could feel her eyes pull wide with excitement.
“Before you get your hopes up, remember that the ending to this story has me at a perfectly delightful soiree feeling terribly sorry for myself.”
She hadn’t fully thought it through. “Oh dear.”
“Oh dear, indeed.” He sighed a little. “Things were going perfectly well until I caught sight of my brother glaring at me with a particularly disapproving gaze. Suddenly my brain and my fingers stopped communicating. A couple of poorly played notes changed his disapproval to a look that I can only say indicated to all who glanced at him—and plenty did—that he was terribly ashamed at that moment to claim any connection to me. Which upset my equilibrium even more. I haven’t played that poorly in years. My first time doing so in a public setting did not go well.”
The poor man looked ready to sink into the floor. No wonder the musical references and Gillian playing the pianoforte in a ridiculous manner had seemed to sink his spirits further. She had bombarded him with unintended reminders of what must have been a terribly difficult experience.
“I’ve heard you play, Toss. You have a remarkable talent. One attempt that didn’t go as you wished doesn’t change that.”
“But it might very well have ended any hope of convincing my brother to relent on the matter. I had entertained some hope of having a bit of my music in my life once he takes over next year.”
“You could always go to the wilds of Wales to see if my great-aunt Theodosia has a pianoforte you could play. There would be no one there to overhear a sour note.”
“Are you attempting to banish me to some isolated corner of the kingdom?” A little bit of his teasing tone had returned. “I don’t know whether to be offended or rise to the occasion.”
She would say “rise to the occasion” if it meant he would actually go to Anglesey. She sighed a little as she reluctantly stepped past him, knowing she’d been away from the others for too long. Wales would be so very lonely. She simply had to find a means ofconvincing her parents not to send her there.
She walked back to the drawing room, knowing Toss was directly behind her. She worried a little that she would return and find everyone watching her with disappointment because her departure had ruined their fun. They were all gathered together and laughing, though Rose watched her return with curiosity and, it seemed to Daria, a bit of concern.
Artemis waved Daria over. “We are attempting to determine who is winning in the contest between you and Toss.”
“Oh.” Daria sat among them. “Toss did just win a point.”
The looks she got were amused, intrigued, and, in Tobias’s case, pointedly glaring at Toss.
“That needs a clarification,” Toss was quick to say, holding his hands up in a show of innocence.
Daria clasped her hands over her mouth, suddenly realizing that she had unintentionally implied that Toss had been misbehaving.
“I admitted to an embarrassing moment,” Toss said, “one my brother would absolutely not wish to be widely known. Daria kindly suggested that my confession warranted a point.”
Rose was the only one in the group whose eyes didn’t leave Daria. Rose watched her with a very motherly concern. How fortunate they all were to have Rose.
