Page 49 of The Best of Friends
“I have been falling in love with him all Season, more every time I see him. But he’s my friend.”
Artemis shrugged. “Charlie and I developed a friendship before we felt anything beyond. It was the way in which we came to know each other and grew close enough to fall in love.”
“I referred to him before you came into the room as my friend, and he seemed completely satisfied with that description.” Daria watched Toss a moment as, across the room, he continued his conversation with the other two gentlemen. “I could fall desperately for him; I know I could. But what if all he ever feels for me is friendship?”
“Do you think that is all he feels now?”
Daria wasn’t certain how to answer. He’d not obviously indicated anything more than friendship. But she had thought he’d meant to kiss her. At least, that was how she had interpreted things, but she knew better than to place too much reliance on her own evaluative skills.
“I hadn’t meant to plunge you into turmoil.” Artemis leaned forward and squeezed Daria’s hand. “None of these questions have to be answered immediately.”
“‘Borrowing trouble’ is what Gillian always calls it,” Daria said. “I do wish she could have stayed in London, at least until Nia and Eve have to return to Ireland.”
“Do you get the impression this Season that there is something the two of them aren’t telling us?” Artemis asked.
Daria nodded. “Eve in particular has offered some oddly evasive answers, particularly to questions about future gatherings. I haven’t been able to make any sense of it.”
“I vowed when I began assembling our fearless band that I wouldn’t pry into anything any of you didn’t wish for me to,” Artemis said. “All of you regularly make that a difficult promise to keep.” Her look of annoyance held a significant amount of amusement.
“If you want a chance to pry, I could use some help guessing who the young lady is that Tobias is hoping I will include in my guest list for the musicale. He won’t tell me who she is but says he means to check to see if her name is there.”
Artemis’s eyes grew wide, and her smile tugged upward. “Won’t that be fun to sort out?”
Daria was feeling a little better. She was clearly not hiding her tender feelings for Toss, and that was a risky thing. He was her friend, regardless of what else she might wish him to be. That was worth safeguarding. She would watch and wait and do her utmost to make sense of it all.
Chapter Nineteen
Toss had played “O, Dear!What Can the Matter Be?” so many times over the course of his life that he no longer had to think about which notes came after which. Indeed, as he sat at the pianoforte at Lampton House, he added flourishes and additional trills to the tune simply to entertain his fingers. Watching his friends attempt a country dance in the sitting room kept the rest of him fully entertained.
Mater had invited the Huntresses and Toss’s group of friends, along with Tobias and Colm Greenberry, who both appeared to now be a permanent part of their group, to spend an evening together away from the whirl of Society.
“The elder Mr. Comstock would certainly never suggest such a thing,” Mater had added slyly, inspiring laughter from the entire group. She and Mr. Layton had continued helping their chosen participants scheme and plan for eventual triumph, adding a tremendous amount of humor to the undertaking.
Mater sat not far distant, watching Charlie with unmistakable amusement and fondness. He, true to form, had taken the idea of a simple country dance and turned it into a performance worthy of any court jester. It was chaos and hilarity and a sharp reminder to Toss of all he missed about being at Cambridge with his friends.
Yet it wasn’t Charlie and his antics that continually drew Toss’s eye; it was Daria. The chaos introduced into the dance meant everyone regularly bumped into everyone else. And while they all took it good-naturedly, Daria smiled broadly and laughed with such ease and such delight. The soul-deep joyfulness of her drew him in more every time he saw her, every time he was with her.
I should have kissed her. The less logical part of his mind had insisted on that from almost the moment Charlie had interrupted their attempt at a dance. He was all but certain, when he was thinking clearly, that kissing her would have been a monumental mistake. He didn’t know her thoughts and feelings. He had no future to offer her, which made kissing her the behavior of a cad. It would have been a mistake. A wonderful, heart-stopping mistake.
The weaving and movement of the dance put Daria into partnership with Colm. He danced that portion with Daria, executing every step perfectly and brilliantly even with Charlie’s efforts to upend them, and then Colm made an admittedly funny show of being proud of his executed steps, which only encouraged Charlie’s antics even more.
Soon enough, everything descended into chaos once more, with laughter plentiful in the room.
“I give up,” Daria said, grinning but breathless as she abandoned the dance and sat, to his delight, in the chair next to the pianoforte. “This dance is like being the pins in a game of lawn bowls. I believe I will sit here away from it all.”
“I’ll not complain,” Toss said, not missing a single note.
“Spoil-sport!” Eve O’Doyle declared but so good-naturedly and with such obvious laughter that no one could possibly take offense.
“Artemis says there is always laughter in the homes of the Jonquils,” Daria said. “I like that idea very much.”
“When I am with Rosamond, there is laughter and happiness,” Toss said. “Provided Laurence isn’t anywhere nearby,” he added dryly.
“And no music when he is anywhere nearby either.” Daria shook her head, a clear expression of disapproval in her eyes. “How anyone would want to prevent you from playing the pianoforte, I will never understand. Even playing something very commonplace, you make it special by adding such interesting additional bits to it.” She gave him an apologetic look. “I don’t know the technical terms for doing that.”
“Few people do who haven’t studied it, Daria.”
She gave a quick nod. “I will not hold that against myself.”
