Page 82 of The Best of Friends
With Toss at her side and Artemis a half step ahead, Daria walked from the music room, across the entryway, and to the door of the drawing room. She hesitated. Neither of her companions pushed her to keep walking, nor did they seem disappointed in her for taking an additional moment.
But that moment proved enough. Heart pounding and stomach tied in a knot, she stepped across the threshold. The Huntresses, the gentlemen, Mater, and the duchess were all inside. And just as she’d been warned, so were her parents.
“There you are.” Mother didn’t sound relieved or concerned. Nothing but irritation wove through the words. “You have caused an unendurable amount of bother for a shockingly large number of people.”
Daria had said she wanted to say something, though she wasn’t certain what, to her parents and finally be heard. But in that moment, she couldn’t have spoken no matter how hard she might have tried. Too many years of finding her greatest possibility of peace in not antagonizing them was proving too unshakable a lesson.
Father watched her with something more than irritation. Far from his usual indifference, he looked angry. “You have wreaked utter havoc on our lives these past two hours. Should word of your pathetic scheme spread through theton, the entire family will be humiliated.”
Charlie, who seldom wore an expression that wasn’t jovial, watched them with a narrowed gaze and a straight-slash of a frown. “You thought your daughter had disappeared, could possibly have been in danger, and your objection to the experience was theembarrassmentit might cause you?”
Mother had the decency to look the tiniest bit ashamed.
Father blustered ever more. “I do not believe this matter is of any concern to you, Mr. Jonquil.”
“But it is of great concern to me,” Mater said.
“Which makes it of concern to me.” His Grace spoke calmly from the doorway. Though he employed a conversational volume, his declaration stopped all movement in the room. Daria wasn’t certain her parents were even breathing.
Mater watched Mother and Father with a look that might have been described as concern if it hadn’t been obviously full of condemnation. “I fail to see how your daughter’s acceptance of my invitation to be my particular guest for the remainder of the Season and then at Lampton Park when I return there could possibly be labeled a ‘pathetic scheme.’ Do you thinkmepathetic, Mr. Mullins?”
“Consider your response carefully,” the duke warned in a deceptively quiet voice. “Even a whisper of an insult will have consequences.”
The Dangerous Duke was known particularly for never making idle threats.
“We are honored at the idea that our Daria would receive so significant an invitation.” Father hadn’t taken even a moment to consider his words. Thus far, he hadn’t landed entirely in the suds. “But she is already expected at my aunt Theodosia’s house. It is all arranged. She will be going there.”
“Daria did not indicate thatshehad accepted any other invitations,” Mater said.
With Daria’s parents’ attention momentarily diverted, Toss brushed his hand over Daria’s and leaned close enough to whisper, “I believe the tide is about to turn.”
“And she didn’t tell us about your invitation,” Mother added, almost pleading. “She is a rather stupid girl. We haven’t—”
“That was far more thana whisperof an insult,” Charlie observed, locking eyes with his brother-in-law.
“I did not insult your mother, Mr. Jonquil.” Daria’s mother spoke quickly but with obvious confidence that the explanation of who the insult was meant for would resolve the issue. “The dowager is, I am certain, quite intelligent.”
“Our daughter, on the other hand...” Father let the sentence dangle even as he shrugged.
“That is two insults.” The duke’s eyes never left her parents. “Care to make it three?”
Daria recognized the flash of ill-advised pride in Father’s eyes. That expression too often preceded a harsh rebuke. Seeing it again, she wasn’t certain she could even breathe.
“Three insults have already been delivered, Your Grace,” Father said in haughty tones to the most powerfully dangerous man in all the kingdom. “We have been lied to, and the dowager clearly is not even ashamed of her dishonesty. One must consider the possibility that duplicity is a permanent trait of hers, which is most certainly insulting to endure.”
Oh mercy.
Daria wasn’t certain how the rest of the room reacted to her father’s cruel words; she couldn’t look away from the white-hot anger flashing bright in the duke’s eyes. She’d always found him intimidating. In that moment, he was utterly terrifying.
“I will endure insults against my person.” The duke strode across the room, his movements fluid yet tense. “I will stand as second for any gentleman in this room. I will swiftly respond to any mistreatment of the ladies present.” He stopped directly in front of Father. Then, his tense mouth pulling at his fearsome scars, he took hold of the knot in Father’s cravat, twisting it so it tightened around his neck, and pulled him so close the duke’s breath must have been hot against Father’s pallid face. “But no one will ever be permitted to insult the Dowager Countess of Lampton, whether in my presence or not, without answering to me.”
Father choked out, “She is not even family to you.”
“She hasalwaysbeen family to me,” the duke growled.
Daria took a step backward. Toss was still there. He slipped his arm around her shoulders.
“I think the duke might actually kill him,” she whispered to Toss.
