Page 40 of A Naughty Proposal for His Winter Countess
Jerking, Daniel saw Harriet shaking off wet hands and giggling, “I’m sorry, but you made such a tempting target.”
“Minx,” Daniel huffed as he reached out to grab her but she danced away from his grasp.
A merry chase started around the pagoda with Daniel eventually winning, and scooping Harriet into his arms. “You’re going to pay for that. My shirt is wet right through.”
Her eyes were glimmering with mischief, “If you had a scrawnier back, it would have gone right over.”
“My back, Darling, is not to be tampered with,” Daniel replied as he set her on her feet, depositing a quick kiss to her lips. “We should get back.”
“But I was having so much fun,” Harriet pouted.
“I will not be subjected to another ambush,” Daniel said strictly. “We can have a snow fight when we get home.”
Holding tight on his arm, she asked, “Promise?”
Looking into her hopeful eyes, Daniel smoothed a wet flake from her cheek. She looked so innocent, but he knew she was not guileless. Surprisingly, he didn’t mind. Brushing his cheek over her hair, he said. “You have my word.”
They went back to the house, with Harriet smiling serenely, but her expression was nearly wiped off her face when Miss Nottingham spotted her. Her blue eyes dipped to Harriet’s skirts, damp through with melted snow.
“Always the harridan, I suppose,” she said sweetly.
He was about to address her when Harriet tightened her grip on his arm. “I suppose, but it’s how I love my life. I’m grateful for being set apart. After all, what the fun in following others? “
Miss Nottingham huffed and breezed past them with her nose in the air.
“Try not to do that outside,” Harriet called at her back. “A bird might take your nose for a perch.”
Though amused, Daniel said, “That was a touch unneeded.”
“No, it was thoroughly needed,” Harriet said as they went to claim their coats. “If I told you some of the horrid things that they said to me, you’d see that my comment was tame in comparison.”
The Marquess had come out of the dining room and looked at them with a smile, “I missed you at dinner. Where were you off to?”
Shaking his hand, Daniel replied, “Took a stroll out into your gardens. Thank you for a wonderful evening, Sandhurst.”
“My pleasure to see you again, Raster, and in such high spirits as well,” Marquess Sandhurst replied. “My best wishes on your engagement.”
“Thank you,” Daniel replied, while his guilt that he was fooling one of his dearest friends struck him hard.
After Harriet added her genuine regards to the host, the coach was called, they were off to her home.
“I feel guilt ridden,” Daniel said as he stripped off his damp jacket and folded it over a seat. “When we do cut this engagement off, I think it will hurt a lot of people.”
“I assume so,” Harriet responded. “But if we’re amicable with each other I don’t think anyone will be too disappointed. Soon, it will be forgotten and we won’t have to live under scrutiny anymore.”
Privately, Daniel held his reservations. “I dearly hope so.”
“Will you forgive me for wetting your jacket?” Harriet asked earnestly.
“It’s a trifle,’ Daniel shrugged. “The last I heard, a snowball to one’s back never grievously wounded a person,” he paused. “Would you mind telling me a few of what those misses said you back in school?”
A soft sigh left Harriet and she picked at her skirts, “I’d rather you not know.”
His imagination took a few dangerous leaps forward, with horrifying images of what the girls had done to her. Slow anger began to boil in his chest at the grievous things Harriet had been forced to endure.
Reaching over, he grasped her hand, “I won’t force you to tell me all; but I’ll have a better understanding if you told me the worst thing they did.”
Harriet pulled her bottom lip into her mouth, and Daniel could see the top of her teeth worrying it. “One evening, before supper, as it was customary to take a second bath after classes, I went to bathe, but came out to find that my dressing gown was gone. Also, the door was locked from the outside. I had nothing but a towel and no matter how I screamed for help no one came. I spent the night there, alone, in the dark and hungry.”
