Page 65 of A Naughty Proposal for His Winter Countess
Trailing a hand up to finger the soft hairs at the back of Daniel's head, Harriet asked, “Are you as cross with Ben as I am?”
“Without doubt, “Daniel said darkly. “If it weren't for the many years we've spent as best friends, I'd likely have knocked him very hard in the face.”
She laughed, a surprisingly childish giggle that had Daniel's lips quirking, “I'd stand there to cheer you on as I'm miffed at him too, but he's my brother.”
Daniel pressed a soft kiss to her temple, “Even so.”
A polite knock had them parting before Ben came in. His eyes flickered between the two, “I assume you've sorted out your affairs?”
Looking at Daniel, Harriet replied, “We have.”
“Good,” Ben nodded. “Martha would like a word with you, Harriet.”
Before she left, Harriet took Daniel's hand, “Promise that I'll see you soon.”
“I give you my word,” Daniel rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “Nothing will keep me away.”
As she moved away, Harriet pivoted on her heel to look at him, and the promise she saw on his face made her smile. As she went off to meet Martha, she couldn't help but feel that perhaps that a very good thing was about to come from all the unexpected events.
Chapter Twenty-One
Despite the urge to fight Ben after his demand for him and Harriet to marry, Daniel was unable to regret most of the events of the night.
She said she's falling in love with me.
It still felt strange how Ben had so suddenly found them, as Daniel had not seen him in the ballroom, or anywhere else. He was, however, exceptionally glad that Ben had not come in ten minutes before that, as he might have suffered an apoplexy then and there.
A soft flutter of pride took his chest when he remembered the look of pure bliss on Harriet's face after she had shattered under his touch. He craved the opportunity to teach her how to pleasure him, just as she would tell him how to satisfy her.
After an hour he arrived home and entered; as he moved to his room, he thought that it might be best to acquire another house, a bigger one where Harriet would have her private set of rooms while he had his.
That thought preceded a flurry of hopes that Daniel had done well to do away with and bury—children. He loved them and had expected, so long ago, that he would be a father. Unfortunately, his then wife-to-be had run off, taking his expectation of a full family with her. Now though, he had Harriet and perhaps, hopefully, she would feel the same.
Closing his drapes, Daniel went to bed with the faint hope that finally—finally—something good was happening in his life, and dreamed of happy green eyes, tempting lips and wandering hands, so it wasn't strange that he woke at midday, aroused and hungry.
After a bath and a meal, his valet told him that the letter for the special license had been received and a reply could be sent in a matter of days.
Pleased, Daniel dismissed him and took his folded newspaper to his study. On top of a stack of unfinished letters was the one to his estranged mother. Deciding to ignore it for a while, Daniel shook out the paper and a second slip dropped out. Plucking it up, Daniel read words that made his blood go cold.
I know about your little game. If you don't want your flimsy card house of lies tumbling around you, bow out of this sham of an engagement. Otherwise, you'll force my hand and I'm not one to be trifled with.
“What the devil is this?” Daniel growled in his throat. There was not a single identifying mark on the paper to tell him who had sent it, or where it had come from, but Daniel noted that the writing…clearly a man's hand…was done with sharp menacing slashes.
Spinning the paper, Daniel saw the deep imprint on the pen in the paper. It told him that the man who had written the note had almost ripped it right through in his anger. But what jarred Daniel was, how did this man know of his private dealings with Harriet?
Unless the man had a talent of divination, there was no way his secret business with her could be known. Raking through his mind of any instances where he and Harriet had openly discussed it, he didn't recall any. That left him to wonder if she had written it down, or if she had told someone.
But no, Harriet wouldn't be foolish to have another discover one more of her secret schemes. And it's the most damning one of all.
Upset and horrified that this miscreant might have already acted on his insidious promise, Daniel called for his coach. Knowing that it would look abnormally strange to show up with the note alone, Daniel took the unfinished letter to his mother as well.
Clad in his coat and thick woolen gloves, he set off to Canterbury. The ominous note was slid in the middle of the two-page letter. Cold dread had settled in the middle of his chest, only to grow icy the further he went.
Perhaps I'm agitated for nothing, but I can't be too cocksure.
Halfway to the Manor, thick snow began to flutter from a slate-gray sky, but he could not let it stop them from arriving at the Manor.
After an anxious half hour, the vehicle came through the Carrington coach gate and to the front walk. With a prayer of relief, he went in. The servant informed him that Harriet was in the music room, but he asked to speak with Ben first.
