Page 44 of A Match Made in London
“But it does,” she insisted. “Perhaps…” She seemed to lose courage, but in typical Daphne fashion quickly found it again and plowed on like a runaway carriage, heedless of what damage she might cause. “Perhaps you feel more for her than you’re letting on.”
He gaped at her. “You think I am coming to care for Miss Merriweather?”
She shrugged. “Why not? Granted, she isn’t at all conventional—”
“Conventional?” he let lose a bark of laughter. “No, she isn’t that.”
“And she doesn’t seem the type to capture your interest,” she went on as if he had never interrupted her. “Miss Merriweather is a serious kind of creature. I had assumed you would be attracted to a woman with your same spirit.”
“I told you before, I am not attracted to Miss Merriweather.”
“Tristan,” she said, and from the look in her cunning eyes she was about to launch on again. And without Imogen in town to keep her in check, he wasn’t at all confident he would be able to rein her in once she started.
“Enough,” he said firmly. “I have taken you into my confidence quite against my better judgment. If you continue on, I am never telling you anything ever again. Besides, hadn’t you planned on introducing me to Miss Weeton this evening for the express purpose of taking my mind off of…certain things? You are not helping matters at all by being so annoyingly inquisitive.”
Her face fell. “Very well,” she grumbled. “And I am sorry. I can’t seem to help myself. I’ve never seen you so affected.” She held up her hands as he leveled a stern look at her. “Sorry! My lips shall remain sealed on the subject. I swear it. Now, let me fetch Miss Weeton straight away and we shall get you started on your new project.”
“You say ‘fetch’ as if she were a dog bone. Let’s go find her together, shall we? That way we may begin my little project all the sooner.”
For the sooner he was distracted the better he would be. Though as they wove through the thickening crowd Tristan wasn’t convinced there was a distraction on earth capable of helping him forget what Rosalind Merriweather was quickly becoming to him.
