Page 32 of Daisy and the Duke
“Tell me.”
“I don’t wish to summon any painful memories,” she said.
“Curious about what happened to me? During the war, I mean.”
“Oh, no. Mr. Kemble told me what happened.”
“He only knows what I told him,” Tristan said cryptically.
“What’s the truth?” Daisy asked.
He flexed his injured hand subconsciously. “The truth will likely disappoint you.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the truth is I don’t know what happened.” Tristan took a deep breath. “I saw something—a cannonball, a shell, I didn’t know—and I just reacted. I shoved down whoever it was standing next to me. And I shouted. Together, it gave enough warning to the others around us to scatter. The shell hit right where we’d been grouped together. But I was knocked unconscious, so I don’t know details. When I woke up, my head was ringing so badly, I felt like I’d been packed inside a cathedral bell. But the man I shoved was a general, and he remembered everything, or least he told the story like he did.” He sighed. “It wasn’t any great act of bravery on my part. Just luck.”
Daisy said nothing for a moment. Her mind was on the possibility of Tristan’s luck going the other way. The idea of his dying made her shudder.
“Not a pleasant story,” he said apologetically, mistaking her reaction.
“I liked the ending,” she said. “The part where you lived.”
His mouth twitched. “Is that so?”
As they completed their circle of the pond, they made the final turn in the path, and Daisy could again see Mr. Kemble and Bella, sitting on the blanket. She was listening to some story he was telling, and then let out a silvery peal of laughter as she heard the final line.
“Jack is looking so much better,” Tristan said then. “I think Miss Bella’s presence must have a positive effect.”
Daisy glanced at him, catching an odd light in his eyes. A little part of her despaired again. Despite the way he’d kissed her before, despite the connection she felt to him today…all it took was the appearance of the beautiful Bella Merriot to turn his attention away from Daisy. She remembered her stepmother’s plan—for Bella to dote on Mr. Kemble as a way to gain the esteem of the duke. It seemed the plan was working perfectly.
Since Tristan was expecting her to comment on Bella’s effect, Daisy began to reply, but was stopped short by a loud slamming sound echoing over the water of the pond.
“Oh!” she cried, instinctively putting her hands to her ears.
Alarmed, Daisy turned toward the great house and saw two workers standing by a pile of boards in the lawn, which had fallen from the height of the roof. Thank goodness everyone else was well away from the area.
“What happened?” she called. “Is anyone hurt?”
“No, miss!” one called back. “The rope broke and the boards fell. That’s all.”
“Please be more careful! That could have hurt someone!” she reprimanded them. She turned back to Tristan, who had gone completely still. He’d shrank from the sound, squeezing his eyes shut. A look of pain crossed his face. He was standing as if frozen in place, and something in his breathing suggested that he was far more affected by the clatter than she had been.
He shook his head as if to clear it. “What happened?” he whispered.
She hated to see him distressed. Hoping to restore his mood, she said, “Don’t worry. No one was hurt. The sound was just the boards falling from where your men are repairing that roof.”
“That sound…” he said, still looking haunted. “It’s too close…”
“Your grace? Sir?” Daisy asked. She paused and tried again. “You hate the noise, don’t you? You hate anything loud.”
He refused to look at her. “You should go, Daisy. Take your sister and get away from here.”
“But you just said that Bella was good for—”
“I said go!” he roared. “Why are you still here?Get the hell away from me!”
Chapter 9
