Page 25 of Romancing Daphne

She couldn’t say that she did. Her experience with suitors and attentions was nonexistent. She simply didn’t know what to think.

* * *

“Lord Techney is an imbecile.” Adam made his entrance into the sitting room the next afternoon with his usual lack of subtlety.

Daphne and Persephone exchanged looks, but both managed not to laugh out loud.

Persephone rose and crossed to where Adam stood and wrapped her arms around him.

“This is a change,” he said. “At the Debenhams’ ball, you did nothing but scold me.”

“At the Debenhams’ ball, you were being difficult.” Persephone sighed as she leaned into him.

Adam held her but with a look of confusion directed toward Daphne. She shrugged, not knowing the reason for the unusually thorough display of affection.

“Are you unwell, Persephone?”

She shook her head.

“Are you certain? No one has upset you or been unkind?”

“No.”

“Insulting? Impertinent? Anything at all?”

Adam’s kind treatment of her sister was the first thing that had endeared him to Daphne.

“I am well.” Persephone kept her arms around him.“You have simply been gone all day, and I have missed you.”

“Unfortunately, the House of Lords is in constant need of adult supervision.” Adam kissed the top of her head—a display to which Artemis would have vehemently and vocally objected. Daphne never felt the discomfort her younger sister did. She found her sister’s happiness reassuring.

“So why is Lord Techney an imbecile?” Persephone led Adam to the sofa facing the one on which Daphne sat.

“There are far too many reasons to list them all.”

“The most pertinent, then.” Persephone sat tucked under Adam’s arm.

Daphnecouldn’t look away. She had often imagined herself being held that way, with such tenderness and care.

“He has invited us to have dinner with his family.” Adam could not have looked less pleased if he’d been invited to be the guest of honor at a hanging.

Daphne likely looked almost as horrified but for entirely differentreasons. Dinner with James’s family seemed like a much larger step in the direction of courtship than she’d expected. He hadsent her flowers along with a very personal note, but she still couldn’t help thinking he acted morelike a friendly acquaintance when they were together than he did a suitor.

“When is this dinner party?”Persephoneasked.

“Three days, Persephone. The Almighty took seven days to create the world; we have three to prepare for the end of it.”

Persephone shook her head, though whether at his exaggerated objections or Lord Techney’s invitation, Daphne wasn’t sure.“What could have inspired Lord Techney to invite us to a family dinner?Certainly your reputation would be enough to convince him of the inadvisable nature of such a thing.”

“You were apparently not listening when I explained that Lord Techney is an idiot.”

“Animbecile, dear,” Persephone corrected.“A dinner party, though poorly thought through when the invitation is directed toward the Dangerous Duke, isn’t entirely an unreasonable thing. I assume there is some otherbit of logic behind your dismissal of poor Lord Techney’s mental acuity.”

“He delivered the invitation to me at Lords, despite having not spent more than a moment there on any given day these past weeks and not often before that.” Adam’s censure was apparent.“We are on the brink of war with the Former Colonies, whilst already deep into war on the continent, and are seeing rioting in the north and in the midlands. A gentleman with any degree of responsibility would have done everything in his power to take up his duties in Lords this session. Techney, however, feels his duty there does not extend beyond irritating people with presumptuous invitations.”

Did Adam intend to refuse the invitation? Daphne could not say how exactly she felt about that possibility.

“And,”Adam continued,“Linus makes port the morning of this dinner and will arrive in London the next day. We cannot very well welcome him back into the bosom of his family”—Adam’s sarcastic tone brought a smile to Persephone’s face and very nearly to Daphne’s as well—“if that family is off prancing about London.”

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