Page 78 of Romancing Daphne

“Good afternoon,” she said from the doorway.

He glanced up from his desk. “Daphne.”

She stepped inside. Some of the tension she’d carried these last fourdays dissipated. Here she would find comfort, if only she could keep him to safe topics. “What shall we discuss today?” she asked as she crossed to the sofa. “Parliament? Society? The weather?”

Adam’s head turned toward the clock. “Is it that time again?” His was not the tone of enthusiasm she would have preferred.

“Yes. And you were not needed in Lords today.”

He had not risen from his desk, nor set aside his paperwork. Still, he sometimes spent their afternoon together working on business matters while she read. She would not object to that today.

“I can select a book,” she offered.

His next breath was loud and a touch impatient. “I don’t truly have time for this today, Daphne. I am meant to meet with a man about refurbishing the nursery here after we’ve left for Northumberland. I wish it to be finished and ready by the time we return.”

“You told me yesterday that you would set aside this time specifically for our afternoon together because it was the one day you didn’t have to be at Lords.”

He wrote something on the topmost paper on the stack before speaking again. “I cannot delay the start of this. The nursery is not at all readyfor an infant. I will not risk having it unfinished when it is needed.”

She searched about for a means of reconciling the conflicting needs. “Do you have to meet with him just now? Cannot you delay even an hour?”

“He will be here any moment,” Adam said. “I thought, in fact, that he had arrived when you stepped in.”

He had, it seemed, forgotten about her. She pushed that aside, telling herself there was a different, less discouraging explanation. “I can sit in the corner with my book while you have your interview. I won’t disturb you.”

He set his forearms on the desk, interweaving his fingers. “We’ll have our afternoon discussion another day, Daphne. I need to see to the nursery. I have a responsibility to my child.” He spoke the final word with the same tone and expression of anxious awe he’d had anytime Persephone’s condition had been discussed the past few days.

“Of course. I would never ask you to neglect your obligations.” She moved in the direction of the door once more. “Tomorrow, perhaps?”

“Persephone and I intend to begin interviewing nursemaids.”

She pushed back her disappointment. “The day after?”

“I don’t know.” He offered a brief, apologetic smile.

“Another time, then.”

He nodded, even as his attention returned to his pile of papers.

Daphne stepped out into the corridor, telling herself not to be selfish or maudlin. This was hardly the first time Adam had needed to cancel an afternoon with her, but it stung more acutely than it had in the past. He had senther away when she needed him so much.

Though she felt sorely tempted to tuck herself away in her bedchamber, she knew if she gave in to the impulse, she might never convince herself to come back out. She made her way instead to the family sitting room and stepped inside with head held high.

Linus stood beside Artemis at the mirror. The two looked shockingly alike, even to Daphne, who had long-since grown used to the green eyes and golden curls of three of her siblings.

Artemis adjusted the bow on the bonnet she wore.

“The milliner told me it was a fashionable bonnet.” Linus obviously wasn’t entirely certain he’d been told correctly.

“Fashionable, yes.” Artemis gave him a look of exasperation.“But is itdevastating?”

“Devastating to whom?” The look of utter confusion on Linus’s face brought a smile to Daphne’s lips.

“To simply everyone.” Artemis tipped her head slightly in one direction, then the other.“A bonnet is supposed to turn heads.”

“It seems to be turning yours quite effortlessly,” he observed.

She spun toward him, fists propped on her hips.“Would you stop being abrother, please?”

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