Page 92 of Romancing Daphne

James bit back a smile as if they’d just shared a very personal joke. They used to do that a lot, back when she still trusted him.

“I would enjoy walking with you,” James said.“Let me see if Scamp will allow me to put him back on his lead.”

While James fussed with the uncooperative pup, Artemis whisperedurgently, her eyes wide with excitement.“Daphne, he must have been most desperate to see you again. Why else would he come to work for someone as horribly terrifying as Adam, staying right here at Falstone House, even with Adam and Linus both carrying their sidearms about with them in warning?How very promising!”

“Keep your voice lowered.” How she hoped James had not overheard. She kept her own voice to a barely audible whisper.

James seemed to have accomplished his task. Faced with the difficulty of holding Scamp’s lead in one hand and walking with two ladies, he asked Artemis if she would be terribly offended if he offered his free arm to Daphne.

“Certainly not, Lord Tilburn.” Artemis seemed positively gleeful.“For I am working quite tirelessly at making the perfect picture of sorrow and suffering. The sky has been horridly uncooperative, but walking in apparent loneliness would be quite a nice touch, do you not think?”

James’s brows knit together and, after a moment of hesitation, he nodded. Daphne slipped her arm through his when he offered it. The feel of his arm beneath her hand still affected her as much as it ever had. Her heart beat louder, her cheeks felt warmer. They slowly retook the path she and Artemishad been walking before James and Scamp’s arrival.

“I am not at all certain just what your sister meant by all she said.”James kept a firm grip and a close eye on Scamp, though he glanced over atDaphne as they walked.“Does her sense of the dramatic never taper off?”

“Not ever.” How she wanted to ask him how he felt about staying at Falstone House. She feared the answers too much to ask. Her bravery did not yet extend that far.

“Let us hope her desire for sorrow and suffering cannot be fulfilled vicariously. If she tells your brother-in-law that I walked with your armthrough mine, he will likely amputate mine.” Most people quaked whenspeaking of Adam’s threats. James, though clearly acknowledging the reality of Adam’s fierceness, was not quelled by it.

Artemis kept to the promise she’d made Persephone and did not wander off nor trample the flowers, though her face took on the dreamy expression that indicated her thoughts had flown quite far afield.

“How much longer will Lieutenant Lancaster be ashore?” James asked.

“That is not yet firmly decided. Our father is quite ill, and Linus is torn between returning to our family home and returning to sea.”

“I am sorry to hear your father’s health is poor.” James’s eyes met hers, and she saw real concern in their depths.“Can anything be done for him?”

“I am afraid his decline is irreversible.”

James pressed her arm to his side, a squeeze she instinctively knewwas meant to comfort her. Beyond allowing her to read the letters sent byFather’s caregiver, no one in the family had truly reached out to her. AsArtemis was wont to point out, Daphne did not allow herself to be openly emotional. Most people would not think to comfort someone who did notlook in need of it. But James had done exactly that.

“A difficult position for your brother,” James said.“He no doubt feelshis responsibility to his fellow seamen yet cannot deny his family dutyeither.”

“We do not know yet what he will decide.”

James watched her a moment as they walked.“If I do not mistake the matter, you hope he will choose to remain.”

How had he seen that? She had worked hard at keeping her opinions hidden lest Linus be unduly influenced by them.“I worry less when he is on dry land.”

“You have already lost one brother.” James understood what she had never voiced out loud.

“And both of my parents,” Daphne added quietly. Though death had not yet claimed her father, she knew full well she had lost him years ago.

James slipped his arm back enough to entwine his fingers with hers.“Please tell me if I might do anything for you. Anything at all.”

“Thank you.” How she managed the response, she could not say. Her eyes were fixed on her hand still held in his.

A moment later, they were once more arm in arm like any promenading couple. That flicker of hope she’d felt upon first leaving the house grew a little brighter. She did not know yet if she could trust its light, but she clung to it for that one beautiful moment.

Then that moment died.

Mrs. Bower and her daughter came around the corner and directly toward them. There would be no avoiding the encounter.

“Why, Lord Tilburn.” Mrs. Bower rushed over, her daughter swift on her heels. “This is fortuitous.”

Miss Bower’s attention shifted too quickly to Daphne. “Miss Lancaster. What a surprise.”

“Indeed,” her mother said. “I had understood you and Lord Tilburn were no longer on friendly terms.”

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