Page 26 of Her Ruse with the Rakish Duke
She frowned slightly. “No, this is all wrong. You will never — oh.” She slammed shut the brown-bound book. “You are here, despite the fact that I told you never to speak to me again.”
Victor was a bit thrown off. He had fully believed that was a reaction caused by shock. After all, hehadblabbed the first thing that came to his mind. It was his intention to apologize once he could seize the chance. This was the chance. “Forgive me, I did speak out of turn.”
She waved off his apology. “No. You heard something, did you not?”
Victor shifted his gaze to the window above her head and said, “I am not sure I understand.”
She came to her feet, grabbed his hand, “come.”
Victor allowed himself to be led to that window. She made him squat along the rims. She peeked from there and motioned for him to do the same. He could barely make out the patterns of two dresses.
Daphne whispered, “I saw them earlier, talking rather loudly.”
Victor gave a light cough. “Ah, what were they discussing? Is that your sister and Melanie?”
“Yes. They are convinced you are overly infatuated with me. I supposed you must have heard the same?”
Victor’s heart sank. He knew it had been a stretch to believe she cared about him. He moved away from the window and stood. Those dresses disappeared into the corridor. They must have felt their plot had taken root.
“It was a plan?”
“Your Grace, what else could it possibly be?” she asked with a laugh.
ChapterSeven
Victor coughed once more and assumed his position on the chair. “It did seem far-fetched.”
“Of course it is. How could they assume you love me? Talking about letters you wrote to me and how you must have pined for me. Can you imagine such nonsense?”
“Ah. Nonsense, yes.”
Daphne returned to the couch and placed the book on her lap. When Amelia and Melanie had started their loud discussion, she lost track of the page she had been reading.
Amelia had said that she had seen the letters herself and that the duke had been hiding his feelings for so long that he did not know how to express them.
She knew it had been a mistake to tell Amelia about her encounter with the duke. The result was devastating. Neither of them had no idea what she had heard that night. Victor did not have any feelings for her. He was used to having his way with women and probably could not help himself around her. She was nothing more than a conquest.
She stayed in the library, knowing that soon, they would bring him in. She had not expected that they would repeat the same nonsense to him. It was mortifying, and clearly, Victor was in agreement.
“My sister must be concerned that we would ruin her wedding.”
Victor harrumphed, “How is that possible?”
“You are infuriating. Chances are, we will make a scene at the wedding because of a snarky remark from you.”
“I will take that as a compliment.”
Daphne was in a state of fluster. She ran her fingers along the edges of the book. All of her energy went into concealing her unsettled feelings. “Of course you will. Nothing ever disturbs you.”
“I wish that were true, my lady.”
Daphne paused, thinking she must have imagined the sadness in his voice. She shot a sharp glance at him. His smile told her that it was definitely her imagination. Her family said her head was taken by the books she read.
“What is it about? You never told me,” he asked again, pointing with two fingers at her book.
Daphne looked down to find that her finger was red from running it around the book rims.
Daphne stuffed her fingers under the book, “This? A monster. No, that is wrong. An unfortunate monster, abandoned by his creator and left to fend for himself. He did not ask to be born but ended up being the victim of circumstance.”
