She’d secretly hoped this time may be different with them, but it was obvious he was a man who was adamant in maintaining his stance on keeping everyone at arm’s length and she’d be damned if she admitted he’d hurt her.
“I understand,” she said, nodding and rising from the bed. “I have to go now, Victor. Have a good night.”
Victor sat up on the bed. “Daphne, I?—”
She couldn’t bear to hear any more of his empty words, so she put up a hand, making him go quiet.
She dressed in silence and fled to her room, saving her sobs for the silence of her pillows.
* * *
As the door closed softly behind Daphne, Victor remained rooted to the spot, a sense of profound loss settling over him like a heavy cloak.
The way she had looked at him… that was the reason he never could meet her gaze, because he knew the same would be reflected in his.
The short time they’d spent performing a courtship had shown him a possibility of a future he’d long wanted to avoid. He had found himself looking forward to seeing her and conversing with her about nothing and everything.
Hell.
He had even been competing with the accursed Farton for her attention, although there was no real competition because she wanted nothing to do with that fool who hadn’t seemed to realize it.
That sense of comfort while he had her in his arms… it had terrified him. He could picture a future with her in his bed and his arms every night enjoying each other’s bodies and warmth. He could see the image so clearly it had nearly pushed him to ask if they would make their relationship real.
The rational part of him spoke up; he would hate himself more if he trapped her in the bindings of a marriage that would bring her nothing but pain and suffering.
His mother had told him many times that he would be nothing like his father, but he feared that the blood would be expressed in him.
So he told himself as he watched her dress and leave his room that he’d done the right thing. He pretended not to see the tears in her eyes. And now, he struggled to find sleep.
After fruitless hours of tossing and turning, he rose to pour himself a drink. There was no way he’d be getting any rest tonight with the way things were looking.
Damn, he thought.
He hoped with time, she would heal. Because he knew that for him, that was a wish that might never come true.
ChapterSixteen
“Good morning,” Daphne greeted, coming into the small dining room they’d been afforded by the Marquess of Lutton and her sister Amelia’s fiancé, to have breakfast as a family since it would be many months till they’d sit together again once the ceremony was over.
“You finally decided to come out of your chambers,” her father announced.
He frowned at her and she raised a questioning brow to Amelia and Melanie who shook their heads. It seemed they were all ignorant of the cause of her father’s latest temper tantrum.
Her father was never one to hide his feelings on anything so she knew in due time, he would speak about it.
“Yes, Father,” she answered, sitting to his left opposite Amelia on the six-person dining table, which mimicked their seating arrangement at their own home.
The familiar action brought a smile to her and then a tear to her eye as she realized that, in only a few more hours, her sister would no longer be sitting across from her at dinner, sharing looks and having silent conversations with their eyes when dinner guests behaved oddly.
She met Amelia’s gaze and found her sister’s expression mirrored her thoughts. She sent her a small smile which was all she could do to stop herself from crying. God knows she’d done enough of that the past few days since…
No. She scolded herself.
She had promised she wouldn’t let the duke into her thoughts anymore, especially since he’d moved on with his life as if he hadn’t ripped her heart in two again.
“Tell me, Daphne,” he started, alerting her to the fact that she was the cause of his latest tantrum. “Why should I have to spend so much money and time to bring you all the way to an event as prestigious as this, and instead of you getting yourself a husband, you are locking yourself up in your room? I should have simply left you in town to lounge around in your chambers all day had I known you’d behave like this.”
“Have I done something to offend you, father?” Daphne asked plainly.