Page 35 of Her Ruse with the Rakish Duke
“No!” she exploded. She lowered her voice. “No. Oh, stop it.” Judging by that gleam in his eyes, he would do it. Victor cared nothing for people’s opinions. At least, not as much as she did. In addition, he was not in his right mind now.
What was it about his father that affected him so?
He leaned against the wall and rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, somehow managing not to spill the drink in the glass. “Do you want him to stay away from you?”
“Percy?”
“Yes,” he clarified.
“He is harmless, if a little too persistent,” she admitted.
“But he did something that made you leave?” he raised his eyebrows.
Daphne did not like the direction of the conversation. A part of her still felt protective over Percy. She supposed it was difficult for her heart to tell apart the little snotty-nosed boy that ran around the house with her, and the rake. “Can you make him stop?”
“If I have your permission.”
“You do. Wait,” she said quickly because Victor had grinned all of a sudden. The mirth did not touch his eyes and she shivered. He looked like he had on the night he dealt with that pervert for her. “I did not mean you should harm him.”
“I would never taint my hands with that idiot’s blood.”
“Yes, well, you could have another person do it.”
“How you see through me… it is truly interesting,” he chuckled.
“No, Victor. This is not who you are. This is how you allow yourself to be perceived. That is the problem,” Daphne retorted. “I meant that it would be best if he kept his distance from me through the duration of the wedding.”
“Done.” He drank the rest of the wine in one gulp. “You will not tell me what he did.” It was a statement.
“It is in the past, and no, he never touched me.”
“Good. Come, dance with me again.”
They danced before he was drawn away by Harry for an urgent matter related to the wedding preparations.
He gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek and led her directly to her mother’s side, where Melanie had just returned from a dance. Her cheeks were still positively flushed from it too.
“I will be back soon,” he said, greeted her mother, and walked away with Harry.
Daphne looked askance at her mother. “Do you know what happened?”
Her mother shrugged. “This entire day is confusion itself.” She gave Daphne a pointed look. “I do want to know what you said to Percy. He stormed out of the hall and has not returned yet. I asked him to get a dance with you.”
Oh. Of course.
“You should not have done that, Mother. I told you, I want to court the duke, first.”
“And I am very happy for you!” Melanie quipped. She earned a stern glare from her aunt.
“I have to talk to you, before you make any rash decision, Daphne. Marriage should not be taken lightly. Look at his mother.”
A beautiful, middle-aged woman was pointed out to her. She had the same eyes and facial definition as Victor. Yet, there was something subdued about the dowager duchess.
She had hoped none of their squabbles had reached her ears. She was surrounded by other women, who followed her every word as though she was holding court.
Her mother continued in hushed tones. “Until a few years ago, she was married to a monster. People looked the other way because he was a duke, but you can still see the effects on her. Her son cannot be that different from that beast. Do you realize no one knows why he disappeared four years ago? No one knows what he has been doing during that time.”
“Mama… you cannot possibly judge a person you do not know.”
