Page 38 of A Duchess' Irresistible Tutor

They had been dancing for little more than a minute when Daisy caught sight of a familiar face out of the corner of her eye. Heart racing, she followed the movement and found that Lord Philip had just entered along with another young gentleman that she distantly recognised from Oxford University. Knowing that Philip attended the university, she could only guess that the man was a friend from there. The two certainly looked to be good pals.

They were laughing and seeming to joke as they entered, but the moment Philip glanced across the dance floor, as if he sensed her watching him, his face fell abruptly. His excited gaze darkened, and he glared at her for a moment, a storm cloud seeming to appear above his head. Hoping to change it, she began to smile, but her expression only seemed to make things worse, and he quickly turned away.

The moment he offered his hand to a young lady who had wandered in after them, Daisy felt her heart breaking in two.Did he do that deliberately to hurt me?she asked herself, feeling her stomach churning with anxiety.What could I possibly have done to upset him?

The evening continued similarly, and although several men asked for her hand to dance, not one of them was Philip. Every time she managed to locate him, she would find him dancing with or talking to the same girl. She was decidedly beautiful, and Daisy felt sick watching them together.

Why should I be bothered that he is dancing with another woman?she snapped at herself angrily as she accepted yet another dance from Lord Bessington.We are just friends.But she was no fool. Friends did not act this way. Friends greeted one another at balls and even danced with each other if they felt like it. They did not entirely avoid each other, and with every passing minute, Daisy grew more and more certain that Philip was doing exactly that.

She was just beginning to think that she could take it no more, preparing to storm up to him and demand to know what was going on, when Bertha finally came to find her, dragging her away from Lord Bessington with a request to have a moment alone with her.

“Is everything alright?” Daisy asked, distracted for a moment. Bertha's excited smile pained Daisy. At least somebody was having a good time.

“I just came to warn you that I will be slipping out shortly,” Bertha hissed under her breath, glancing at the huge grandfather clock situated close by. “You are still prepared to cover for me with Mama, are you not?”

Daisy forced a smile and took hold of Bertha's upper arms. “Of course, I am,” she responded, squeezing her sister gently, “Just promise me one thing …”

“I promise I will be careful,” Bertha assured her. Daisy couldn't quite be relieved that Bertha already knew what she had been about to say. She couldn’t help thinking of all that could go wrong while Bertha was off spending time with the groom.

“You tell Thomas from me that he is to be a perfect gentleman,” Daisy insisted, whispering the words into her sister's ear before giving her a quick peck upon the cheek. “Now, go on; off you go before the hour draws too late.”

“Remember, if anyone notices, I have gone to take some air,” Bertha reminded her.

“Yes, and if anyone notices again, you are powdering your nose,” Daisy said, chuckling in return. Her sister offered her a deep scowl moments before rushing forward with gratitude.

Bertha squeezed her in a tight embrace before hurrying away and glancing at the grandfather clock herself, Daisy realised there was too much time left of the night. Though she felt as though she had already been dancing all night long, she quickly came to realise that they had been there less than two hours.

The ball would continue for far longer, and Bertha was in no danger of being caught by their mother wishing to go home. One glance told Daisy that Lady Balfour was far too busy gossiping and making new connections for their advantage to realise what either of her girls was up to.

At least she is off my back for once,Daisy thought, cringing at how her stepmother laughed in an exaggerated manner at something one of the elder noblemen had said. She wondered whether she would do the same had her father been around, but quickly she decided she didn't care. She knew as well as they did that her father had not married Agnes for his love of her; they had merely married out of necessity.

Turning her attention from her stepmother, hoping to avoid another dance with Lord Bessington, who seemed to want all her attention, she found herself looking for Lord Philip all over again. Though the desire to confront him had died with her sister's announcement that she was leaving, Daisy couldn't help holding onto the hope that he might come and ask her to dance.

She spotted him across the room, and their gazes met for just an instant before she watched him turn to the same young lady once more. How he smiled at her and offered his hand for yet another dance made Daisy feel sick. Suddenly the idea of vomiting on the dance floor didn't seem quite so far-fetched.

Nauseated and dizzy, Daisy wanted nothing more than to leave. She had suffered through quite enough for one evening. Yet she had promised her sister that she would keep an eye out for her and make sure nobody started asking questions, so she knew she could not leave.

But I cannot stay in here!she thought, feeling as though all the air was being sucked right out of the room. The temperature was growing too, and she felt as though her heavy lilac ball gown was sticking to her skin. She feared that if it went on much longer, she might never be able to peel it off, and so she hurried towards the nearest exit, looking for cooler air.

Her heart threatened to break as she cut directly across the dancefloor, stumbling to an abrupt halt as Lord Philip and his dance partner cut right across her path. He barely glanced in her direction, looking none too pleased with the interruption, and Daisy held back tears, praying that she would find a quiet place outside to spiral out of control.

Chapter 22

Philip should never have let his friend James convince him to attend the ball. Only their long-standing friendship left him unable to say no, along with his promise to James' sister that she would be the first woman he would dance with. In fact, she had been the only woman he danced with all night simply for the fact she was safe.

Being the sister of his oldest and truest friend, she was practically family, and it was not out of the ordinary for him to dance with her. Nor would she ever expect anything more serious to come of it.

The only problem was that dancing with Jessica did not distract Philip from the woman he truly wanted to dance with, the woman who had been the very reason he did not wish to attend the ball in the first place.

From the moment he had stepped into the ballroom, he had regretted allowing James and Jessica to talk him into going. Meeting the gaze of Lady Daisy had been hard enough after so many days without her company. Even harder still had been watching her dance in the arms of another.

She was so graceful, beautiful, and utterly bewitching, and Philip wanted nothing more than to rip her from every other man's arms and dance with her all night long. But there was a small voice in the back of his head that continued to remind him,she wants nothing to do with you.

And so he avoided her. He could not bear to look into her eyes for too long or see how she smiled welcomingly at him, almost as if she actually wanted him to speak to her. He couldn't bear the ever-present hands of Lord Bessington, which forever seemed to land on her arm or shoulder or wrapped around her waist. Nor could he bear the way that she laughed and smiled at the baron as though nobody had ever made her quite so amused.

“Are you well, Philip?” Jessica asked, startling him where he had been standing beside her with a glass of champagne in hand. Just then, he realised his eye had caught sight of Lady Daisy once more, finding her parting ways with her sister at the opposite end of the dance floor. Almost immediately upon her turning towards him and their gazes meeting, Philip turned his attention to Jessica and said, “I am quite well and in the mood to dance again. Will you join me?”

Offering James his half-empty glass, he took Jessica's hand and led her onto the dance floor again. He had lost count of how many times they had danced together that evening. He was more than a little grateful that Jessica never protested as he was unsure how he would stop himself from approaching Lady Daisy if he did not have someone else to occupy him.

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