Daisy waggled her eyebrows. “Well, you can’t be pregnant already. I’m sure it wasn’t for lack of trying, but a week really is too early to tell.”
Tess smiled, despite her worry. “No. Definitely not that. My monthly courses arrived this morning.”
Ellie sent her a sympathetic grimace.
“So, what seems to be the problem?” Daisy asked. “Don’t tell me the duke didn’t provide satisfaction, because I shan’t believe it. You’re practically glowing.”
Tess put her hands to her cheeks. She’d thought the same thing when she’d looked in the mirror that morning.
“Oh, the duke kept his part of the bargain extremely well,” she said, with a blush. “But that’s not it. Or, at least, that’s only part of the problem. The truth is, I think I’ve made the very grave mistake of falling in love with him.”
“Oh, Hell,” Daisy muttered.
“What did he do?” Ellie demanded. “He didn’t turn out to be nice, did he?”
“Did he steal our ‘rehabilitation home for puppies, veterans, and fallen women’ idea?” Daisy asked.
“Worse. He listened to me ramble on about agriculture. And truffles. And taxes.” Tess sighed. “He fed me liquid sugar. Some ambrosia of the gods called ‘maple syrup.’”
“The swine!” Daisy gasped, only half joking.
“And that’s not all.” Tess recounted the incident with Oliver, plus the near-misses with the poacher and the broken carriage wheel.
Ellie shook her head. “You say he scooped up the wet poodle—the same one that had previously ruined an expensive pair of boots—hugged it to his chest—with no thought of ruining his shirt in the process—and then buttoned his coat around the puppy?”
She sounded like she was cross-examining a witness in court, trying to get the facts right for the jury.
“Yes. Exactly.”
Daisy scowled. “That’s a dirty trick.Of courseyou fell in love with him. What woman wouldn’t? ‘Wet puppy in the coat’ is right up near the top of the list of things we can’t resist.”
“There’s a list?”
“Of course there’s a list. It’s one of those unwritten laws. Like the fact that the week before you get your monthly courses, you have to force yourself not to stab everyone with a letter opener because they’re being so irritating.”
“We do all have ‘stabby week,’” Tess agreed. “But go on. What are the things we can’t resist?”
Daisy stood and started to pace. “May I present for the prosecution: item one. Rescuing wildlife. Especially adorably small, helpless wildlife.”
“She’s not wrong,” Ellie said. “I once saw a veryordinary-looking man save a hedgehog from a drain, and I almost kissed him on the spot.”
“Item two,” Daisy continued. “Wet shirt. Preferably transparent. Plastered to the chest.”
“Also true. As long as the chest in question is reasonably muscular,” Ellie clarified.
Daisy nodded, accepting the amendment. “Item three: Rescuing a woman not once, but twice, from mortal peril.”
“I’m not sure you could count a broken cartwheel asmortalperilper se,” Tess said.
“Fine. A ‘reasonably dangerous situation,’ then,” Daisy conceded. “It still fits the ‘damsel in distress’ rule.”
“He didn’t even hug me for comfort on either occasion.”
“Doesn’t matter. He probablywantedto. There’s a lot to be said for restraint, too.”
“I think he’s guilty of at least one other item on the list,” Tess said.
“Did he kiss you in the rain? Threaten to beat another man to a pulp because they’d insulted you?”
