Joanna laughed. “Come here, dear sister. We have a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?” Phoebe made her way to the twins, deliberately avoiding setting eyes on Daniel. “You know I do not care for surprises.”
Ellen smiled. “We think you will like this one.”
“Yes. His Lordship was wondering if you would do him the honor of dancing the next set with him,” Joanna added before Daniel himself could ask. “Please, Phoebe, say that you will accept.”
Phoebe eyed the twins. “What are you up to? I do not like the mischief I see on your faces.”
“There is no mischief,” Ellen insisted, “just a desire to see you dance. We both realized that we have almost never seen you dance.”
Phoebe nodded slowly. “Ah, so you want to see me flounder and falter to amuse yourselves?” She did not speak unkindly, a half-smile on her lips. “I shall perform a country dance at home with one of you if that is what you wish to see. But I must warn you, I am not as ungainly as you might think.”
“No, you must dance with a gentleman,” Joanna urged. “And there is no gentleman more perfect for the task than His Lordship. Please, Phoebe. Oh, do say that you will!”
As Daniel observed Phoebe, he noticed the same resignation fall across her face that he had experienced not a moment ago—the understanding that she could not refuse her sister’s request. Yet, she did not look remotely happy about it.
Why would she? You said mean things about her, and she heard every single one of them.
If he had not kissed her, perhaps it would not have been so bad, but evenheknew that hearing such things after a kiss would seem dastardly. However, it was not as if he could explain that he had not meant it, not if he wished to prove that his heart wasnotdrawn ceaselessly to her.
“Very well,” Phoebe said quietly. “If it will please the pair of you, I shall dance.”
Joanna clapped her hands together. “Oh, I am so glad!”
“As am I,” Ellen agreed, though there was something in her demeanor, a restrained giddiness, that bemused Daniel.
Why was she so excited about seeing her sister dance with him? He could not understand it.
Daniel offered his arm to Phoebe. “Shall we?”
“I suppose we must,” Phoebe replied, hesitating briefly before putting her hand on his forearm.
As they walked through the crowd together, Daniel was intensely aware of the stares that burned into their backs. Gossip whispered like wind rustling through a forest, the loudest gusts hailing from the place they had just come from—from the Spinsters’ Club and their two unofficial members, Amelia and Caroline.
“They are up to no good,” Phoebe muttered, glancing back at her sisters. They waved, grinning.
“Or, they reallydojust want you to enjoy yourself,” he said, swallowing down the lump in his throat. “You are too strict and too stern. Maybe they think this will loosen the reins.”
She cast him a sideways look. “I like the reins where they are, thank you very much. Indeed, no good can come from loosening them. I have learned that now.”
He had a feeling she was referring to what happened in the cedar tree, and though he dearly wished to tell her that he did not regret it, that he was only sorry that he had walked away, that he would have given anything to kiss her again, he could not get anything but a grunt of disagreement to come out of his mouth.
The orchestra faded into the end of the current dance. Some of the pairs left the dance floor, leaving space for new couples to join in. Daniel and Phoebe took up their positions in the very center, Daniel standing in line with the gentlemen, while Phoebe stood with the ladies.
Presently, the leaders at the front of the line called for a country dance, and the orchestra struck up a lively tune once more.
As Daniel stepped in to bow to Phoebe, her curtsying in reply, he firmly expected that the dance would be a silent one. She, however, seemed to have other ideas.
“I hope you do not actually think of my sister as cargo to be bought and sold,” she said, startling him with her bluntness.
He missed a step, hurrying to catch up as they circled one another. “As you undoubtedly heard, I do not actually think that. I stated as much,” he replied curtly. “Andyoushould not have been listening in at doors. It is unseemly.”
“I did not intend to. I was hoping to speak with your mother and approached the door, which is when I heard you saying such things. You did not say them quietly either. I could have been on the stairs or the landing, and I would have heard you,” Phoebe retorted, hurt tightening her voice.
I havewounded her.
He suspected as much, but it pained him to hear it with his own ears.
