One cannot give away a heart that has already been stolen…
They fell silent again, but there was a strange glint in Phoebe’s eyes that concerned him. He could almost see the cogs turning in her mind as she tried to put unknown pieces together.
A moment later, she said haltingly, “But if you are saying that the loss of someone’s beloved can destroy a person, why did you say that the loss ofmewould destroyyou?”
His breath caught in the back of his throat, for he could offer no true confession to her. What he had already said was all he was willing to say, and, considering she was no fool, he guessed she already knew the implication. It had been a slightly selfish act, but if he was going to spend the rest of his life—however short—holding her in his heart, he had wanted her to know, to some degree, how he felt about her.
At that moment, Daniel realized he had not let go of Phoebe’s hand, though the wound in her palm had been bandaged a while ago. All the time he had been talking, he had been brushing the injury with his thumb, just as he had brushed the side of her neck when they embraced. And he knew that when he let her hand go, it would be for the last time.
“We should return to the manor,” he said, jumping up. “Ellen must be back, by now.”
But Phoebe stayed seated. “You will not elaborate?”
“People will be worrying,” he urged, offering his hand.
She would not budge. “At least answer me this. Are you truly determined to marry my sister? You could not find someone else?”
“I fear I do not have time for that,” he replied, stretching out his fingers. “Please, let us return to the manor.”
Do not interrogate me further, for I do not want to hurt us both any more than I already have.
Perhaps she saw the struggle on his face, or perhaps she had resigned herself to the path that had to be taken. Either way, she refused his proffered hand, pushed herself up to her feet, and began to walk toward the nearest gap in the hedge maze.
Daniel cleared his throat. “Phoebe?”
“Yes?” She turned, her eyes wide and hopeful for a crushing moment.
He gestured toward the eastern path. “It is this way.”
“Ah… of course.”
She altered her course, moving quickly toward the eastern gap in the hedges, where the darkness swallowed her up. And though he knew he should follow immediately behind her, he remained in the center of the maze for a few seconds longer, whispering his confession to the silent night.
“I am falling in love with you, Phoebe Wilson. I am doing this to spare us both.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
“Any sign of her?” Phoebe fidgeted at the side of the ballroom where the search party had gathered, though without the twin they had been chasing.
Matilda shook her head grimly. “Why did I not watch her? Why did I insist on making that awful man listen to me harp on about rosehip oil? I swear to you, Phoebe, I looked away for no more than a few minutes.”
“She was not anywhere that I looked,” Anna admitted quietly, shaking her head.
“None of the guests I spoke to said they had seen her,” Daniel added, which Phoebe thought he might have mentioned while they were out in the maze together, instead of toying with her heart.
If the loss of me would destroy him, then that must mean that he… loves me, does it not?
She batted away the thought, forcing herself to concentrate on Ellen. It was her sister who was in potential danger, not her. All she would suffer was a broken heart and some wounded pride, but those could be fixed with time. If Ellen had gone missing or done something stupid, that would not be so easily fixed.
“Nathaniel has been to search the stables,” Leah said, having joined the search party. “He said there were no horses or carriages missing, and the stablemaster had not seen anyone sneaking around.”
Olivia nodded. “I have been to Daisy House and back with Evan, but there is no sign of her there either.”
“I have looked in all of my usual hiding places,” Caroline chimed in, wringing her hands, “but Ellen was not in any of them, not even in the ones I most recently showed her.”
Amelia jumped in with a more reasonable explanation, to calm the rising worry among the group. “I am certain that she fell asleep somewhere that only a young girl, with no consideration for worrying her elders, can fall asleep. I remember doing the same thing when I was a youngling. Fell asleep behind an armchair in a study no one used. My mother was furious when I was eventually found. She thought I had absconded with the gardener, for it was just before my wedding, and the gardenerwasparticularly handsome.”
“Particularly handsome,” Phoebe repeated quietly, a dreadful thought swinging into her head like a rock. “Has anyone seen the Baron of Harburgh tonight?”
