“No, of course you did not, for you have the manners of an urchin!” Phoebe shot back, the cold of the flavored ice reaching her skin. She gasped at the chill of it. “This is the third gown of mine you have ruined. Goodness, what is the matter with you?”
Daniel retracted his handkerchief. “Miss Wilson, need I remind you thatyouwalked intome. I am sorry that your gown is ruined, but, on this occasion, the fault was not mine. You ought to look where you are going. As for why I chose to come up here to eat my strawberry ice, I needed a moment away from the festivities, as it appears you also did, or did you encounter another gentleman who you deemed unworthy of speaking with your sisters, and came up here to indulge in a tantrum?”
Phoebe had never hated anyone in her life, finding the word “hate” to be too strong for something that could just as easily be considered ordinary dislike, but, at that moment, she loathed Daniel Barnet with every fiber of her being.
“How generous of you to bring up that important matter,” she said frostily, helped into the feeling of icy contempt by the red, sugary sweet water that was in the midst of turning her skin sticky. “You have proven my first judgment of you to be correct by your behavior this evening. As such, let me make something very clear to you—you will stay away from Joanna. Ellen, too, if you think it might be amusing to simply change sister.”
Daniel tilted his head, smirking. “On the contrary, I have decided that I am going to court your sister. She is entertaining, she is amusing, she is enthusiastic, she dances well, and she seems interested, in return—why should I not consider her? After all, Iamsearching for a wife. One with vigor and vitality, who has not yet become…” His gaze dropped to the green of her gown “…jadedby Society.”
“You will find another,” Phoebe insisted, her voice a growl in the back of her throat. “My sister is not for you.”
Daniel’s charming smile refused to leave his face, infuriating her further. “We shall see what your father has to say about the matter,” he told her. “He will be the deciding vote, not you, and I do believe it shall swing in my favor.”
“Absolutely not!” Phoebe yelped. “You will keep your distance from Joanna. You will not court her. You will stay as far from her as humanly possible, for if you think I shall allow it, in any capacity, you are destined for a crushing disappointment.”
Daniel leaned in, draping his handkerchief over Phoebe’s shoulder. “I shall not require that back,” he said, still smiling. “Perhaps we can discuss the cost of a replacement gown when I visit to speak with your father.”
“You will not do this,” Phoebe retorted, panic and anger creating a sickening thrum in her head. “Iam the one charged with my sisters’ welfare, and you are no good for her. You will do as you are told.”
Daniel laughed softly, his damnable eyes—so dark they appeared black—twinkling in the low light. There was a reason that all of Society’s ladies secretly whispered about him being a vampire, swooning over the thought of him grazing his sharp teeth against their necks, conjuring stories about him being so pale and obscenely handsome because he was immortal, and could makethemimmortal if they could get him to fall in love with them. To Phoebe, he certainly had the arrogance of someone immortal.
“Dear Miss Wilson,” he said in a silky voice, leaning in closer, his mouth so close that she felt his breath against her skin, “I am not the sort of gentleman who follows orders or likes being told what to do. Expect my visit. Soon.”
With that mischievous smile still fixed on his face, he dipped into a graceful bow and turned his back to her, striding away as if he had not just thrown a cup full of strawberry ice all over her. What was worse, she could not follow and berate him further; she could not return to the ball at all, not looking like that.
My father will heed me when I tell him that Daniel is not a fit match for Joanna,she reassured herself, glaring at the retreating, broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted back of that wretched miscreant.
He might have convinced all of Society that he was the year’s most eligible bachelor, but he would not get what he wanted, this time, not if Phoebe had anything to do about it.
Yet, as she stared down at the ruined gown, she had the most awful feeling that it might already be out of her hands. Her father did not care enough not to agree if Daniel asked.
I must stop him from ever meeting with my father,she knew, hurtling back the way she had come, to change into her day dress—the only other dress she had with her. Once she had done that, she would make sure that Daniel and her father never had the chance to cross paths.
CHAPTERFOUR
“What were you doing upstairs?” Olivia’s surprised voice halted Daniel in his tracks. Evan stood beside her, looking equally suspicious.
Daniel raised the now mostly empty cup of strawberry ice. “I needed a moment to myself. The mothers here are rather wild—one or two have literally shoved their daughters at me.”
“The smoking room or the gentlemen’s parlor would not have sufficed?” Evan asked, with a strange look in his eyes.
As cousins, they somewhat resembled one another, and knew one another as closely as brothers—Daniel had rarely been able to hide anything from Evan.
Daniel shrugged. “I had intended to retreat to my guest chambers to eat my strawberry ice, but then I saw those two friends of yours.” He looked at Olivia. “I had to pass them to reach my chambers, and I did not want them to think I was following them, so I ate my little treat on the landing and returned to the festivities.”
“What a silly notion.” Olivia chuckled. “Why would they have thought you were following them? Indeed, Anna must have passed you, for she has already returned to the ballroom.”
Daniel frowned. “Is she the small one?”
“I suppose she is quite small,” Olivia replied. “Daniel, if I may say so, you are behaving rather strangely this evening. Not at all like yourself.”
Evan smiled. “I was about to say the same thing. It would not have anything to do with Miss Wilson, would it?”
“Which one?” Daniel replied, too quickly.
Evan cast his cousin a pointed look. “The one you keep infuriating.”
“Ah, her. No, certainly not.” Daniel cleared his throat, the lingering taste of strawberry now the taste of guilt.
