Page 8

He glowered at her. “I lost my handkerchief.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t tut and sigh. Tell me what is wrong, and I’ll talk to you frankly about it.”

Alex eyed her suspiciously. “Like a grownup?”

Daphne inclined her head. “Like a grownup.”

He sniffed. “Very well. If you must know, it is my father. I am the greatest disappointment in his life, and he takes no trouble to hide it.”

Daphne flinched. “I’m sure that can’t be true.”

“I’m sure you don’t know my father. Hehatesme.”

She bit her lip, trying to think of something to say.

Alex moved over to the back of the stone structure and sat down on the ground, his back against the wall. Drawing his knees up to his chest, he wrapped his arms around them and perched his chin on top. Suddenly, he looked simultaneously much older and much younger than his eight years.

She sighed and moved over to sit beside him.

“My father made a great many mistakes in his life,” she said, after a pause. “He did things he should not have done. He hurt me and my sisters, and my mother, too. He was only human, and humans do make mistakes, whether they want to or not. But despite it all, he loved us. He loved us so much, and we loved him.”

Alex stuck out his lip petulantly. “Well, that’s all very well for you, but my father is different.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. He’s cruel.”

Daphne flinched a little at that word. “Cruel?” she repeated carefully. “What do you mean by that?”

She glanced over his small frame, looking for bruises or scrapes, signs that he was underfed or abused in some way.

Alex caught her eye and sighed theatrically. “He doesn’t hurt me if that’s what you mean. At least, he doesn’t hit me, or cane me, or anything like that. He’s never done that.”

Daphne relaxed a little. “Well, I’m glad to hear that. But then what do you mean bycruel?”

Alex shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It’s too much to explain. But let me assure you that I quite hate him, and he hates me.”

Daphne nibbled on her lip, trying to come up with something clever to say. It was no good assuring Alex that his father really did love him when she didn’t know the man in question. He might be a monster, cold and heartless like so many of the ton.

Daphne personally knew many gentlemen who truly believed that their children had nothing to do with them, and never bothered themselves with parenting in any way, leaving it entirely to the ladies. And sometimes the ladies did not bother, either.

And then, of course, when their children grew up wild and cold, they had the audacity to be baffled and wonder what they had done to deserve it.

No, she had better keep her mouth shut until she understood the situation.

Not that I willbe staying here long enough to understand the situation,she reminded herself.

“Well, I’m sorry for it,” she said, at last. “Families can be tricky.”

Alex snorted. “You can say that again. And then there’s Grandmama, always poking her nose in and telling tales. She seems to have a knack for making everything worse.”

“My sister is a little like that,” Daphne agreed. “My older sister, that is. She’s married and has children, and rather believes that she knows everything. It’s irritating that she is so frequently right.”

Alex nodded in agreement.

They sat there in silence for a few more minutes, until the rain appeared to ease off a little more.

“I suppose I should go home,” Alex muttered. “They’ll all be out, looking for me.”