Page 77 of Road Trip With a Rogue

Tess frowned. “I assume the hermit you were referring to is the one we visited in Vauxhall Gardens a few years ago? The one who said your ideal match would be with a highwayman?”

“I think the actual wording on her scroll was that she’d ‘meet her true match on a dark highway,’” Ellie said. “But what has that to do with anything? Why is London abuzz with rumors about you and the Duke of Cranford—the man currently playing billiards downstairs with our husbands?”

“The man who looked at you as if he couldn’t decide whether to strangle you or drag you off into the nearestdark corner and ravish you,” Tess added gleefully. “And believe me, I’m familiar with the look. It’s one my husband employs on an almost daily basis.”

“Mine too,” Ellie chuckled. “Come on, out with it!”

Chapter Thirty-Five

Daisy sank onto the bed next to Ellie and drew up her knees. “First of all, tell me exactly what rumors you’ve heard concerning myself and Vaughan.”

“There were a score of them flying around Cecelia Lambert’s card party last night,” Tess said. “You’re either his mistress, his fiancée, or his wife, depending on who you ask. Everyone kept asking Ellie and me to confirm something, but of course we pleaded ignorance.”

Daisy groaned. It was as bad as she’d feared. “Thank you. But I’m afraid there’s no stopping this now. You’ve already seen the happy couple, Peregrine and Violet, downstairs, so you know I failed to catch them before they tied the knot at Gretna Green.”

Tess shrugged. “Who cares about them? We care aboutyou. What’s going on? Are you having a torrid affair with Vaughan? Please say yes. That man is glorious.”

Heat warmed Daisy’s cheeks. “Not exactly. I mean, Ididallow him to seduce me. Just once—I mean, on just the one occasion—one night—”

Ellie’s mouth opened as if she were about to ask a question, or ten, but Daisy rushed on.

“—but the real disaster happened when Letty Richardson saw us together at Gretna Green. Vaughan told her we were engaged, thinking that would save my reputation.”

Ellie’s eyes widened behind her gold-rimmed spectacles. “Oh goodness.”

“So what did you do?” Tess demanded, her voice rising in excitement. “Go to the blacksmith and say ‘I do’? Are you Her Grace, the Duchess of Cranford?”

“I am not. Before I had the chance to think, I was kidnapped by three idiot brothers who’d overheard Vaughan saying I was to be his duchess. They planned to hold me for ransom.”

Daisy recounted the subsequent events in as much detail as she could remember, and when she was done the two of them stared at her in bemusement.

“So now I don’t know what to do,” Daisy finished. “I’ve gone through all the possible options, and not one is satisfactory.”

Ellie wrinkled her nose. “Wait a minute. Can someone explain to me why marriage to Lucien Vaughan—Duke of Cranford, handsome as sin, rich as Croesus—isunsatisfactory? I’ll admit he’s tall, dark, and terrifying, and known to shoot people at the slightest provocation, but I’ve never heard of him mistreating a woman. Far from it. He has the reputation for keeping womenextremelysatisfied. At least until he gets bored and leaves them. What happened? You say he seduced you. Was it a disaster?”

“A complete disaster,” Daisy admitted. “But not in the way you mean. It was a disaster in the sense that I hoped it would banish the ghost of him from my foolish brain. I thought one night with him would prove that he was nothing special.”

“Ah.” Tess managed to imbue the single syllable with a world of meaning.

Daisy sighed. “I thought it would work in the same way as those inoculations invented by Dr. Jenner. If I deliberately infected myself with a small dose of the disease—Vaughan, in this case—I’d be able to fight off a much more serious case in the future. But I was wrong. I didn’t make myself immune. All I did was give myself a full-blown case of him. He’s all I can think about. All I want. I aminfected, and the worst of it is, I don’t think it’s simply incurable lust. I have all sorts of other complicated feelings about him.”

Tess and Ellie were both regarding her with fascinated, rapt expressions.

“What other sort of feelings?” Tess asked.

“Ilikehim. Even though he’s an absolute monster.” Daisy shook her head, disgusted with herself. “He fought for me, risked his life for me. Cared for me when I was ill. He was kind.”

Ellie frowned. “Well, that’s not fair. It’s bad enough him looking like he does, and being all brooding and masterful, but if he’s secretlynicebeneath all that sarcasm, how were you supposed to resist?”

“Everything conspired against me,” Daisy wailed. “There was only one bed. Only one horse. Hebathedin front of me, for heaven’s sake.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” Tess muttered. “Baths are notoriously dangerous. There’s not much he could do to make you change your opinion now either. Maybe if he went about kicking dogs, or assaulting his staff?”

“He doesn’t,” Daisy said dismally. “His staff all dote on him, and so does his nephew. And he’s kind to animals. He refused to let the carriage horses be overworked, ortravel at night, and I saw him give the crust of his pie to one of the dogs in the yard at the White Horse.”

“He did lie to you all the way to Gretna,” Tess rallied.

“But then he proposed to save her reputation,” Ellie countered. “That was very noble.”