Page 16 of The Duke I Wished For (A Maypole in Mayfair #5)

J ocelyn rested against the doorframe of Delilah’s room at Madame Bellafonte’s, her lips pursed in a pout as she waved her fan in a vain attempt to dispel the London heat.

It was already wretchedly hot, and to think, the summer had only just begun.

“First we must say farewell to Daffodil, and now you as well?” Jane said.

She too was pouting, and it seemed Jane’s attempt to fight the heat was to sprawl out on Delilah’s bed, arms and legs spread wide like she was in the midst of creating a snow angel.

Delilah gave them both a sweet smile. “I won’t be gone for long. I’ll likely be back in time for the fall…” Her nose crinkled. “Unless my mother’s made a match for me by then.”

Isabelle, who was sitting cross-legged on Delilah’s window seat, tipped her head to the side with a reassuring smile. “Daff won’t let your mother marry you off to some ogre. And neither will Hathshire.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” Delilah’s strained smile belied her words.

Jocelyn straightened, and Jane sat up on the bed. “Lila, if your mother tries to force your hand you must tell us at once,” Jane started.

“And Daff, of course,” Jocelyn added, “between all of us, your mother won’t be able to?—”

“Oh no,” Delilah said quickly. “I know you’re right. Daff and Hathshire won’t allow her to force me into a match I do not want, it’s just…”

“What is it?” Isabelle asked when Delilah trailed off.

Delilah gave them all a smile so sweet it made Jocelyn worry on her behalf all over again. If anyone deserved to find the sort of sweet happily-ever-after that Daff had found, it was Delilah.

Heaven knew it wasn’t in the cards for Jocelyn.

And Jane wanted to find her Prince Charming as much as she wanted to don a too-tight bodice and attend high tea with the matrons of society. Which was to say…not at all.

Isabelle would find her happy ending, of this Jocelyn had no doubt. Her father was an earl and he doted on her. Surely he’d give her the freedom to choose her own husband.

But Delilah’s mother was as good as a wicked witch.

“Truly, there is no need to worry about me,” Delilah said.

Jocelyn glanced around to see that Jane and Isabelle were wearing matching looks of concern.

Jocelyn supposed they were all thinking of just how underhanded and manipulative Daff and Delilah’s mother could be.

And now that she’d been outranked by her eldest daughter and had lost any power she’d once had there…

Jocelyn knew she wasn’t the only one worried about how their mother might treat Delilah.

Delilah sighed. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

Isabelle brightened. “We’ll just miss you, that’s all.”

“It’s true,” Jane said. Turning to Isabelle, she added, “We’ll miss you, as well. When do you leave for your father’s country estate?”

“Not for another few days,” she said, a wistful smile on her pretty face.

“I must admit, I’m looking forward to spending time in the country and with my father.

Oh!” She sat up straight, her smile brilliant.

“And Hathshire arranged for me to see his brother’s library.

He has an estate near ours, and according to Hathshire, the library is not to be believed. ”

Jocelyn smiled at the other girl. “That’s wonderful, Isabelle.”

“I, for one, will be green with envy,” Jane sighed.

Isabelle blinked in surprise. “You wish to visit his library as well?”

Jocelyn laughed at the misunderstanding, but Jane was quick to explain.

“No, of course not. I have no use for libraries. I just meant…” She waved a hand between Delilah and Isabelle.

“You two will be enjoying long rides in meadows and picnics in a grove of trees, and Jocelyn and I will be left here to rot.”

Jocelyn choked on another laugh. “Are you certain riding is your passion? I do believe you have a talent for melodrama.”

Jane grinned at her teasing. “Perhaps. But you can’t tell me you wouldn’t rather be enjoying a summer in the country than in the odorous squalor that is London this time of year.”

Jocelyn lifted her fan again and made a noncommittal sound, grateful when the conversation turned to Isabelle’s travel arrangements.

Truthfully, the only reason Jocelyn was staying in London through July was because she wished to stay.

She could very well join her brother and Rose in the country now if she wished.

But her brother’s best friend Harlow had agreed to escort her in three weeks’ time. Which would give her just enough time…

Jocelyn had plans of her own this summer, and being in the country, constantly under her brother’s watchful eye, would not do.

But she couldn’t tell Jane that. It would be churlish to admit she was welcome anytime at her family’s estate when Jane’s horrid parents had all but abandoned her here. They seemed to think her too wild and willful for her own good.

Jane’s parents no doubt feared that if Jane joined them in the country, she’d take off on one of her precious horses and never look back.

“Well, despite my excitement over the library,” Isabelle said, giving Jocelyn and Jane a sweet smile, “I do hope I’ll see you both when I return in the autumn.”

“I will undoubtedly still be in exile here,” Jane said with a sigh. But then she grinned suddenly, her demeanor unable to stay maudlin for long. “But knowing you all are returning makes my prison sentence much easier to bear.”

“I do hope you never tell Madame Bellafonte that you consider this place a prison,” Isabelle teased.

Delilah giggled softly as she neatly folded the last of her things.

“Not a prison,” Jane agreed. “But it would be so much nicer if we had a stable. Perhaps I should ask our cousin Aubrey if they might consider adding a stable…”

“Is that what you wished for when we gathered ’round the maypole?” Isabelle asked.

Jane narrowed her eyes teasingly. “I always heard you aren’t supposed to say your wish aloud or it won’t come true.”

“So you did make a wish then,” Jocelyn teased.

“Of course I did!” Jane said.

“I did as well,” Isabelle admitted.

“We all know what you wished for,” Jane said. “Your dreams of opening a library are no secret,” Jane said. “But what about you, Lila? Did you make a wish for your fairy-tale romance?”

Delilah’s smile was wistful. “Something like that. And I hope…” She dipped her head. “I hope I’ll get my wish before long.”

A silence fell, and Jocelyn broke it with a teasing whisper. “So mysterious.”

The others all laughed, including Delilah, who cast her a look of feigned indignation. “Well, my wish is not as scandalous as yours, I suppose. Did you really make your wish for a kiss?”

“Not just any kiss,” Jocelyn shot back, her tone playfully haughty. “The perfect kiss.”

“Oh, the perfect kiss,” Isabelle sighed. “That sounds romantic.”

Jocelyn merely smiled and went back to fanning herself, content to listen to the others laugh and tease.

Delilah shut her valise, and the sound felt ominously loud. Or perhaps it was Delilah’s strange silence as she stood there, shoulders slumped, staring down at her trunks.

“Delilah?” Isabelle said softly.

Delilah turned to face them with a smile, but her eyes were suspiciously wet. “If I don’t return next year…if I’m married by then, or…or have found some other place to live…”

Isabelle, Jocelyn, and Jane exchanged concerned looks, but Delilah took a deep breath and finished. “Well, I just want you all to know how much you mean to me.”

All three of them burst into motion at once, swarming Delilah with an embrace that made them all burst out laughing as they lost their balance.

“Right then,” Delilah said when a footman came to fetch her things. “I’ll be off.”

Isabelle offered to walk her to the door, and Jane turned to Jocelyn, a wry smile twisting her lips. “Soon it will just be you and me, Jocelyn. How do you suppose we’ll survive this dull summer on our own?”

Jocelyn felt a smile of her own tugging at the corner of her lips, excitement bubbling in her veins. “These next few weeks may be many things, Jane, but I vow it will not be dull.”

Jane narrowed her eyes and gave her a sidelong appraising look. “No?”

“No.” Jocelyn linked her arm through Jane’s. “I have plans, you see. And while I’m here with you in London…I plan to make my wish come true.”

* * *

“If you’re going to kiss a rake, it’s going to be me.” -Harlow

Meet Harlow in the next Maypole in Mayfair story,

The Rake I Wished For !