Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 509(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
“So you had nothing to do with me being in that room? Oh, and while we’re talking about this, Lou being in the Floral Room?”
“Daniel made all the arrangements at Portia’s behest.”
Sadly, I could believe that too.
“Though, when I discovered where you were both assigned, I was dismayed,” he informed me. “But by then, it was too late.”
“It’s the matter of packing a suitcase and moving a room away, Richard,” I pointed out. “Or, if we weren’t really welcome, finding a hotel or inn nearby.”
“Staff prepare those rooms, Daphne, and they have other duties as well. You can’t understand the running of a house like Duncroft. Nothing is as easy as you think.”
That was probably true too.
Though Ian managed to get us moved without much trouble. I was there when he ordered it, and none of the staff seemed overwhelmed with the additional duties.
“I think Ian shared he wasn’t pleased at the arrangements, and you didn’t tell him it was Daniel and Portia’s idea,” I reminded him.
“He was angry. They don’t get along. Jane and I both try to run interference. I knew if he knew it was Daniel, this would cause problems between my sons.”
Shit!
That was a good excuse too.
“And while we’re on the subject of Ian,” he began.
Here we go, I thought.
“I’m pleased you two are getting on so well.”
Well, knock me over with a feather.
He looked sincere about that too.
“Your patisserie is well-known and well-regarded. I heard your pastries were even ordered by Buckingham Palace for some event or other.”
He heard right.
That was a huge coup.
I didn’t confirm.
Richard kept talking, “Ian needs a woman who…how shall I put this, has her own pursuits.”
Well, hell.
“He’s a busy man,” he continued. “He travels often. And I believe he’d become bored very easily with a woman who waited at home for him, or tagged along, demanding his attention.”
Well, hell again, because that wasn’t where I thought this was going.
I thought he was insinuating Ian needed someone who had something to take her attention so he could fuck around on her at his whim.
It seemed I was wrong.
I studied Richard closely.
Cripes, did I have this guy’s approval?
“And Jane likes you enormously,” he concluded.
That felt nice.
“I like her too,” I muttered.
“We don’t have to be enemies, no matter what my son has told you about me,” he said. “Obviously, if he finds a woman with whom to settle down, create a family, she and her children would be my family as well.”
Regrettably, not a selling point for Ian.
But we’d just kissed. I’d known him mere days.
And oddly, it seemed Jane was grooming me to take over for her, and Richard already had us married off.
“I’m honestly concerned for Louella,” he said quietly. “Whatever you think of me, she had an alarming incident in my home. I understand how you can’t understand how difficult it was for me to learn of that, and why you wouldn’t. To have everyone off to the hospital to be with her. And it was inappropriate for me to come along. And yet, outside of you, I’m the one in this house who holds the most affection for her.”
I looked hard, and I couldn’t believe it, but it appeared he wasn’t lying.
As such, I matched his tone when I said, “I didn’t know about you two. I wish I still didn’t. But I get it, and you have my apology for being unkind when I came in here. It’s been a bad day.”
He appeared mollified. “Yes, it has. It’s upsetting for all of us, but I know, especially for you. I hope the drama is over for you, and the rest of your stay at Duncroft is far more enjoyable than it’s begun.”
He held his hand out to me like we’d shake.
Détente with Richard Alcott?
I had enough going on. I didn’t need to be feuding with the father of the man I was…what? Seeing? Dating in a Conservatory?
God, this was all so weird.
I took his hand.
He squeezed minimally and let me go.
“Enjoy the rest of your night and sleep well, Daphne,” he bid.
“You too, Richard.”
I took my leave and almost stopped at Ian’s room on the way to my own to tell him what just happened, but I decided against it.
I wasn’t sure he needed to know any of that.
Also, I was tired, worn out actually, and my head felt almost woozy.
I hadn’t had dinner, but I’d had a lot of drama.
I needed a bath and bed.
And hopefully a good night’s sleep.
I headed to the Rose Room to get that, knowing that things had been very strange.
But not knowing it was about to get much, much worse.
Twenty-One
THE ROSE ROOM
The first text came when I was in the bath.
You disappeared and didn’t say goodnight.
I haven’t gone to bed. I’m relaxing in the bath. I returned.
Torture, he replied.
I grinned.
The next came when I was undoing the work of the girls by slapping open all the curtains in the bedroom.