Daisy by MC Beaton Read Free Book Online Page A

keep hoping that he loves me.”
    “Good heavens,” said the Duke with lazy mockery. “All that feeling churning around in such a virginal body. You were not in love, my child. You were simply dazzled by facile good looks, an easy manner… and a title.”
    “Titles mean nothing to me!” snapped Daisy. “You’re a Duke. That’s greater than an Earl. I didn’t fall in love with you.”
    “I didn’t try to make you do so,” he said lazily, sliding down to the ground and leaning his head against the log. He closed his eyes.
    “
You
didn’t try to make me do so,” repeated Daisy with a startlingly fair imitation of His Grace’s aristocratic drawl. “Let me tell you that I would never fall in love with you. Why—you—you could try till you were blue in the face!”
    “Don’t be too sure,” mocked the lazy voice, as the Duke settled himself back comfortably against the log.
    “Have you never been in love?” asked Daisy curiously.
    “Never,” he replied. “I leave that doubtful emotion to fools and poets. Love! What utter bosh. Love is nothing but a trick of the mind to make a baser emotion more respectable; greed, passion, or where the one wants a daddy to hide her from the naughty world and the other a mummy. Men of my class finally marry because they wish for heirs. They choose a girl of suitable fortune and birth, and if they’re damned dishonest or just plain silly or…”—here one yellow eye opened and stared at Daisy—“read too many romances, they persuade themselves they are in love.”
    “Oh, you’re insufferable!” cried Daisy, jumping to her feet. “I may have made a mistake with the Earl, but let me tell you I feel in my bones that true love does exist and I—I’ll
prove
it to you!”
    “Dear me!” He opened both eyes in mock alarm. “Don’t tell me you are going to swoon around in front of me with a lot of young men just to persuade me?”
    “No. But you will recognize it when you see it. And I will not settle for less, Your Grace.”
    “You may call me Toby.”
    “Toby? That’s a name for jugs and collies.”
    “Don’t be impertinent. My name is Tobias, the diminutive is Toby. Jugs, indeed! I will place a bet with you, my dear.”
    “A bet? I have no money.”
    “A lock of your pretty hair will suffice. Now, isn’t that romantic? I, in return, will give you one thousand golden guineas if you can prove to me that you have found the perfect love match. Prepare to lose your hair. Like the rest of us you will settle for money or companionship.”
    Daisy held out her small, still work-roughened hand. He shook it solemnly and then settled back against the log and closed his eyes.
    After a little while Daisy asked timidly, “Did the Earl behave to previous young ladies the… the way he behaved to me?”
    No reply. She looked down and found to her exasperation that her noble companion had fallen fast asleep. She took a step forward and then sat down again. In the argument with the Duke, she had, for a few precious minutes, forgotten her hurt. She felt suddenly too frightened to face the house party alone. His Grace had at least given her a role to play to hide her wounds. She looked thoughtfully down at the sleeping figure. What an odd, uncomfortable man he was to be sure. But at the moment he seemed to be her only protector in a strange world. She decided to wait until he awoke.
    The couple stayed motionless throughout the long day, the Duke silently asleep and Daisy bolt upright on her log, nursing her pain and feeling a slow, burning anger against her hosts beginning to take its place.
    The long light was slanting through the trees and Daisy was just beginning to feel cold and stiff when the Duke awoke. He glanced at the heavy gold Hunter in his waistcoat pocket and then leapt to his feet. “My poor girl! I must have slept all day. I got to my rooms late last evening and then spent the rest of the night reading.” He stretched and gave a cavernous yawn. “Poor Daisy,