Lord Beast (8 page)

She couldn’t lie to herself. She
did want him in the only primal sense she could think of. And he didn’t want
her.

“I don’t want you invading my
life like you have been,” he was saying, ferociously, and Dani flinched. “I
don’t want you around me, I don’t want you anywhere near Falmouth! Why can’t
you get that into your silly little head?”

She couldn’t say anything even if
she wanted to. She’d probably burst into howling yelps if she just opened her
mouth.

He stopped and faced her.

“Damnit, Danielle, say
something
!”

And for some reason, the only
thought that was swimming around her mind was:
I won’t marry you, I won’t
marry, I won’t marry you!
“I didn’t
ask
you to marry me,” she
whispered. Horrified, she felt her cheeks dampen and raised her fingers to her
cheeks to find the tears that she had been holding back were sliding down her
face, unbidden.

She fled, darting back into the
maze, her vision blurred.

“Jesus, Danielle,
wait
!”

She ignored his command and continued
to run. Miraculously, she only stumbled upon two dead ends before she burst
free from the maze and ran home.

Rhys was on her heels and exited
the maze seconds after her, just in time to see her run up the hill towards the
road that would take her back to the village. In the mad pursuit after her, his
hood had blown back and he angrily yanked it over his face.

She cried herself to sleep that
night.

It was amazing how exhausting a
fit of tears could make one for it put her right to sleep despite the aching
pressure being applied to her spine. She made a mental note to utilize the
method in future when her back kept her up all night.

Surprisingly, she slept most of
the next day and Aunt Fiona, bless her sweet soul, didn’t disturb her at all
except to leave her food, to check on her person, and drop off her mail.

The same occurred the following
night and by the morning she was feeling much better. In fact, she was feeling
better and more level-headed than she had been in days. Her back didn’t seem
inclined to bother her at all today, which was a rare occurrence indeed.

She climbed out of bed and
stretched, testing the willingness of her spine. It must be late, judging by
the bright sunlight streaming in through the window. She gazed admiringly out
across the blue-green water of the ocean, her eyes drifting unwillingly to the
forbidding spires of Falmouth. She sighed as her heart gave a painful lurch.
Forbidden, she thought sadly, but not forgotten.

She let loose another maudlin
sigh before settling before her vanity to brush her hair. The vase of flowers
caught her eye and she quickly looked away. Suddenly, everything in her room
was reminding her of him and it was suffocating. She lurched to her feet,
snatched the vase, and hurled it out the open window.
Open?

She
never
left her window
open. The cold tripled the pain in her spine normally, so her room was usually
kept as warm as possible. Her eyes riveted to the bright bouquet of roses
placed on her bedside table. How the hell had she missed
that
? It was
enormous! They had to be at least fifty of the bright, multi-coloured blooms.
Their vase was equally beautiful, crystal probably, and at the base was a
cream-coloured envelope sealed with a red wax seal.

She lunged for it like a woman
starved and ripped it open, her eyes devouring the broad, elegant script that
flowed across the page with swift, strong strokes.

And her heart stopped beating.

Freckles

Forgive me?

Yours,

Rhys.

“Danielle!” her aunt called
through the wood of her door. “You have a visitor. Come downstairs, dear.
You’ve slept the morning away, although I daresay you needed the sleep.”

Her heart began to beat again and
with fury. It right near wanted to explode from her chest. Rhys had come to
visit her!

She completed her toilette in
about ten minutes, record time if one considered the endless stream of buttons
down the back of her black mourning gown. Dani didn’t even bother with her hair
but she downright burst from her room and practically ran down the stairs and
into the sitting room where… Damn. It was only Victoria.

Not that she wasn’t excited to
see her friend- it was just so overwhelming… the roses, the note and then the
visitor. Oh God, she must be going mad if she had actually thought Rhys would
call upon her at her aging aunt and uncle’s cottage. Mad.

“Dani!” Victoria jumped to her
feet and flung herself into her friend’s arms, squeezing tightly. God, a hug
felt
good
. Dani couldn’t remember the last time somebody had given her a
hug. Lord knew her mother hardly touched her and Fiona, for all the affection
she held for Dani, wasn’t very exhibitionist when it came to emotions.

The only person who had ever
touched her in an affectionate manner had to be Vicky… and Rhys. She was so
desperate for a hug she would notch his passionate embrace as one.

“It’s so good to see you,” Dani
mumbled against her friend’s shoulder.

Vicky pulled away and grinned.
“And you!” She bounced happily a moment before dragging her over to the sofa
which she had energetically vacated.

The thing about Victoria was that
she was a bundle of vibrant energy whereas Dani… was not. It wasn’t that she
couldn’t keep up with her friend, but more that her back just wouldn’t let her.

“How have you been? Oh, I’m so
sorry to hear of your mother, truly I am.”

“It’s alright, Vicky,” Dani said
earnestly. “I’m fine.”

After a moment, Vicky pinned a
beauteous smile to her lovely face. “We’ve got a lot of shopping to do,” she
said cheerfully. “Starting right now. I hope you’re ready to go-”

“Vicky, you didn’t specify when
exactly this ball is-”

“Oh, silly me! Gabriel’s been
keeping me so busy of late-”

Dani narrowed her eyes at
Victoria and the raven-haired woman blushed. “Well,” she mumbled, “that’s not
really important, is it? Anyway, the ball is two nights hence.”

“That is hardly any time at all!”

Vicky gave her friend a blank
look. “So?”

“Vicky, that’s hardly enough time
to get costumed!”

The other woman shrugged her
shoulders nonchalantly. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said breezily. “Gabriel
loaned me plenty of money to sort out both my costume and his.” Her expression
turned positively naughty. “I’m thinking of making him go as a pumpkin!”

“You’re too cruel,” Dani
admonished, recalling vividly Gabriel Sinclair as a dark and serious individual
who would not find humour in being dressed like a big, orange vegetable.

Vicky laughed. “Oh, no I’m not. I
simply adore him. But as I was saying, he gave me all this money for our two
costumes and they’ll never surmount to that, so he agreed to let me have the
rest as spending money-”

“How generous of him.”

“You’re mocking me, Dani,” she
said slowly. “But, anyway, I was just about to tell you that I’d like nothing
more than to spend some of that money securing a costume for you because I know
that you could use some excitement for one night out here in the country and
that you won’t be at the next season-”

“Victoria, you’re babbling.”

She grinned wryly, wrinkling her
nose. “I know. Dreadful habit. Gabriel says-” At Dani’s dry look, she cleared
her throat delicately. “I do love him, you know.”

“I know,” Dani assured her friend
with a demonstrative pat on her hand.

“I hope that, someday, you’ll
find somebody to love as much as I love Gabriel.”

She involuntarily thought of Rhys
but shoved the man from her mind. It was becoming increasingly clear that she
would not be able to see him today, so there was no point in letting the
expectation suffocate her. She was going to enjoy her day with Victoria
immensely and then tonight… she smiled secretively… well, tonight she’d pay
him
a visit.

It didn’t take long for Dani to
realise that Victoria was intent on exhausting her. The blasted woman had too
much energy for her own good and Dani was fatigued after two hours spent at
Truro’s popular modiste. Unfortunately for Gabriel, he would be going as a pumpkin,
after all.

However, most of the time was
spent deciphering what Dani would wear to the ball and yards of dark fabric
were brought forth, held up against her, pinned and pricked into her skin and
so on.

Having firmly come to the
conclusion that she was averse to shopping altogether, Vicky promptly dragged
her to several other outlets all of which she was required to spend several
further hours in each.

By the time the carriage bearing
the two ladies rolled back to Dani’s cottage, it was dark and her back was in
agony again. Carriage rides did not agree with her.

She allowed herself to soak in a
hot bath for well over an hour before she had a bite to eat and set out for
Falmouth Castle.

The same procedure occurred
whereby nobody answered her summons. Not that she expected them to so she let
herself in and ambled slowly up the grand staircase, sensing rather than
knowing where to go.

Thankfully, there was a light
streaming through from under a door on the first level, rather close to the
stairs, and Dani headed in that direction. She knocked soundly before entering
and her breath caught at the achingly familiar sight of him.

He was cloaked, dark and
foreboding, and leaning against the hearth where a fire was lit, casting the
room in a warm glow. It appeared that she had located him in his study, if the
huge mahogany desk and shelves of books and correspondence were anything to go
by.

His hooded face turned to her and
his shoulders seemed to droop.

“Danielle.”

The flatness of his voice wasn’t
as encouraging as the note had been but she clutched to the image of his bold
handwriting and apology to spur her on.

“I…” What was she to say?
Thank
you for the flowers.
It just didn’t fit the situation. “I got your note,”
she mumbled expressionlessly.

“What note?”

What note?
A lazy flutter of
panic began to beat within her breast. Surely he was joking, or he was
confused. He must be surprised by her presence and had forgotten what he had
done to cause it. “The… note.”

He sighed, frustrated. “I didn’t
send any note, Danielle,” he growled.

She frowned, not liking the
renewed pang of humiliation and hurt threading its way through her bones.
“Rhys, I saw the flowers… a-and the note. You called me… freckles.”

“Damnit, Danielle, I didn’t send
any
note
!” he barked.

“I see.” But she didn’t. If he
didn’t send the note, then who did? As far as she knew, he was the only one who
had ever called her freckles and they had been quite alone in the maze that
day. Oh, he was cruel and Dani was swimming in utter humiliation and hurt. It threatened
to choke her and, to her horror, tears began to prick her eyes. She refused to
let them fall.

“Why would I send you flowers and
a note?” he raged, seething.

“I-I don’t know,” she answered
flatly. “I can see I misjudged the situation. I’ll… I’ll be going now.”

“Good.”

She turned and began to exit but
she stopped herself. If he was going to hurt her, then let him do it properly,
because deep down in her heart she couldn’t let herself think he didn’t send
those flowers and the note. It was not in her nature not to have her say or to
act like a coward. She may be quiet and reserved, but if the opportunity struck
to take a stand and speak her mind, she was usually keen to obey it. So she
turned back to him, noticing that he seemed a bit dejected as he leaned against
the fireplace, not nearly as foreboding as he usually was.

“I’m not sure why you’re pushing
me away,” she began in a strong voice, “but I won’t tolerate it, Rhys. You may
not know what you want, but I do. You can’t send me away. I’m not going away.
In fact, I don’t believe for one second that you didn’t send that note although
why you would deny it now is beyond me. So I’m going to tell you why I decided
to come here anyway and I know that you won’t like it.”

“Danielle…”

Ignoring the warning tone in his
voice, she delved a hand into a pocket at her waist and pulled out the
invitation she had intended giving him. “A masquerade,” she told him haughtily,
lifting the invite slightly. “You should go. It would be the perfect
opportunity to-”

“No!”

That
stilled her. She looked at him
strangely, wondering at the sharpness and anger in his voice. He was rigid now,
fury pouring off him in waves and pummelling into her with a force she could
feel across the chamber.