Page 30 of Miss Ellis Unleashed

Daisy dipped him a curtsey. “Lord Throsby. I am so glad to have you here tonight.”

He nodded and glanced around. But there was no one else for him to talk to. “It was a pleasant night for the short journey here.”

She laughed softly. “I’m glad for the sake of your coachman and the grooms,” she murmured. “Would you care for a drink, my lord?”

“Nothing for me yet. I am happy to wait for the other gentlemen and wives to arrive.”

Daisy caught his eye. “There are no other guests expected here tonight, my lord. Only you were invited.”

Throsby froze. “None at all?”

“No. My invitation was solely for you.”

Throsby scowled at her.

“That scowl does not work on me anymore,” she warned him, and kept smiling.

“As if it ever did,” he grumbled sourly.

Daisy held up her hands. “Now, you can scowl and leave with an empty belly, or you can stay and feast with me and ignore that it is improper. Cook has been slaving away all day just for you.”

His cheeks colored slightly. “She shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.”

“It was no trouble,” she promised.

Thankfully, Gibbs arrived and announced dinner was ready, cutting off a conversation about impropriety that would never end.

“Shall we go in, or will you be proper and leave?”

Throsby seemed undecided for a moment but then nodded. They walked to the small round table side by side, and Throsby helped her into her chair. He sat down at the other place setting, right next to hers instead of opposite, as he’d always done before.

In the candlelight, the night turned the atmosphere between them romantic, and she smiled as Gibbs laid her napkin across her lap. “I’m starving.”

Throsby snapped out his napkin as he always did and looked expectantly at her. “I am too.”

Daisy fought a blush as the servants trouped in, carrying an array of mouthwatering dishes. Throsby seemed about to swoon as his favorite dishes were set around them.

He glanced her way. “I am truly being spoiled now. This is excessive.”

Daisy laughed and dismissed the servants. She and Throsby could serve themselves.

She started eating and, between mouthfuls, asked Throsby about his day.

“Then she just turned and ran away,” Throsby finished, ending his tale about an encounter with Miss Dawes and wincing. “Did I do the right thing, retrieving the book for her? I’m not certain now.”

Daisy put her hand over Throsby’s where it rested on the table between them. “You did well. Justine was always carrying that little book. Sometimes I caught her scribbling in it, lost in her thoughts. She never told me what she was writing in there, and she will want it back, I’m sure.”

“It is being cleaned first, and then I will return it to her at one of the balls this week. Would she attend the Norris or Bexley amusements, do you think?”

“She would be attending both, but you should not return it to her there. It would look strange to receive a book when she is there to dance,” Daisy advised, a teasing smile on her face as she waited for Throsby to reconsider his plan.

“Ah, yes, of course,” he said. “I will return it to her at home at a later time then.”

She fidgeted in her chair, frustrated by that decision of his, too. “Hopefully, her sister will not read more into your visit than she should. You are to become a duke, remember, and a young woman in want of a husband might assume you are calling for a completely different reason.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes, there are so many misunderstandings to guard against everywhere I want to go now,” he complained.

“Justine is ambitious, so you must always be careful,” she said, fighting with her certainty that Throsby had a large target painted on his back. Women everywhere would line up to catch his eye. Unmarried gentlemen destined for elevation to the rank of duke were scarce on the ground this season. Gabby had caught the last bachelor duke she knew of. “I suppose your poor valet had the job of cleaning Justine’s journal, since his father was a bookseller?”