Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [115]
The box door opened while Verity walked away. Daphne was going to follow her friend, when she saw Latham slip into the box.
He stood there, searching the faces. He startled when he realized she stood not three feet away.
“Ah, there you are. I thought I saw you up here.” He eased closer.
Castleford had sat and now lazily watched the play from his chair next to Celia. No one paid attention to the shadows at the back of the box.
“I heard you had left town,” Latham said. “Imagine my delight in getting your invitation.”
“I trust you will be discreet, as the letter asked.”
“Most discreet, dear. How wise of you to let that house, so you are not tainted by Wittonbury’s scandal or constrained by Lady Sebastian’s curiosity. I look forward to seeing your new home.” He peered at the back of Castleford’s head. “Does he know? He won’t like it.”
“The duke could not care less about anything. Where I live and whom I entertain does not signify to him.”
Latham laughed lowly. “Lost interest already, did he?”
“He could not lose interest he never had.”
“I know him as well as I know myself, Daphne. We were inseparable as boys, and I can still read his thoughts, for all his pose of indifference. You caught his eye, my dear. But as I think you have learned, his gaze never rests in one place long.” His eyes narrowed on Castleford. “Pity that you bored him so quickly. Having bested him on that land, I would not mind seeing his face when I stole you from him too.”
His voice made her skin crawl. She hid the shiver and feigned confusion. “Land? Are you being clever again?”
“He thought to be clever, not me, and enrich himself even more, through a spot of land my father left him. But I have got what was rightfully mine back. It cost me much more than it should, but that will be a pittance once I start bringing out the silver that is in the ground.” He grinned like a naughty boy. “He’ll be out hundreds of thousands before it is over.”
She glared at Castleford’s head. Latham was talking about The Rarest Blooms. Castleford had sold her home. To Latham!
“He can be too clever by half sometimes, can’t he?” She turned to Latham. “Regrettably, you cannot checkmate him again. It is true he was briefly interested, but it was the shortest pursuit in the world’s history.”
“Not because you were easily caught, I hope.”
“I am never easily caught, Gerome.”
“Well, perhaps not anymore.” He chuckled at his humor.
It was all she could do not to slap him. Instead she opened her fan so her outrage might not show. “You must leave now. I do not want my friends to notice you here.”
“Of course. Until tomorrow, Daphne.”
She feared he was about to try to steal a kiss. She walked forward, toward her friends, before he got the chance.
“You sold my home because it was a Tuesday?” Daphne glared at him across his dressing room.
He took a moment to admire her high color and note again how strong emotion became her. Ideally that emotion would not be fury directed at him, of course.
“Actually, I would have sold it any day of the week, under the circumstances.”
That did not appease her, needless to say. She strode back and forth, and not gracefully.
“When were you going to tell me this?”
“Soon. Tonight. Or tomorrow. Soon, though.”
She stomped her foot. She came at him so angrily that he really thought she would hit him.
Instead she just looked in his eyes, and her fury changed to dismay and hurt.
Hell, she was going to weep.
“Why?” It sounded like a plea.
“Listen to me. Can you do that? Can you call forth the sensible Daphne just for a moment?” He took her face in his hands. “I did not seek this. He got it in his head that he had to have that land. He is convinced it holds untold riches in its ground and would not hear otherwise.”
“Silver?”
“Silver. Gold. Iron. The rumors abound. He was so convinced that he was ready to contest the will to block my use or sale of it. So I turned his conceit back on him and made him