She Hid Under a Table to Escape a Matchmaker — The Duke Was Already There
Chapter 15
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They laughed. Mr. Dunford moved away, leaving Gilbert to inspect the prize."An impressive performance.""You are allowed not to win a jug.""I had hoped you would never discover that."She took his arm and carried the bird between them for the rest of the afternoon. It was much easier to enjoy it once neither had to pretend that a gentleman's inability to throw a hoop was a concealed tragedy.Later, they sat beneath a tree while her mother spoke to friends a little way off. The band had begun playing something cheerful, with considerable disagreement about how cheerful it should be.Daphne rested the jug at her feet. "I have had a lovely afternoon despite the standard of athletic achievement.""Including it." He looked at her. She had grown warm in the sun. There was a mark near her thumb where she had rubbed against the painted handle, and she had forgotten to look like someone having an important social experience. He wanted a great many more afternoons in which she forgot.In August, Winnie and Osric invited them to stay at the house they had taken after their marriage. Daphne found her sister perfectly capable of arranging a meal without assistance, and slightly less capable of making Osric remember where he had put a particular letter. The dining room contained yellow flowers and no ferns."A deliberate policy?" Gilbert asked."We are allowing ourselves one year without being improved," Osric said.His brother laughed and surrendered a suggestion he had been about to make concerning the door.They walked after dinner, the married pair ahead and the other two following at a distance that became less accidental as the path narrowed.Daphne took Gilbert's hand. "What were you going to suggest about the door?""Nothing. I watched you inspect the hinge.""It sticks, I know. Winnie showed me." He looked at her. "You were going to help, too.""I had a plan."They stopped beside a low garden wall and began laughing. Ahead of them, Osric called that they were expected back before breakfast. Gilbert drew Daphne into the shelter of the wall and kissed her. She put a hand against his cheek, then remained close after he had finished."I love you," she said.She had thought she might deliver it lightly, wrapped in something amusing she could use if the answer hurt. It came out plainly instead.His expression changed. "I love you, too."She let out a breath she had not known she was holding. "That was unexpectedly straightforward.""I have been considering the sentence for some time.""Did it contain a reference to duty?""I removed it."She laughed, and he kissed her again with an eagerness that left no room for considering whether either had said enough.