Just One Kiss

For D, who deserves a happily ever after.

-S.S.

Just One Kiss

Copyright © 2012 by Stephanie Sterling.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the author except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Cover Art by Cover Design by DD Graphix,
http://www.ddgraphix.net/

Cover images licensed from
shutterstock.com. Used with permission.

PROLOGUE

Daphne Everton tore her gaze away from the window pane and unfolded the parchment clutched in her fingers once again.  There was a slight tremble in her hands as her sad, grey eyes ran over the page.  She lingered on every word, even
though
she had long since committed the message to memory.

Lady Coventry,

No doubt you understand that the passing of my brother necessitates my return to London.  I had hoped to postpone my return until after Christmas.  However, I have business in the city that requires my immediate attention, as well as a matter of some delicacy that I must discuss with you. 

Accordingly, you may expect my arrival on the afternoon of the seventeenth.

Regards,

Lord Coventry

Daphne’s fingers tightened on the letter, crimping the edges of the paper as she paced across the room, fighting the urge to peer out of the window again.  She had been waiting in the front
parlor
for the better part of three hours, expecting every carriage that passed the London town house to contain her husband -- so far he had not arrived.

If she had any dignity at all, she would contrive a plan for going out for the evening, or else she would sit down to dinner alone and pretend that she’d never received the letter.  Edward was never late.  At least, the Edward that she had known six years ago had never been given to tardiness.  A lot of things could change in that amount of time, but much remained the same as well.  Daphne
couldn
’t tear herself away from her lookout.  She had never had any dignity where Edward was concerned.  Even six years of neglect hadn’t been able to alter that.

As well as a matter of some delicacy that I must discuss with you…

Daphne’s pulse skipped as she skimmed the single line again and again.  Even after so long an absence she could still hear the words spoken in Edward’s voice- the memory  of his low, husky drawl, coupled with the apprehension about what the words could mean, sent a chill skating along Daphne’s spine.  Surely Edward wasn’t thinking of a divorce?

Daphne’s shaking fingers dropped the letter onto the top of the table, and then knotted themselves in her skirts as she tried to steady her nerves.  The very idea was ludicrous.  Edward had no grounds for pursuing such a line.  Apart from the transgression that had made her his wife, she had given him no cause for complaint.  She was innocent of adultery. Daphne shuddered at the thought, but she could prove it if necessary. Perhaps Edward wished to seek an annulment? 
But why wait until now?
That was the question plaguing Daphne’s thoughts.

It had taken almost the full six years of her husband’s absence, but Daphne had finally regained a level of respectability and peace.  Time, money, and the acquisition of a title had gone a long way in repairing the damage that her youthful folly had wrought.  No one ever spoke about how she had acquired her spouse anymore, at least not so that she knew, and although her husband’s absence was always conspicuous, her company had the tact not to mention it in her presence.  She had evolved into a sort of eccentric social oddity.

It was Daphne alone who still felt it so keenly; who remembered every night as she lay alone in bed, staring at the emptiness beside her, how very desperately she had loved Edward once, and how she had been willing to do anything to make him hers.

Did that desperation still linger?  Was that why she was so afraid of hearing the truth from Edward? What if he had found a woman that he
really
wanted to marry and make his wife?

Daphne didn’t know why the notion pained her so very deeply.  Six years of solitude should have been quite long enough to harden her heart against
Edward Everton, but it hadn’t.
Daphne was terrified that she still craved the one thing that she had always wanted from Edward -- his love.

Chapter 1

Looking back, it seemed like Daphne had always known Edward Everton.  His family owned the adjoining estate to her childhood home in Meriden.  Edward and her older brother, Anthony, had been the best of friends as boys, spending hours romping across the family estates, conducting adventures that they recounted to Daphne in the nursery over meals.  On rare occasions, she had been permitted to join
them, wandering across the fields to the lake where they would play knights and ladies.
Edward
rescued her from dragons and brought her flower crowns.
She didn’t remember falling in love with him, she simply always had been.

Time changed things.  The boys were sent away to school, and then got started with the rest of their lives.  Anthony learned to manage their family estates while Edward, a younger son, remained at Oxford to study the law.  Their lives had drifted apart, and by the winter she turned sixteen, Daphne hadn’t seen Edward for more than four years.

He was meant to fall in love with her, of course.  That was Daphne’s original intent
ion
.  She had laid out her plan with uncharacteristic thoroughness, beginning the very night that she learnt he was coming home.  Four years had done nothing to dim his perfection in her youthful mind.  If anything, it had only enhanced the memory of how kind he was, and how dashing.  In her mind, his dark, curling hair and laughing green eyes seemed even more vivid than they had in life, and the small remembrances of his habits -- the way he took his tea, how he liked to pluck the leaves off flowers, the way he poked his tongue out before he shot a bow -- seemed even more cherished and dear.

Daphne liked to think that the time had improved her as well.  At least, she was no longer the gangly, freckly girl that she had been as a child.  Her figure had filled out tolerably and she had attained a pleasing height.  Her hair was a sleek glossy brown and she fancied that in the right light her eyes flashed like silver.  In all, she was satisfied, and hopeful that it was enough.

It was the beginning of July, two weeks after the close of Trinity term when she received the news that her heart had been longing for: Edward had returned to Coventry.

“You’re up early,” Daphne’s older brother, Anthony, remarked with suspicion when she entered the breakfast room a full three hours before her customary appearance. The first rays of dawn had barely begun to poke through the clouds and the sky was still heavy and dim.

“I could say the same of you,” she responded evenly as she drifted past her brother to inspect the morning spread. The offerings were somewhat
meager
, attesting that the household staff was also unaccustomed to seeing the family down so early.

“I’m heading over to Packwood for a spot of hunting this morning.”

“Really?” Daphne did her best to feign real surprise and hoped that Anthony had forgotten making the same announcement the night before.

Apparently, he did not.

“Edward i
s home.”

Daphne bent over the chafing dishes, feigning a keen interest in her selection of toast in an effort to hide the
color
in her cheeks. “And how is Mister Everton?”

“The same.”

“Is he glad to be home?”

“Seemed to be.”

“And he came back alone?”

Anthony set down his fork and frowned at his sister. “Who else would he bring?”

Daphne took a careful bite of egg, maintaining a tenuous grip on her facade of calm. “I was only making polite conversation. It’s been so long since I’ve seen Ed- Mr. Everton...I wonder if I would recognize him.”

“Probably not,” Anthony grunted and returned to his meal.

Daphne squirmed with impatience as he worked his way through his plate and nearly groaned aloud when he reached for seconds. It seemed that an age had passed before he stood up from the table.

“Tell mother that I won’t be home for dinner,” he said and turned to go, but Daphne was on his heels.