mother.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I know you are baiting me, so I must clarify that I am choosing to do this because I want to, not because I am rising to your teasing.”
“Well, of course.”
He turned away while she removed her half boots and stockings, trying very hard not to think too much on the rustling behind him. When she finished, she set her things neatly beside his, using a rock to weigh down her bonnet. Then she held up her skirts and came again to the small bar of sand. A frothy wave darted playfully over her toes and she gasped.
“Still wretchedly cold,” she managed.
“But the company is a vast improvement, is it not?”
“Over my mother? Not precisely an accomplishment.”
Cole laughed, and so did she. He moved to stand beside her and they looked out over the vast expanse of deep blue and sparkling white, the clouds painted thin overhead.
“Can you see it?” she asked.
“What?”
“France. The last time I came to the coast, it was too gloomy.”
He held up a hand to block the sun and peered across the breaking waves. “If France is an unremarkable gray mound, then yes, I do see it.”
Daphne was squinting as well. “I imagine it is a great deal more impressive upon closer inspection.”
“One would hope,” he said dryly. “Though I have no desire to find out.”
“None at all?” There was a new tone to her voice, as if the question she had voiced was not truly the one she was asking.
He turned to face her, moving to put his hands in his pockets before remembering he’d removed his jacket. He dropped his hands to his sides. “I suppose I shouldn’t mind seeing a bit of the world. I’ve hardly left Kent. But I cannot imagine it at present. Not with everything as it is.”
She nodded, still gazing over the sea. “You’ve responsibilities now.”
There was no bitterness to her voice, not even sadness. More like an acceptance that somehow made him feel more guilty than her anger and hurt ever had.
“Did Aunt Hartwell tell you yet?” she asked.
Cole cleared his throat. “Tell me what?”
“That she plans to leave. Travel.” She finally looked at him, her expression torn.
He dug his toes into the sand. “Yes,” he said finally. “A few days ago.”
“She wants me to go with her,” Daphne said softly.
“I know.”
“I cannot think what I should do. I imagine everywhere we might go and see, and I am filled with the greatest excitement. Then I picture all the horrible things that could befall us during our travels, and I am filled with fear of the unknown.” She gave a derisive laugh. “I am not one to leap into an adventure.”
Cole said nothing, only listened, though his pulse quickened. He had wondered the last few days, almost constantly, what Daphne would think of the offer.
“But when I think of staying where I am,” she went on, “with my parents in London always trying to—” She broke off. “I cannot bear the idea,” she whispered.
“You are unhappy in London?” It was not a shock, really, considering her mother. But he wanted to hear it for himself, that she did not have some future there she was longing to return to.
She shook her head. “There is nothing for me there.” She looked up at the sky, blinking rapidly. “Or at Cheriton.”
Cole’s insides shouted at him, demanding he ask her what she meant. She loved Cheriton. Did she not think she belonged there anymore?
But then, why would she? Aunt Hartwell had seen to that. He had seen to that, by not refusing the inheritance that had long been hers.
Yet she had to know. She had to know he would never abandon her. He stepped forward, his hands itching to reach for her. He ordered them to remain at his sides.
“Daphne,” he said softly. “I do not know if this will make any difference to you, but in my mind Cheriton is as much your home as it is mine. If you ever…” He cleared his throat. “If you ever feel lost, know you have a place there.”
She stared at him, her hazel eyes roaming his face with incredible focus. An errant curl blew across her face and she tucked it behind her ear, trapping it.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice almost immediately whisked away by the breeze.
“But if,” he said, though it pained him, “you decide to go with Aunt Hartwell, you needn’t be afraid.” Suddenly he could not stand that curl, imprisoned so fetchingly behind her ear.