Chapter 24

Two Days Later

Dani stretched her back after the long carriage journey to Hawthorne, craning her neck and shading her eyes from the bright sun so that she could better observe the towering grey walls of the extensive house. Her bonnet dangled from her wrist, teased gently by the mellifluous breeze that accompanied the first few days of spring.

A footman opened the doors as she gingerly climbed the steps towards the entrance and she was ushered inside, the butler already having taken it upon himself to announce her presence to Lady Sinclair. Another servant removed her coat before the butler returned to show her directly to the drawing room where Victoria was awaiting her arrival.

Dani found herself smiling at the thought of Grayson ever doing something like that for guests at Falmouth Castle. In fact, Grayson would not even bother to be so cordial, not to her or his master.

Upon seeing Dani, Victoria bolted out of her chair and embraced her tightly. "You look better," she said, leaning back to study her face carefully.

"Well, at least you're smiling."

Dani pursed her lips. "What do you mean?"

Vicky waved her hand dismissively as she frowned concernedly down at her. "Oh, nothing really," she explained. "It's just that you've been looking a little... under the weather. Tired, really, and not your usual self. You've lost a lot of weight."

That could very well be true, Dani mused, as she hadn't had much of an appetite of late, preferring to nibble at her food rather, especially while she dined alone at an enormous table with only the servants looking on. It was quite discomforting that Rhys had not bothered to join her for meals the past couple of days. "I'm fine," she told her friend after a moment.

"Let's sit while I call some tea," Vicky urged, guiding them towards a femininely pink settee and ensuring that Dani took her seat before she rung for a servant.

"Where is Gabriel?" Dani asked curiously, studying the expanse of the room as if the man were hiding behind a pink curtain or under a shawl of lace somewhere. "Is he not joining us?"

Vicky raised a humorous brow, her lips quirking dryly. "Would you like him to?" she asked. "I gathered from your note that you wanted to discuss matters of a personal nature, so I excluded Gabriel from this little meeting. I believe he has buried his nose in the morning papers, going over his stock or some such nonsense."

"No, no. That's quite alright. I wouldn't want to bother him and, anyway, I did specifically want to discuss something with you and you are correct. It is of a very delicate nature and it would probably be best if Gabriel never hears of this."

"Oh!" Victoria leaned forward excitedly, eagerly encouraging Dani to continue with her wide, inquisitive eyes. "You've got me intrigued now, Dani. Go on."

Dani cleared her throat delicately before looking Vicky straight in the eye. She knew she could be comfortable with her friend, that anything she wished to discuss she could do so uninhibited by judgment from her, but it was still a bit disconcerting asking your best friend how she got anyone to fall in love with her. Dani would have to choose her words wisely. "Uh..." she began thickly, her tongue gluing itself to the top of her palate. "Well, what I want to ask exactly is, er, how... hmmm. You and Gabriel."

"Yes?"

"Gabriel and you."

"We have established that," Victoria teased her dryly, "the topic of conversation here is Gabriel and I. Now, if you wouldn't mind, some

specifics would be most welcome."

Dani blushed a little and twiddled her fingers distractedly in her lap. Oh, bother. She might as well just come clean with it. "Fine, alright, so... You and Gabriel..." Vicky raised her brows in disbelief. "Damn. Well, simply, how did you get him to fall in love with you?" At the shocked expression on her face, Dani hastily aimed to amend, "I mean, what did you do? If you did indeed do anything? Oh, blast. Look, I'm trying to ask you if there was anything special you did that might have, er, sped up the process of Gabriel falling in love with you?"

There was an incredibly dry yet understanding smile on Vicky's face. "Let me get this straight," she clarified cheerfully, "you want to know if I made Gabriel fall in love with me. Is that it?"

"Well, not precisely, but you may look at it from that perspective I suppose."

Victoria smiled before glancing up at the ceiling, contemplating her answer. "Well, no, to be honest. As you well know, I was quite impossible back then. In fact, I think I may have coordinated all my actions so that I deliberately stepped on his toes."

"And yet, somehow, he fell hopelessly in love with you?"

"I don't like your tone," Vicky told her darkly, absently smoothing down a wrinkle in the skirt of her gown. "Now what's this all about, anyway? Don't tell me you need advice about how to get Rhys to fall in love with you? The man is already besotted with you."

Dani snorted. Unfortunately she had just taken a sip of her hot tea when Victoria uttered those words and, as a result, she began to choke and snort gracelessly.

"This is hardly a laughing matter, Dani," she chided, chuckling as she began to wallop the other woman on the back. "I do wish you would take things more seriously."

When most of the searing liquid had been beaten from her lungs, Dani cast Vicky a withering glower. "You are terrible," she told her, "and you know that I was not laughing."

"Yes, well," Vicky continued blithely, calmly and daintily taking an unperturbed sip of her tea, "you were about to tell me what all this nonsense is about."

In order to clear up some of the burning in her throat, Dani tentatively raised the teacup to her lips again before answering. "You are aware that Rhys and I are having some problems," she began. "I can't seem to get him to show even the littlest affection for me. I've followed my uncle's advice about being honest with him, but that didn't work. I'm at a complete loss as to what to do, Vicky. He hasn't even bothered to see me since the wedding."

Finishing off on a miserable and petulant note, Dani considered her friend sulkily, almost demanding an answer.

"Hmmm." Vicky stared out the window beside them, her face basking in the warm golden light of the day. "Charming weather we're having for this time of year."

"Vicky!" Dani whined.

Vicky turned to her with a beauteous smile. "Oh, alright," she teased, "I think I can help you a little but you should probably know that only he or you can really fix it and that's only if the other person really wants to fix it."

"You're babbling."

Vicky gave her an irked glance. "First, tell me," she said in a straightforward, no-nonsense kind of manner, "did you have a... wedding night?"

Dani looked at her incredulously.

"Don't look at me like that," Vicky told her off snippily, "just answer the question please."

"But I'm not sure I understand what you mean."

Vicky rolled her eyes impatiently and made an indecipherable gesture with her hand. "You know," she gritted out. "Did you...er... be intimate with Rhys?"

Dani blushed and had to cover a smile with her hand. Really, Victoria could be quite ridiculous when it came to explaining some things. "No," she squeaked, then cleared her throat before reaffirming, "No, we didn't. I think he intended to."

Vicky's eyes widened at that. "You, uh, withheld certain rights from him, did you?"

"Oh, don't look at me like I'm some sort of beast, Victoria," Dani reprimanded, hurt. "He was being the most uncivilised barbarian I had ever had the misfortune to meet. Surely you understand?"

At that, Vicky giggled and stifled the sound by clapping her hand over her mouth, eyes apologetically meeting Dani's narrowed glower. "Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't help it," she amended quickly, but her eyes were grinning gleefully at the thought of Dani's predicament. "It is a little bit funny, though."

"I really don't see how."

"Hmm. You might be right." Vicky idly tapped her finger against her cheek as she thought about the matter silently. "So, no wedding night?"

"None."

"Hmm."

"Victoria!"

Vicky smiled at Dani, unaware or untroubled by her impatience. "I think," she said happily, "that I might just know a way to help you."

"Really?" Dani leaned forward with anticipation, hoping and longing for her friend's sure cure and fix for a troublesome marriage, knowing that if anybody knew what to do, then Victoria would be that person.

"Yes. I do."

"Well? What is it?"

Victoria, like Dani, swayed conspiratorially close to the other woman, a wicked glint gleaming in her eyes. "Do you really, really, want to know what you can do to win your husband's affections?" she asked slyly.

"Yes! Yes, I do! Oh, yes!"

"Good, because I'm going to tell you what you have to do."

"Victoria, for God's sake, what must I do?"

A dark, elegantly shaped brow cocked above an extremely mischievous blue eye and Victoria grinned lazily. "Seduce him."

Dani reared back, shocked. That had been the last thing on her mind. It was inconceivable and unthinkable that she, plain and innocent Danielle, would endeavour to seduce her own husband. "Are you mad?" she exclaimed, loudly. "I can't seduce him! That's obscene."

Vicky frowned at her. "Are you actually sitting there and telling me that lying with your husband is obscene?"

"No," Dani huffed, "I'm telling you that seducing my husband is obscene."

Vicky snorted in disbelief and folded her arms. "You have much to learn," she told her wryly. "Why, you cannot believe how much you can achieve by donning a pretty peignoir-"

"That's just great," Dani sulked, "the man practically hates me because he thinks I've done something despicably dishonest and now you think it's a good idea to use my body to get what I want? Oh, I can just imagine how that will work out!"

Vicky sighed, slowly expelling a weary breath. "Look," she began to explain patiently, "it's not like that at all. The two of you should have had your wedding night the way I see it, and this silly little problem you are going through will be just that in a couple of days. I have never seen you as happy as you have been with Rhys and Gabriel has told me that Rhys is a changed man, a good man, because of you. I'm sure that he loves you. In fact, I'm quite positive he does."

"Hmmf."

"Oh, don't be like that," Vicky prodded. "Now, you see, from his point of view, you are the one denying him the privilege of sharing your bed. You are the one who doesn't want him."

"That's not true!"

Vicky quietened her with a stern look. "I know it's not, but he might not. I think you've got to make him realise that you do want him in every possible way you know how, that you want all of him, and you can prove it to him simply by going into to his chambers, wearing a pretty peignoir, and honestly telling him why you are there."

Amid a furious blush that scoured across Dani's face, Gabriel chose that moment to enter the drawing room with all the nonchalant grace of a man completely at ease in his environment and home. "Lady Ashcroft," he greeted Dani warmly, leaning down to impart a brotherly kiss on her cheek, "a pleasure as usual."

Both women stared up at him with wide, guilty eyes, saying nothing. When the silence continued, Gabriel shifted awkwardly on the balls of his feet before he remarked, "So, what have you ladies been talking about?"

At once, they were animated, waving hands energetically and glancing at each other, announcing at the identical moment: "Pianoforte."

"Embroidery."

Silence reigned again.

Gabriel gave his wife a very strange look. "Your sudden interest in music frightens me, darling," he told her dryly, "as I am well aware due to your past attempts that your musical ear is the equivalent to that of partially deaf chimpanzee."

Vicky gasped indignantly. "That is a horrid thing to say!" she admonished, glaring at her husband. "Just for that, I think I shall endeavour to try my hand at the violin!"

"Oh, God."

Dani smothered a smile.

"I resent that," Vicky was telling Gabriel. "Are you quite done here? I find your presence offending."

Leisurely, Gabriel snatched a couple of biscuits from the tray on the service. "Maybe I'll stay," he murmured thoughtfully, beginning to munch on the biscuits. "I say, this is a nice room for you ladies. Much brighter than my plaintive study."

"Why don't you make a thorough comparison by returning there, then?"

"Hmm." Gabriel gave his wife a petulant glance before ambling idly towards the door. "I acknowledge your hint, madam. I can tell when I'm not wanted by my own wife."

Dani watched Gabriel leave the drawing room, a little envious of the ease his relationship with Victoria unfolded. They made it seem perfectly normal to be perfectly perfect all of the time, whereas Dani was finding it exceedingly difficult to remedy one problem with a solitary stubborn man who she found impossible to read and tedious to handle. If he wasn't infuriated with her person, he was trying to seduce her, which brought to mind the next issue. She didn't have the faintest clue about how to seduce a man.

"So," Vicky grinned happily at Dani, ensuring that her husband was well out of earshot before she continued to speak. "What do you think of my advice? Will you see if it has any effect?"

Dani stifled the urge to roll her eyes. "Not that I am agreeing with it," she told her friend dryly, "but even if I did think I could win him over through his own seduction, I wouldn't have any idea how to do it."

Vicky pulled an odd, curious face. "What do you mean?"

"I wouldn't even begin to understand the fundamentals of seduction, Vicky," Dani said, irked. "I wouldn't even know how to start, having never been...um..."

"Intimate with a man?" Vicky finished for her. She waved her hand about excitedly, grinning. "Oh, it's no bother at all, Dani. You'll see. Just think about what Rhys does when he, er... you know?" She made her eyes big and suggestive.

"What?"

"You know!"

"No, I don't know."

"You are being deliberately coy," Vicky told her off tartly and huffed a bereaved sigh. "Just think about what he did in the gallery that may have constituted to your, er, becoming somewhat overwhelmed."

"And compromised?"

"Yes, and compromised."

Vicky gave her a pointed look, waiting expectantly for some sort of response. "You don't really expect me to tell you what he does, do you?" Dani retorted caustically.

"Oh, please! I shall simply die if you don't!"

"I most certainly will not!" Dani protested, a scouring heat enflaming her neck and face at the simple thought of sharing such intimate details with another person. It was inappropriate and scandalous and, damn, Victoria had sad eyes...

"You will make my day!" she whined pitifully, holding Dani's arm as if she could squeeze the information from the pores of her skin.

"There is nothing in all of England that could make me divulge of that information," she said firmly, jerking her arm away from her friend's urging fingers.

Vicky's eyes glinted hopefully. "I'll tell you what Gabriel does-"

"Victoria, you are a ridiculous human being," Dani sniffed. "And I really would not care to know just how Gabriel seduces you, thank you very much."

"Ah," said an infinitely deep masculine voice from the doorway and both women watched in shock as Gabriel chose that precise moment to re-enter the drawing room. He threw his wife a wicked look. "Now that, Lady Ashcroft, is an astonishingly easy job to complete on my part. It does help, however, if one does have a complacent wife on hand with which to seduce."

Beforethat day, Dani had thought it humanly impossible for Victoria Sinclair to beembarrassed by something or someone. It was, she noted with a wide smile,turning out to be good day.