Chapter 1 #3
Thankfully, no sooner had the butler arrived than Lydia slipped into the room as well. There was an anxious look on her face. Her eyes went from the slouched figure of the Earl to the worry on Daisy’s face, and she frowned.
“Is everything all right?” she asked.
“We’re just waiting for the physician,” Daisy said, trying to keep the quaking out of her voice.
Lydia nodded, still looking around, evidently sensing the tension in the room. She pointed to the chaise lounge near the window.
“Come, sit. Let’s wait in comfort,” she said, ignoring the Baron.
Daisy took a breath and nodded. “Yes, I am rather exhausted.”
She sat next to her friend, feeling relieved at her presence and that of the butler. Lydia leaned close to her. “Are you sure everything’s all right? You’re looking rather pale.”
They both looked up when the Baron left the room. Then Daisy turned back to Lydia and found her friend studying her keenly.
“What happened?” she asked.
Daisy sighed. “Well…” She pursed her lips, wondering how to continue. “He offered me a Faustian bargain. My body and soul for my father’s debt.”
Lydia’s mouth dropped. “Indeed?” She clutched her pearls in shock.
Daisy nodded, then shook her head bitterly. “Yes, that’s what he said. That I should marry him and he would erase my father’s debt.”
Lydia continued to gawp at her. “But you turned him down, yes?”
“Of course I did. But now I have to come up with the money to pay him, or he will out us to all the papers.”
Lydia puckered her lips tightly and tapped her finger on her chin. “It is no secret that your father over-imbibes at parties and frequently gambles more than…”
“He owes the Baron five thousand pounds,” Daisy interrupted.
It was a marvel to watch Lydia process this new information. Her bright eyes widened to the size of teacup saucers, and her lips parted so that they created a delicate oval shape of astonishment.
“I see,” she murmured, once she was capable. “Your situation is…precarious. Your father has landed you both in hot water.”
Daisy nodded in agreement.
I could not have summed up our troubles better myself.
“But what will you do?” Lydia rubbed both hands together anxiously. Her gloves made a soft whispering sound as her movements grew more frantic and vigorous. “Will you marry Lord Dulforth?”
Daisy could not allay her sense of repugnance at the suggestion. She shook her head stoutly and answered, “Absolutely not. Especially since he indicated that he would want to…anticipate the marriage bed—”
“What?” Lydia half-whispered, half-screeched.
“Yes. He wanted to ‘sample the merchandise’ to see if I was worth the bargain.” A tremor of aversion raced up her spine. “Those were his words, Lydia. He…he…” Daisy could not bring herself to speak further on the subject.
“Oh my word.” Lydia looked startled and nearly as discomfited as Daisy felt. “Such an evil, wicked gentleman.” Her mouth turned down at the corners as Lydia draped both arms across her body and gave herself a hug.
Daisy’s eyes roved over her father’s form. He had not budged. “Yes, that’s one description of him. To some…Lord Dulforth is abhorrent. To others…he is meant to be a comrade.” She touched the Earl’s forearm and realized, when he startled awake, that he had fallen asleep.
“W—what?” Her father’s eyelashes fluttered as he peered around the room groggily. “Where am I?”
Daisy opened her mouth to reply, but before she could share even a bit of information with her father, his eyelids drooped, he leaned back into his seat and fell sound asleep once more.
She heaved a beleaguered sigh.
While Daisy’s attention was divided between watching her father closely and determining how to raise the money to repay the Baron, Lydia remained entirely focused on the latter.
“What will you do?” she persisted. Lydia stood abruptly and took to pacing the room. After making the circuit thrice, she halted and asked, “Should we ask my father if he would pay—-?”
“I could never make such a request.”
“You will not have to ask.” Lydia smiled prettily at Daisy. “You are my particular friend, and I am certain that Papa would be only too eager to…”
“No.” Daisy appreciated her friend’s willingness to intercede, but she could never ask Lydia or Lord Kerwood for such a favor.
“It is not a trifling amount, Lydia. I cannot afford to borrow more money to pay a debt. It is a vicious cycle I won’t get caught up in because if I allow myself to start, then this affair will surely spiral out of control. ”
“Has this situation not already gotten unmanageable?” Lydia questioned.
Daisy glanced at her father, then sent a resentful look toward the doorway where the Baron had disappeared moments before.
For years, she had watched her father’s decline and surmised that a catastrophe, much like this one, would occur eventually. Now that the moment had arrived, Daisy knew that it was time to screw her courage to the sticking place.
No one is going to rescue me. I alone must find a way to satisfy my father’s debts and escape Lord Dulforth.
With those unnerving, yet real thoughts, lingering in her mind, Daisy turned back to her friend and said quietly, “I will think of something. I must.”