Never to Part Read Online Free Page B

“You need not fear that I shall—”
    “The broken wall is to the left,” the baron interrupted. “Did mother tell you its part in our family legend? Did she tell you about the ‘entwined’ hearts?”
    Daphne trembled and hugged herself. It had all gone so wrong. Everything had gone awry since that episode in the Rose Salon later that same night. Even the auras that she sensed and often saw about most people since her teen years had not helped her then. The drink she had taken believing it to be innocent punch had numbed her perception; had jumbled everyone’s auras into a confusion of many mingled colours. Even clear minded she sometimes had difficulty in distinguishing between fact and fiction when auras were tightly woven. In her inebriated state her gift had become a nightmare.
    Who put what in that drink? Daphne wondered. The dowager wrote that her servants had confirmed the punch was far from innocent but had no idea who had added the spirits. Could it have been the same person who lures Geoff ever deeper into debt? But why harm either of us?
    She thought of the unsigned note that had been delivered a week past but could not believe what it contained. It could not be Richard who led Geoffrey into dun territory.
    But these excesses since Heart Haven—might they have been orchestrated for revenge , Reason declared.
    No, Richard’s aura showed goodwill when I met him. If I could see it again I would know, Daphne thought miserably.
    The inability to do so when confronted by him on that night puzzled her deeply. It had never before troubled her that she could see some people’s auras but not others. Her father had forbidden any discussion about it, even advised she tell no one of her gift . On her own, it had taken some time for Daphne to sort out the meaning of various hues. Interpretations were still sometimes guesswork. She had long ago begun to think of this gift as part of her intuition and nothing more.
    Daphne shook away the useless mental perambulations. Circumstances no longer permitted fruitless pining. Meals, while meagre, were not impossible yet, but how could she keep up the smallest scrape of a decent establishment without servants?
    Saddie and one of the three servants still with them were long-time retainers from Trotter House. They would stay until she forcibly pushed them out the door. The others had left quickly enough. Daphne could not blame them. Lord only knew when they would be evicted from the rather shabby house Geoffrey had leased.
    Getting up listlessly, Daphne sighed. Pray God he paid the rent in whole while he still had money in hand. She trod dejectedly to the sitting room and picked up the copy of Ann Radcliffe’s Romance of the Forest beside her sewing basket. The subscription to the lending library was also overdue. Sadly she could not spare funds to renew it.
    Her possible humiliation if the clerk demanded payment; of acquaintances overhearing should any be in the library, thus learning how low their resources had sunk, gave Daphne pause. Perhaps I should send my book back with Saddie . With a fierce shake of her head she resolutely put aside the cowardly idea.
    Her guilt and humiliation at having ridiculed another person with mimicry, even under the influence of strong spirits and urged on by others, haunted Daphne. It demonstrated a weakness of character that she despised. She had vowed to never again cause anyone the slightest embarrassment.
    Daphne contemplated the duns on the desk. Four other souls, five counting her brother, depended upon her for food and shelter. Fear of her brother’s debts tightened its grip about her heart.
    “The walk will clear my head. Some solution will yet come to mind,” she murmured as a prayer.
     * * * *
    Half an hour later Daphne halted several yards from the lending library. She reinforced her resolve; stiffened her spine. “Wait here, Saddie. There is no reason for you to—-”
    “I won’t stay behind, Miss Daphne,” Miss McRae