"Daniel would never abuse an animal or anyone weaker than he."
"Daniel is too soft," Patricia said with a shrug.
"You believe him soft because he is kind?"
Patricia didn't reply. Her mouth pouted; she looked like a sullen child.
"Why, then, did you marry him?"
"That, dear Diana, is none of your affair. Now, if you are quite through trying to boss me about, I have things to do."
"What things? From what I've observed, you do nothing at all, save live off my father's bounty."
"I am a lady." She waved her hand negligently at the croquet hoops. "I am also becoming quite proficient at this silly game."
Diana laughed.
"You bitch! Shut up! I am a lady!"
"What you are, Patricia, is spoiled and thoughtless. Stay away from Tanis. And stay away from my husband."
Patricia's eyes gleamed. "I saw him, you know, quite naked, coming out of the sea. He is very tanned save for hisIf you hadn't been so very close perhaps ---" She gave Diana a particularly coquettish smile. "Well, who knows what he would have done?"
Why hadn't she kept her mouth shut? Diana knew that Patricia had honed in quite accurately on her weakness. Had she sounded jealous? Evidently so. Patricia wasn't stupid. A lady, was she! She repeated, her voice calmer now, "Stay away from Lyon."
"We'll just have to see about that, won't we? After all, I am younger than you and not so dreadfully brown." Patricia gave her a drawing smile, raised her parasol, and strolled away.
I am not at all good at confrontations, Diana thought, depressed. I should have slapped her and stomped her in the ground. She sighed deeply, trying to remember what Savarol was like before the advent of Deborah and Patricia. Endlessly peaceful, that's what it had been. Perhaps a bit boring as well. How she wished now for just one day of boredom.
"You won't win with dat one, missis," said Dido, slipping into the garden from behind a frangipani tree.
"Still eavesdropping, Dido? It is not well done of you. And no, she buried me quite nicely."
Dido patted her arm. "You go away soon with dat handsome man of yours. You forget all dis nonsense."
"And what will happen to all my friends if I leave?" Diana said, her voice harsh as the sun overhead.
"It's your daddy dat's responsible. Maybe he made a big mistake with the new missis. Maybe she fooled him good. Now you stop your worrying and find dat man of yours. You make de love with dat young stallion. Dat make you smile again."
Dido was right. It certainly would make her smile --- like a dazed idiot. His power over her was frightening, particularly since he could make her as docile and soft as the morning dew with but a touch. She wondered idly if she held any of that power over him. Perhaps a bit, but as he'd told her, he was a man, and a man was quite forward and simple in that regard. No, not much power at all. After all, he didn't love her.
"I have to make things right again, Dido," she said, nodded to the old woman, and walked back to the great house.
She spent an hour penning a letter to Lucia, giving her an abbreviated version of her adventures since leaving London. She wasn't really surprised to feel Lyonel's strong hands on her shoulders, kneading her flesh gently, knowing her and her reaction to him.
"Lucia?" he said, and she could hear the amusement in his voice. "Did you tell her you made an honest man of me?" He leaned down and nibbled on her ear.
"Have I?" she asked, turning around in her chair to face him. He was wearing buckskin britches and a loose white shirt that was open at the neck. His throat was strong and brown, the visible hair on his chest thick and curling. She wanted to touch him.
He looked like a planter, not a London gentleman. He looked tanned and tough and strong. She felt a spurt of warmth deep in her belly, felt herself quiver.
He saw it. He gave her a lazy, very satisfied smile, and his hands came around her throat to lightly stroke the pulse in her neck.
"Have I what?" he said, his voice as seductive as the turtledove's.
She didn't have the faintest idea what he was talking about, and she refused to humiliate herself by asking. She said instead, "I had a most dissatisfying confrontation with dear Patricia."
"Did you plant your fist in her face?"