Chapter 8: Daphne

Rory put Daphne in a kitchen chair, a blanket around her shoulders and a mug of tea in her hands.

She held it with both hands and shook.

I sat across from her in his coat, and neither of us said anything for a while.

"You said something to me on Saturday," I said finally. "In the lobby."

Her eyes went to the table.

"I know. I didn't know it was you."

She said it fast.

"I saw you once, across a dining room, for two minutes, and I never looked at your face. I'm so sorry."

"You called me a charity case."

"I repeated what Austin said."

"You believed it."

"I did," Daphne said, and the honesty of it surprised me. "I believed everything he said. I'm very good at that."

Rory leaned against the counter and crossed his arms.

"Why are you here, Ms. Larkin?"

She took a shaky breath.

"Because he's going to ruin you, and I think I helped."

Neither of us moved.

"Larkin Hotels doesn't exist," she said. "Not anymore."

"My father's fund collapsed in April. He lost the inns and the house in Rhinebeck. We have nothing."

"Austin said your family owns three inns."

"My family owned three inns," she said. "I didn't tell him."

"I kept going to the dinners and wearing the dresses, and he kept thinking there was a check coming."

"Why?"

"Because he was the first person in six months who looked at me like I was worth something."

She laughed, brokenly.

"And I thought he was rich. Tallmadge Events, the big house, the vacations his mother talked about."

"I thought, here's somebody who can carry me while my father figures it out."

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