The Greatest Lover in All England by Christina Dodd Page B

just maybe, the demons she imprisoned also imprisoned her, and they would have to be released before she would be free.
    There was more at stake here than just acting. Her life was at stake now.
    â€œRosie.” He went to her side and hugged her shoulder. “Let’s talk about Ophelia, shall we?”
    â€œI know the story.”
    She’d never been so curt with him. It might be that her arm was paining her, but he didn’t think so. More likely it was an acute apprehension brought on by her first brush with desire. He smothered a grin. God might yet see fit to punish Sir Danny for his sin of neglect, but it relieved Sir Danny to know God had not visited any great misfortune on Rosie.
    Oh, she might think so when Tony watched her with smoldering intent. Feminine instinct, no doubt, told her the reason for her uneasiness. But Sir Danny had protected her from men and their designs as valiantly as—Sir Danny tossed his hair back and arched his neck—as valiantly as the great Zeus himself might protect his own daughter. So Rosie believed him when in desperation he’d said that Tony’s gropings didn’t necessarily mean Tony had realized then that she was a woman.
    Tony knew. Tony wanted her. But for reasons of his own, Tony had not revealed her. Not to anyone. Which meant Tony played a game of his own.
    Lesser men than Sir Danny might be concerned about Tony’s intent, but to Sir Danny, the uncertainty only added to the pique. How enlightening to see howTony thought! How stimulating to gamble with a master competitor!
    Of course the knowledge that he held the trump only added to his satisfaction.
    â€œOphelia is the daughter of Polonius, the king’s minister,” Sir Danny said. “She loves her father, and she also loves Hamlet, the prince.”
    â€œLoving has made a jest with her,” Rosie said.
    â€œVerily, it has.” Sir Danny turned his back to the scene and slid onto the railing, sitting where he could watch her face. “Prince Hamlet turns on her when he discovers his mother has wed his father’s brother and murderer.”
    â€œTypical man,” she muttered. “Blaming one woman for another’s perfidy.”
    Sir Danny perked up. “Do you speak of anyone I know?”
    â€œNay.” She traced a vein in the marble. “Do all men smile with their mouths and not their eyes?”
    â€œWhy say you so?”
    â€œIt seems that Sir Tony and Ludovic do so when they are together—at least when I am with them.”
    â€œAh, Ludovic.” Ludovic had proved to be a complication. Sir Danny gambled with Tony, but Ludovic was wild, the unknown factor in the deck. He hadn’t been invited to play, but he made his presence known, and he made his knowledge known, also.
    He knew Rosie’s secret, and he wanted her. That had been the suspicion that drove Sir Danny to do what he should have done so many years before. But the time had not yet come to reveal what he’d discovered, and Ludovic thought Rosie available to him.
    She was not. She would never be available to Ludovic. She was fine and pure, so far above Ludovic he might as well have tried to snare a star. Ludovicknew it, too, in his saner moments, but Sir Danny had begun to brood about Ludovic’s sanity, or at least his single-mindedness. Ludovic’s hostility to Tony might result in a battle.
    Tony was a big, well-muscled man, bursting with health and in a position of power, but that didn’t mean he would prevail against a ruthless warrior like Ludovic.
    Ludovic, as Sir Danny knew, fought to win. So did Tony.
    Picking his words carefully, Sir Danny said, “Ludovic wishes to protect you from any threat. Tony wishes to be your friend. Ludovic doesn’t understand that it might be possible for you to be a friend of Tony’s so he is wary of Tony’s intentions.”
    â€œLike Ophelia’s brother?”
    Her intuition startled him sometimes.