“I trusted you, Prentice,” Daniel said in a low, menacing voice.

“Not in this,” Hugh replied, and even Sarah was surprised at the lack of gravity in his tone.

Daniel started to lunge at him.

Sarah shot to her feet. “Stop! It’s not what you think!”

It was what they always said in novels, after all.

“Very well,” she said, taking in the incredulous expressions on both men, “it is what you think. But you can’t hit him.”

Daniel growled. “Oh, can’t I?”

Sarah planted her hand on his chest. “No,” she said firmly, then turned to Hugh with a pointed finger. “And you can’t either.”

Hugh shrugged. “I wasn’t trying to.”

Sarah blinked. He did look astonishingly casual, all things considered.

She turned back to Daniel. “This is none of your affair.”

Daniel’s body went rigid with fury, and he could barely control his voice when he said, “Go to your room, Sarah.”

“You are not my father,” she shot back.

“I’m bloody well in loco parentis until he arrives,” Daniel nearly spat.

“Oh, you’re one to talk,” she scoffed. Daniel’s fiancée used to live with the Pleinsworths, after all. Sarah knew quite well that his romantic pursuit of her had not been entirely chaste.

Daniel crossed his arms. “This isn’t about me.”

“It wasn’t until you barged into the room.”

“If it makes you feel better,” Hugh said, “I was planning to ask Lord Pleinsworth for her hand just as soon as he arrives.”

Sarah snapped her head back around. “That’s my proposal?”

“Blame him,” Hugh replied, with a nod toward Daniel.

But then Daniel did something unexpected. He took a step toward Hugh, leveled a hard stare at his face, and said, “You will not ask Lord Pleinsworth for her hand. You will not say even a word to him until you tell her the truth.”

The truth? Sarah looked from Daniel to Hugh and back again. Several times. But she might not have even been there, for all they noticed her. And for once in her life, she kept her mouth shut.

“What,” Hugh bit off, his temper finally ignited, “do you mean by that?”

“You know very well,” Daniel seethed. “I trust you have not forgotten the devil’s bargain you made.”

“You mean the one that saved your life?” Hugh countered.

Sarah took a step back in alarm. She did not know what was going on, but it terrified her.

“Yes,” Daniel confirmed in a silky voice. “That one. Wouldn’t you think that a woman ought to know before she accepts your offer?”

“Know what?” Sarah asked uneasily. “What are you talking about?” But neither man so much as spared her a glance.

“Marriage is a lifetime commitment,” Daniel said in an awful voice. “A lifetime.”

Hugh’s jaw went rigid. “This is not the time, Winstead.”