Lord deliver her from over-emotional men, Daphne scowled at the young man seated in her receiving room. The door was wide open and her maid was sitting in a corner as a chaperone for goodness sake! And here young Mister William Stanton was making such a bleeding racket!

She offered him a handkerchief distastefully, watching him dab his eyes. He was quite the handsome bastard, so she could begrudgingly give Lady Lucille credit for that. Bad form for the only daughter of a Marquess to fall in love with the third son of an Earl, she ought to have at least tried for the heir. The Honorable Mister William hadn't a penny to his name, nor a respectable profession. He was a poet.

A poet of very middling talent, if the verses he had written about Lucille were anything to go by.

Well, there was no accounting for taste.

"Oh, Mister Stanton, you simply mustn't lose hope!" Daphne schooled her features into a kind, sympathetic expression. "You clearly love Lady Lucille. And if she returns even a fraction of your regard, surely you cannot let her marry another man?"

"The first banns have already been called," Mister William replied morosely. "And there is still a year to wait before we can marry without her father's consent. He will never give me his permission, not when he could have an Earl for a son-in-law."

"Which means you have two weeks before it is too late. You must elope, she won't need her father's permission if you marry at Gretna Green."

"Do you think I haven't thought of that? I can use the money I have been saving for my commission to get us across the border and spend a year in rented apartments and that's about it!"

Daphne's estimation of Mister Stanton grew somewhat- at least he wasn't hoping to make a fortune off of his poetry. Daphne appreciated a realist.

"Her fiancé will be an Earl, what woman would choose me?" He continued, half hysterical, half anguished. "And say I do somehow convince her to throw her future away on me, what comes afterward? When her parents have disowned her, and mine have cut ties with me. Will love keep us warm during the winters? Will love keep our bellies full at night? How long before she hates me for it? If there was some way to wait until I could purchase my commission, at least then I could provide for her. But it will take months."

"It seems to me that you do not think she is capable of making her own decisions. Does she not get a choice? Does she not get a say in her own future? Her father wishes to trade her as a political pawn, and you're willing to let it happen! Or is that you love such a foolish woman that she does not even know her mind?" Daphne demanded.

"I merely want her to be happy!"

"No, you are merely too afraid to weather some hardship with her! How can you call it love when you are so willing to let her marry another man?! If it were me, I would rather be hungry with a man I love than eat roast every night with a man I do not. I would rather b-be cold with the man I love than be swathed in wool and velvet without him," heat was pricking behind her eyes as the full force of her love for Cassius hit her. Was there any hardship in the world she would not face to be with him? None. "I would rather live with my love in rented apartments instead of a palace. I would be grateful for it because I would be happier with him in those small rooms than I ever would be in a palace without him."

Mister Stanton stared at her in something between awe and admiration. His eyes had a sheen of tears.

"Yes," he swallowed thickly. "Yes, you are right. I would rather face the hardship of poverty with her by my side than to face the hardship of a life without her. But...... I must find a way to at least purchase a commission. I shall take a loan or...."

"How much do you need?"

His eyes widened in surprise, and then his face colored. He stayed silent for a minute, clearly hesitating to bring up the vulgar subject of money with a gently bred lady. She gave him a pointed look until he cleared his throat and gave the sum.

Daphne snuck in a sharp breath at the not-insignificant amount.

"Very well. Leave it to me," she said, steeling herself. It was all for Cassius, she reminded herself. She would do anything, say anything to keep him from throwing his life away on the wrong woman. "Meet me at the back gate of my garden tomorrow night at eleven. I will have found some way to help you."

"I can't accept these!" Mister Stanton hissed at her in horror, hood drawn over his face. He shoved the reticule full of Daphne's jewels back at her, drawing back as if the gemstones were poisonous.

"But you must!" Daphne rushed forward, pressing them into his hands insistently. Her heart beat rapidly withy both fear and adrenaline. If she were caught here with him she'd be ruined! And likely forced to marry Mister Stanton.

Oh if only you'd considered that before you rushed headlong into this situation! The rational portion of her brain screamed at her. The portion of her mind that had been becoming louder and louder with each passing day. It planted doubt in her mind, made her think she ought to give up on Cassius. That she had built her life on the foolish dreams of a little girl, and that the future she had always thought was a guarantee was merely the result of a conviction born of her own hubris. That she ought to start seriously considering the suitors who presented themselves to her.

She shut that voice down, choosing to listen to the faith in her heart that things were worked out as they were fated to. It was just that fate needed a little help sometimes.

"Mister Stanton, you needn't think of this as a favor, think of it as a loan. Think of it as two people with an aligned goal working together."

His brows shot up in surprise.

"I don't want them married any more than you do," Daphne pressed the jewels more firmly in his hands, her voice shaking with fear that Stanton would back out at the last minute. "And you can pay me back one day. These jewels do not mean more to me than Lord Cassius' happiness. So, please. Please. Take them. But you must never let anyone know that you got them from me."

Her heart seized in terror of the possibility of Cassius finding out about her machinations. He would not see her point of view, he would only be angry. She trembled to think of his fury. She would reveal everything to him, once he admitted that he loved her and they were safely married.

Until then, desperate situations warranted desperate measures.

She was doing the right thing, wasn't she? 

Of course, she was. She was helping Cassius. She was saving him.

Stanton stared at her in obvious hesitation, his sense of honor fighting with his love for Lucille. Finally, he swallowed and tucked the reticule into his coat. He gave her one, last conflicted look before slipping out of the back gate.

Daphne heaved a sigh of relief and fled back to the house before someone noticed that she was missing.

But what she did not know is that she had not been alone in the garden, and a viper had heard all of her secrets and her machinations. It smiled, a disgusting smile of lecherous intent and malice as its prey scurried away.

It now stood poised to strike whenever the timing became convenient.

It would have it meal, soon. And it would also have its revenge.