“Should I leave?”he asked quietly.
Chris shook his head.“You’re paying for accommodations, too.Try the fish.I think you’ll like the white sauce.”
“I mean this village.”Nicholas met his brother’s eyes.“Should I leave?”
Chris let out a breath.“This is your holiday, too.Enjoy it.”
“I’ll be gone in a week,” Nicholas promised.“Faster if I wrap up this business I’m trying to handle.In a few days, you’ll be able to bride-hunt without my presence mucking up the works.”
“You have actual business here?”His brother’s eyes widened in shock.“Are you going to sell some of your—”
“No one knows about that,” Nicholas said firmly.“Let’s keep it that way.”
“But you’re good,” Chris said.“One shouldn’t keep one’s talents a secret.”
Nicholas’s mouth curved dryly.“Some would say I don’t.”
“Not those talents.”Chris rolled his eyes.“You should definitely keep those more secret.Give the rest of us a chance.”
At that, Nicholas could not help but think of Miss Mitchell’s words the previous afternoon.He straightened in alarm.“Please tell me you’re not going to start bathing inDukeperfume.”
“I said I agreed with you on the subject.”Chris lifted a shoulder.“If I cannot woo a woman with honest romance, I shan’t take her as my wife.”
Nicholas blinked.“What the devil is ‘honest romance?’”
“Romance that means something.”His brother’s eyes took on a far-off sheen.“Not a dozen roses, but her favorite flower.Not poetry from the masters, but some truly awful rhyming couplets that come from one’s heart.Not an afternoon promenade to march her before all of London, but a hundred quiet moments that mean everything.Moments only the two of you would understand.”
It was Nicholas’s turn to stare at his brother as though he had sprouted antlers.
Good God.Nicholaswouldn’t be engaging in any such behavior.Not only was romance for people who intended to see the same person again and again, it was an exercise in futility.
When Mother and Father’s love match had turned sour, he and his brother had watched the drama unfold before their eyes.The snide comments.Long silences.Father’s mistresses.The night Mother never came back.
Chris had sworn to do better.
Nicholas had vowed never to love at all.By far, the safer choice.
“You don’t look convinced,” Chris said.
Nicholas was very convinced.They just held opposing beliefs.
“Love isn’t for me,” he said.Even if he were to find it, it wouldn’t last.He didn’t need the heartbreak.But he wished his brother well.“Keep looking.You’ll find her eventually.”
And he would.If anyone deserved to find the love of a lifetime, it was his brother.Chris would do it right.He’d be better than their father.He’d start a romance that never ended.
“I wish you would change your mind,” Chris said softly.“You can’t live life in single-night segments forever.”
Nicholas gave him a crooked grin.“Why not?If I sum all the ‘one nights’ together, it adds up to the same thing.”
Sort of.
“At least do something you like,” Chris suggested.“There’s that smithy on the edge of town.Didn’t you say they would rent it?”
Nicholas’s fingers itched again.The le Duc smithy wouldn’t be the same as home, but maybe it would be close.“That’s a good idea.I’ll try.”
Chris gave an exaggerated shudder.“How can you stand crouching in front of a fireplace for hours at a time?”
Nicholas shrugged.“I like chimneys.”
