Gwinnie bounced up and flounced over to the fireplace. She fiddled with a candlestick on the mantle. “Don’t be obtuse. You know what I mean.”
Yes, Cassie did know but didn’t know what she wanted to say. “He is a caring man, he appears to take what happens around himself and others quite seriously. And there is no naysaying he is intelligent and handsome.”
“You see he is caring?” Gwinnie asked eagerly. “I think he is. He tries to hide that, you know.”
Cassie looked at her curiously. “Why? It is one of his most endearing traits.”
“I think because of that wordendearingMen don’t like to be thought of as havingendearingtraits. Just not masculine enough, I suppose,” she said. “As a child, Lakehurst was bullied for his large size, but more strongly admonished by our father to not take out anger on anyone physically, as he could easily hurt someone without meaning to. And of course, this led to more bullying because it appeared he would not stand up for himself.”
“I’ve heard those boarding schools can be quite ruthless. I worry for Alex when it is time for him to be sent away to school,” Cassie said.
Gwinnie nodded. “I can well understand that! Because of his size, Lakehurst withdrew from the other boys, spending much of his time alone reading or scribbling his own little stories if he couldn’t find a story he wanted to read.” She drew her green wool shawl higher up on her shoulder.
“I’m surprised that Lord Lakehurst has not wed yet. He’s handsome, wealthy, kind; I would think the debutants would be falling all over each other for his attentions.”
Gwinnie snorted. “You’d think so, wouldn’t you? I know I do. I discovered recently why they don’t.”
“There is a reason?”
Gwinnie nodded, “A reason only a naïve, young debutant would believe, but there is a reason.” She shook her head. “I wonder if I was ever that naïve,” she said pensively.
“Well, what is it?”
“He is too large for intimacy.”
“What?”
Gwinnie nodded. “They are afraid that his size would make the act of procreation too painful.”
Cassie blinked at her. A sudden, unbidden image of him nude and in her bed flashed through her mind. She shivered inside. “I would hate to tell you anything of what is going through my mind at the moment; however, fear is not there,” she admitted.
Gwinnie snorted.
“And he knows this?” Cassie asked.
“He overheard a conversation.”
“But did he rightly hear?”
Gwinnie shrugged. “He says he did. It has thrown him in a dither.”
Cassie stared at her for a moment. “He is not—forgive me—a virgin, is he?” she suggested tentatively.
Gwinnie laughed. “Hardly! No, no. He’s had his share of youthful indiscretions in the past. No. No,” she said, continuing to chuckle.
“Then why…”
Gwinnie shook her head. “I don’t pretend to understand the workings of his mind.”
“No, I don’t suppose one would.” Cassie frowned.
“I told him his best prospects for a bride were either a bluestocking who is too intelligent for such idiocy, or a widow such as yourself.”
“Oh, not me,” she immediately said, then wondered why she said that, for she could see herself wed to him, contrary to what she’d told him.
Gwinnie tilted her head. “Why not?”
“I’ll not marry again,” she said stoutly, pushing her other wayward thoughts away. “I found marriage totally unsatisfying. I had thought Richard and I could have at least been friends, for he’d told me before the marriage he wanted a biddable wife who would not complain about anything he did. No. He was nice enough, but we were never friends and if he came to my bed after Alex was born, I think of it as trying to relieve an itch, and I was the only scratching post around.”
