Christabella frowned. “That is odd. When she left here earlier, she said she was going directly to the drawing room.”
All the more reason to suppose Miss Prudence had arranged for an assignation with his rakehell of a brother.
“She is a good woman, your sister?” he asked, feeling a surge of protectiveness for Ash, whom he knew so often felt the same way about him, thanks to his affliction. “Kindhearted?”
Christabella smiled fondly. “Oh, yes. She has the kindest of hearts. There is none better. Why do you ask?”
He shifted in his seat, growing uncomfortable. “No reason.”
Her eyes narrowed. Christabella Winter was no fool. “Tell me.”
Damnation.Now he would have to share his plan with her. What if she told Miss Prudence and the whole affair was muddled?
He considered his options.
“Gill,” she prodded sternly.
“I will tell you, as long as you promise me you shall carry it no further,” he said at last. “You can tell no one. Not any of your sisters. Do you promise?”
“Not even my sisters?” She pursed her lips, rendering them all the more kissable. “But they are my best friends.”
The Winter family was notorious in many ways, one of which was their fierce protectiveness over one another. Her objection came as no surprise. But he remained firm. He wanted happiness for Ash, and he was not about to allow anyone to ruin it. Even if she was the most delicious creature he had ever beheld.
“Not even them,” he insisted.
She sighed. “Very well. I do hate secrets. I cannot bear to go on now, knowing you are keeping something from me. I promise I shall not tell my sisters. What is it?”
“I am playing matchmaker, of sorts,” he revealed, feeling silly by the mere utterance of the words aloud.
For after all, he knew nothing of courting. Until this house party and Christabella, he had never kissed a lady. Who was he to believe he could play matchmaker for his brother? To win a lady for his brother, who was handsome and charming and who knew how to make a lady fall into his bed with the mere quirk of a well-timed eyebrow?
“Matchmaker,” Christabella repeated slowly, blinking. “You?”
“Yes.” His ears were hot. As were his cheeks. He wondered if he were flushing. Gill fidgeted with his cravat, suddenly feeling as if it were too restrictive. “My brother is a good man. He has spent far too much time fretting over me and my—my affliction. Indeed, his presence at this house party is down to his desire to aid me, for I am the one who is in search of a bride. But I saw the way he looked at your sister, Miss Prudence. And I made a wager with him that he could not woo the lady of my choosing on my behalf. I chose your sister. He believes he is courting her for me.”
Her frown returned, this time quite fiercely. “Lord Ashley is courting Pru on your behalf?”
“Hethinkshe is,” Gill repeated, hastening to reassure her. “In truth, my interest lies elsewhere. But Ash believes he is happy devoting his life to being a ne’er-do-well second son, luring London’s ladies out of their gowns.”
“Well he is most certainly not allowed to woo my sister out of her gown!” Christabella’s outrage echoed in the chamber as she released his hand. “She is a respectable lady, even if she is a Winter.”
Blast.It seemed he was muddling this up well enough on his own.
He took her hand back in his. “I am not encouraging him to ruin her, Christabella. I would never do such a thing. I want to see him married to her.”
That rather took the vinegar out of her expression. “Oh. But Pru does not want to get married to anyone.”
“Perhaps she will change her mind,” he said pointedly. “Did you not see the way the two of them were looking at each other after our snowball fight in the gardens?”
She was silent for a beat, apparently mulling over her recollections. “Yes, I did. And now that you mention it, she did look awfully mussed and rumpled when I bumped into her in the hall the other day. As if she had been thoroughly kissed…”
“He will do the honorable thing by her,” he vowed. For he knew his brother. Rakehell though he may be, Ash was a gentleman. And he did have honor. He had simply needed to find the right woman.
Just as Gill had. For altogether different reasons, of course.
“He had better,” Christabella warned, “or I shall be forced to enact revenge upon him.”
He was sure he did not want to know what Christabella Winter’s idea of revenge was.
