Perhaps she was thinking of her own circumstances.
Christabella bit her lip, pondering her sister’s question. The answer was as plain as the nose upon her face. Of course she was drawn to Gill. It had not happened intentionally. But it had happened quickly. With shocking speed. One day, she had thought him frigid as an icicle, and the next he had been the flame.
“I…” She struggled to make sense of her emotions, to give voice to what she was feeling inside, and failed.
But as it turned out, she did not require eloquence. She had sisters, and they read her heart. Better, it would seem, than she had.
They surrounded her in the next moment, until she stood in the center of their circle. Their arms were entwined in one endless hug.
“Winter hug,” they said.
Her heart warmed, in spite of her confusion. How she loved her sisters. They were all so different from each other. But they were the same in one respect: they loved each other and they were fiercely protective of one another. They all understood that they were Winters. For so long, it had been them against the rest of the world.
Now, their world was growing larger.
“Christabella?” Pru asked.
“Yes?” she ventured, eyes still closed tight.
“The next time he asks you to marry him, accept,” Bea counseled.
“You are in love,” Grace added.
“And, unless we are all mistaken, which never happens,” Eugie said, “he is in love with you.”
“As he ought to be.” Pru pressed a kiss to her forehead, half-sisterly, half-maternal. “Any man would be fortunate to have you as his wife.”
“The same can be said of you,” she told her sisters. “Of all of you.”
“It is a bloody good thing you added the rest of us,” Grace said. “Else I may have had to resort to pulling hair.”
All the sisters dissolved into a fit of giggles.
When she caught her breath again, Christabella hugged the circle of her sisters to her tightly. “How do I know if I am in love with him? Or for that matter, how do I know if he is in love with me?”
“You will know it in your heart,” Eugie said.
And that was precisely what Christabella was afraid of.
Gill took onelook at his brother’s countenance, and he knew what Ash was about to say.
“You have fallen in love with Miss Prudence Winter,” he pronounced.
Ash’s shoulders went stiff, a frown drawing his brows together. “How did you know?”
There was only one reason why Ash would come dashing to his chamber whilst he readied for dinner. And only one reason why his brother would look so concerned and yet elated, all at once. He did his damnedest not to feel bitter about the fact that he had been right all along in his supposition that if one of them could be happy, it would be Ash.
Never Gill.
“You are my brother,” he forced himself to say by way of explanation.
“How long have you known?” Ash demanded, a sharp edge of outrage inherent in his voice.
“Since our arrival here.” Gill tied a knot in his cravat himself, since he had already dismissed his valet, Martin to enable him to have this conversation with his brother sans audience.
“Since our arrival,” Ash repeated, looking shocked. “But what of the wager? You told me you wanted to make Pru your duchess.”
“I told you I wanted to find my duchess here, and that I was willing to accept your aid,” he explained. “We both know I am as useless as a ham when it comes to the fairer sex. You, however, were the one who suggested Miss Prudence.”
