A Perfect Match
SABRINAJEFFRIES
To my parents, who both love the Christmas season so much, and always made sure we had a good one, even in Thailand.
I hope we have many more Christmases together.
Chapter 1
Yorkshire
December 1808
The ballroom at Welbourne Place was so crowded that despite the winter weather, ladies’ fans were flapping as vigorously as wings of doves in flight. Miss Cassandra Isles sympathized. Even the scent of evergreens in the festive decorations—kissing boughs of mistletoe, rosemary, laurel, and holly—didn’t help. If she didn’t escape the stuffy room soon, she might scream! But she didn’t dare leave until Captain Lionel Malet stopped prowling about in search of her eighteen-year-old cousin, Katherine “Kitty” Nickman.
Cass sighed. On the surface, the captain possessed everything a woman would want in a husband. As the youngest son of a viscount, he had rank and connections. And he certainly was good-looking for his age, with his casually disordered black curls, his blue eyes, and his manly demeanor.
But he still repulsed Cass. Was it his calculating mannerisms? His brittle smiles? The way he admonished Kitty at every turn?
Perhaps it was justhim, period.
Unfortunately, with Kitty lingering in the retiring room, he was now heading for Cass, probably to probe her for any information he’d been unable to pry out of her and Kitty and Aunt Virginia when he’d brought them here in his carriage.
Once he reached Cass, he barely bowed, as if recognizing her lack of approval. “I see you’ve already lost your pretty companion.”
“I’m sure she’ll return shortly. Youwerespeaking of Kitty, weren’t you?”
“Who else?”
“I have no idea, sir. How many rich women are you courting at present?”
His icy gaze sharpened. “I’m interested in your cousin for herself.”
She stared at him. “If you say so.”
Ignoring her barbed comment, he glanced about the room. “I hope Miss Nickman hasn’t wandered onto the terrace. There are men at this affair who roam the dark, hoping to force a kiss on an unsuspecting maiden.”
Men like you?Cass nearly said. His possessiveness worried her. It wasn’t as if he and Kitty were betrothed.
“I hope you’re not describing yourself,” she said. “If you think to gain my cousin by compromising her, that would be foolish.”
He stiffened. “You misunderstand the situation, madam. I love Miss Nickman.”
Love?She doubted the man even knew the meaning of the word.
Not that Kitty couldn’t make men fall in love with her. She was gorgeous, with wheat-blond hair, clear green eyes, and a perfect figure. Indeed, every woman in the room would hate her if she didn’t also have an amiable temperament, a big heart, and a winning way with everyone she met.
Then there was her petite figure that made her look like a fragile flower in need of a big strong man to guide her, which, unfortunately, she was. Because she was also a naïve heiress to an enormous fortune. That complicated every courtship.
“If you love her,” Cass told the captain, “you can have no objection to waiting a few months before making an offer.”
When annoyance flashed in his expression, it reconfirmed her conviction that he merely wanted to get his hands on Kitty’s dowry. But he masked his reaction swiftly enough. “Doesn’t every young lady aim to find a husband with all due haste?”
“Not before having her London season. Given the size of Kitty’s inheritance, I think—”
“Forgive me, Miss Isles, but what you think doesn’t matter as long as her mother approves of me. And I happen to know that she does.”
“I beg to differ.” When her words seemed to surprise him, she added, “I know my aunt very well—she will never agree to a suitor with nothing to commend him but his connections.” Casshopedthat was the case, anyway. “She’s determined to give her daughter a proper season in London, and you must surely be aware that once she does, Kitty will easily snag a wealthy and titled husband.”
