He stood frozen a long moment, shaking his head. Never had he met a more infuriating female. Or a more fascinating one.
Cursing himself for that unwise thought, he marched downstairs to his own bedchamber. Bad enough that the woman he desired—the one with smoky gray eyes and golden-brown curls escaping her hairpins—was the one who wasn’t an heiress. But now that he’d let himself get carried away kissing Cass, he would have a hard time settling for Kitty.
He would have to start to put some distance between himself and Cass. And start focusing on Kitty. He would do that tomorrow.
Too bad he couldn’t stop thinking about those kisses.
Chapter 5
Cass awoke very late, no surprise there. With a certain gentleman’s kisses filling one’s head, it was hard to fall asleep. By the time she’d slipped into slumber, it had been near dawn. Now she felt like a slugabed.
All of a sudden, she sensed someone watching her. She turned her head to the door and saw Kitty peeking around the corner of it.
“Oh, thank heavens you’re finally awake!” Kitty cried. “I thought you were going to sleep all day. I’ve looked in on you half a dozen times at least!”
Cass sighed. There were days when her cousin’s boundless energy wore on her. This was one of those days.
She rolled over to put her back to the door. “Go away,” she mumbled.
“Don’t mind her,” Kitty said. “She’s always grumpy in the morning. She doesn’t mean it. Come on in.”
The realization that Kitty was talking to someone else made Cass bolt upright in the bed and catch the covers up to her neck. What the devil?
Then, with a mixture of disappointment and relief, she realized the person Kitty was ushering in wasn’t Heywood but a young woman holding a breakfast tray. Of course it was—even Kitty wouldn’t be so foolish as to usher amaninto Cass’s bedchamber. And Cass wasn’t disappointed that the person wasn’t Heywood. Not in the least.
Liar.
Kitty plopped down on the end of the bed. “Gwyn, this is Cass. Cass, this is Gwyn, Heywood’s half sister.”
She’d already guessed that. Gwyn was a younger version of her mother, only taller. And with green eyes instead of blue. But she had the same jaw as her mother and Heywood, the same crooked smile, and the same nose.
Gwyn was gazing on Cass with a bemused expression. “Lovely to meet you. I would apologize for having been party to your cousin’s waking you from your slumber except that Kitty has spent the past two hours singing your praises and making me positively eager to meet you.”
“Kitty has a tendency to gush about the people she loves,” Cass said. “Don’t get her started on her brother, Douglas.”
“Too late,” Gwyn said with a smile. “But we already knew about Douglas, since Heywood sings his praises, too.”
Cass would have remarked on that if not for the welcome aroma that had captured her attention. “You wouldn’t by any chance have coffee on that tray, would you?”
“I would, indeed,” Gwyn said as she set the tray on the table next to the bed. “Kitty made it clear that you prefer coffee to tea. Just like Heywood, as a matter of fact, although he claims that his preference comes from serving in the army for so many years. You aren’t by any chance a secret member of the Twenty-Fifth Hussars, are you?”
Cass laughed as she poured a cup and then added cream. “No.” She could see she was going to like Gwyn. “And if I were, I wouldn’t admit it. How could it remain secret otherwise?”
Gwyn chuckled, but Kitty was not amused. “Hurry up and eat your breakfast,” she said. “Heywood has invited us to go dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh!”
“Where on earth is Heywood getting a sleigh?” Cass asked.
“Papa brought ours from Prussia,” Gwyn explained as Cass ate a slice of buttered toast and sipped coffee. “Sleighs are common there, so Mama tried to talk him out of bringing it here by pointing out that it never gets cold enough in England to use one. But he swore that Lincolnshire had plenty of winter weather.” She gestured to the window. “Apparently he was right.”
Cass took her coffee over to the window so she could look out. “Heavens,” she whispered. “That’s quite a wonderland of snow, isn’t it? Almost as much as we get farther north.”
“Yes,” Kitty said, her voice trembling, “so we can’t go home anytime soon. It’s quite concerning.” Then she brightened. “But it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. So get dressed.”
“In what? My ball gown and dancing slippers?” Cass asked, though she too would love a ride in a sleigh.
“No need to worry about that,” Gwyn said. “Mama and I have pulled together some clothes for you two, since we’ve pretty much got both heights covered. And if neither of you shares our shoe sizes, we’ll borrow boots from a servant who does.”
With that, Cass and Kitty had two maids trooping in and out, bringing riding habits and walking gowns and whatever the well-dressed lady might need for a jaunt outdoors.
