“I did. Until I saw a fellow you two missed, who was trying to sneak into the woods.” She shrugged. “So I told him to get into his master’s coach. And apparently my pistol convinced him that he should.”
“You gave Beatrice a loaded pistol?” Joshua snapped at Grey. “Are you mad?”
“Not that mad,” Grey answered.
“But he didn’t know it wasn’t loaded,” the woman interrupted. “Nor did the other three who came out looking decidedly disheveled.” The woman smiled at Cass and held out the handnotgripping a pistol. “Good morning. I’m Grey’s wife, Beatrice. I’m also Joshua’s sister, and before you ask, Grey and I are not related in the least except by marriage.”
Which made this pistol-wielding female the Duchess of Greycourt. Good Lord. “Lovely to meet you. I’m . . . um . . . Heywood’s fiancée?”
“Miss Cassandra Isles,” Grey said to his wife while also extricating the pistol from her. “Whom he hasn’t yet asked to marry him.”
“But whom he still wants us to consider as his fiancée,” Joshua said. “Personally, I’m not convinced. For one thing, she’s far too pretty for Heywood. And for another—”
“If you lot would just go inside,” Heywood bit out, “I’m sure Mother has some task or another for you to perform, involving the tree and its many ornaments and baubles and whatever else she has in store for the day.”
Beatrice brightened as she gazed up at her husband. “You were right! Thereisa decorated tree!”
“I told you. We had one every year when I was a boy.”
“And you can see it right inside,” Heywood said, making a shooing motion at his relations. “Move along now. That way to the tree.”
“Not without you,” Grey said, mischief in his eyes. “Why don’t you come with us?”
“And look what your mother has done with the garden, Grey,” Beatrice said. “She managed to get some winter roses going.”
“I see that,” Grey answered. “It’s very—”
“Out of the garden, all of you!” Heywood shouted. “Now!”
Beatrice blinked. “Well! You don’t have to be rude about it.”
“Apparently, I do,” Heywood grumbled under his breath.
His relations must have realized they’d overtaxed his patience, for with a laugh and a few backwards glances at her, they finally went inside.
“I thought they would never leave,” Heywood said testily.
“You certainly have a much more colorful family than I do,” Cass said.
He eyed her askance. “Really? Your cousin ran off with a solicitor, and your aunt can’t leave the whist table. So I’d say your family would fit in with mine very well.”
A lump stuck in her throat. “Is that . . . what you want? Because last night—”
“Last night I was a fool, dearling.” He cupped her face in his hands. “I let my pride prevent me from recognizing the tremendous gift you were offering me. But when I saw Malet trying to steal you away, it solidified what I already knew—that I could never bear the absence of you.”
“Oh, Heywood, neither could I.”
“And once I heard about that fellow in Bath and how stupidly he behaved . . .”
Her cheeks flamed. “Who told you about that? No, wait, I know who. It was Kitty, wasn’t it? I swear, my cousin is incapable of keeping a secret.”
“Ah, but she knows when to keep one when it benefits the people she loves. After all, she kept the secret of who wrote all her letters. Of whom shereallywanted to marry. Of the fact that you were an heiress. Without those machinations, you and I might never have met. I certainly would never have carried the two of you off, and you would never have accepted me as a suitor because I knew of your fortune.”
“Without those machinations, you might be preparing to marry Kitty instead of me,” she said archly.
“Doubtful.” He chuckled. “I fell in love with you the moment I heard your letters read aloud. Every word made me burn to meet the woman who wrote them. I would never have settled for Kitty when I knew in my gut she wasn’t that woman. Because once I did find that woman, I was lost forever. It was merely a matter of time before I came to my senses.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a jeweler’s box. “I know I’m supposed to wait until the fifth day of Christmas for this gift, but I’m too impatient for that.” He opened the box to reveal four thin gold rings and in the center of them a wider ring with a beautiful ruby set into it. “On this first day of Christmas, dearling, will you do me the honor of agreeing to become my wife?”
