“But what of our needs for conversation?”
He sighed. “Edwina, you could have a sprightly conversation with a wall. You’ll survive.”
“You love Miss Wright,” Meg stated.
For the first time since he’d declared his intention, the room was silent. They waited for his confirmation or denial. That was fine. He could out-wait them. They wouldn’t last a—
“You have been stalking around like a bear with a sore tooth for weeks,” Winnie said, thumping the chaise longue. “You moon over Miss Wright like a lovesick adolescent.”
His heartbeat quickened. They were going to give him apoplexy if they insisted on carrying on this line of conversation. “I do not moon.”
Winnie pursed her lips. “Every time we enter a room, you scan it for her presence. If she is there, your entire body loosens, and if she is not, you look ready to strangle someone.”
Jac cocked her head, turning in Winnie’s direction. “That is surprisingly perceptive of you, sister.”
Winnie gave a gracious smile, looking as proud as Peter had ever seen her. “Thank you. I have a talent for observing things that others don’t.”
“Your observations are inaccurate,” he responded. The muscles along his jaw tightened.
Winnie paid no regard to his darkening mood. “Every time you dance, your head turns toward her as you spin, as though she is the point that grounds you.”
“Remarkablyperceptive of you, sister,” Meg added.
Peter could do with a little less perception. “If I watch her, which I dispute, it is only to ensure that she is nowhere nearby.”
“Bollocks.”
“Edwina.”
“Winnie is right. That’s bollocks.”
“Jacqueline.”
He turned to Meg for help.
She shrugged. “They are correct, brother. You may have quit corresponding with her, but we see your face every time the mail comes. You are clearly smitten, though you refuseto admit it.” She patted the seat beside her. “Sit. Speak. You expect honesty from everyone, so you must give it in return.”
Sitting felt like acquiescing. Talking felt hazardous. He crossed his arms instead, rolling back and forth on his heels. “Miss Wright would be an inappropriate duchess. She has none of the experience or skill required.”
Jactut-tutted. “You have repeatedly complimented her intelligence, and insisted that she has the ability to take on any career.”
Damn.“The circumstances of her birth cannot be overlooked.”
Winnie scoffed. “Just last year, you offered to marry Della, and she was a maid.”
He couldn’t stop his foot from tapping, and prayed that his suddenly perceptive sisters did not mark his anxiety. “Miss Wright would never be accepted by theton.They will not tolerate a woman who spends her days working.”
Winnie snorted. “She doesn’t anymore. You saw to that.”
“Hush.” Meg slapped Winnie’s knee. Ignoring the yelp that followed, Meg rose and took hold of his arm, drawing him firmly to the seat beside her. “You. Talk.”
He tried to stand, but her vise-like grip and mutinous look trapped him. Without letting him go, she gestured for Winnie to pour tea.
Winnie’s narrowed eyes never left him, which was why tea sloshed across the tray and was how he managed to extract himself from Meg’s talons. While she mopped up the spill and Winnie fussed, he assessed his options. They would not relent. Thus, keeping them at arm’s length from this business would require active resistance, when usually he managed toachieve the distance simply by limiting what information he shared.
The alternative was to succumb, to open himself up and let them pick their way through his feelings, even if it meant they might find something in there that unsettled them. Even if it risked shaking their confidence in him and leaving them without a reliable pillar to lean on.
Even if he was deeply afraid of what they might see and how it might change the way they felt about him.
