“I have no intention to.”
Their mother nodded in approval. “I did come to remind you that Lady Langdon and Arabella will be joining us for dinner tonight.”
“I am well aware,” Colin said.
“Excellent,” their mother responded. “We will also be playing games and lighting the Yule Log.”
John interjected, “That is still a silly tradition.”
“You two are no fun,” their mother complained good-naturedly. “My brother and I used to fight about who was the first to sit on the log before it went into the fireplace.”
“I promise that we will behave this evening,” Colin assured her.
“That pleases me.”
Colin walked over to his mother and kissed her on the cheek. “If you will excuse me, Arabella and I are going ice skating.”
“That is promising,” their mother acknowledged.
“It is, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Colin said as he walked to the door. “I’m trying to win the war, not just the battle.”
John smirked. “You should try to woo her with some of that war talk,” he jested.
Colin shook his head. “Why am I cursed with a brother who is an idiot?”
“I feel the same way,” John countered with a smile.
Colin departed from the library, excited to spend time with Arabella. She filled the empty pieces in his soul that he had desperately tried to pretend didn’t exist. She was his heart, his other half.
Now he just had to convince her of that.
* * *
Arabella satin the drawing room with a book in her hand, but it was the furthest thing from her mind. Her head was filled with muddled thoughts of Colin. What was she going to do?
Why did she tell him that she still had feelings for him? That was a huge misstep on her part, considering she was unsure if she should even act on them. She had trusted Colin once, wholeheartedly, and he had betrayed her.
Her grandmother’s voice broke through her musings. “You seem troubled, my dear.”
“Do I?” she asked innocently.
“Did you even notice that your book is upside down?”
Arabella glanced down at the book and saw that it was right side up. “It is not.”
“But you weren’t sure, which leads me to believe you weren’t focusing on it,” her grandmother pointed out.
Arabella closed the book and placed it in her lap. “I’m afraid I was just thinking about Colin.”
“I assumed as much.”
“Why is he so maddening?”
Her grandmother smiled as she pulled a needle through the fabric. “I’m afraid I cannot answer that question.”
“I was doing perfectly well without him.”
“Were you?”
