It was up the right fork that Lizzy led Selina, walking so quickly that they were almost running by the time they halted outside a set of doors.
“Here we are!” Lizzy announced, throwing the double doors open with a grand flourish and jolting Selina out of her thoughts. “Your new rooms here in Ashbrook Manor!”
Sunlight streamed in through an entire wall of mullioned windows framed by pale green draperies embellished with gold embroidery. On one side of the room, there was a pair of settees in pale green silk damask. On the other side, gauzy curtains in pink and pale green pooled to the floor to frame a gigantic bed.
“Not bad for a cupboard.” Selina grinned at her friend.
“The best part is that my rooms are just across the hall,” Lizzy added. “And further down to the very end… well, that should be Philip’s, now that he is the Duke.”
Selina made a mental note not to venture down that particular hall.
“Lizzy?”
“Hmm?” Her friend sank onto one of the settees in a rather unladylike fashion while Selina lowered herself onto the other one.
“What is he like? Your brother?”
“Philip?”
“I was not aware there was another.”
The blonde pursed her lips as if in deep thought. “You already know that he rarely smiles. Or laughs.”
“Yes, you made me aware of that earlier.”
That… was not very reassuring. Selina had had two decades’ worth of experience with a man who rarely smiled or laughed. Her father was not a man who was given to smiling, laughing, or any other emotion besides annoyance. It was not something she looked forward to in the next chapter of her life.
“Can we not speak of him?” Lizzy groaned. “It is such a dull topic. I have told you everything about him before. What else can you possibly want to know?”
Selina shrugged. “Anything and everything, I suppose. Call it research.”
A mischievous glint entered Lizzy’s eyes. “At least gathering for our book club will be easier now. Melody can just come here because the two of us will already be here.” She laughed. “Oh, this is marvelous!”
“Concentrate, Lizzy. Please.”
It was not marvelous. It was amess.
“Do you think the members of the Matchmakers’ Book Club meet like we do?” Lizzy sighed dreamily.
Selina gulped. The less said aboutthoseparticular miscreants, the better.
Although I will have to explain everything soon.
“Oh, Selina, please do not look so worried,” Lizzy said, sitting up straight, all seriousness. “He will most likely stay out of your way. You might have to see one another at dinners, but that is all. I will have you mostly to myself, and I shall be so very glad of it.”
Selina managed a dry little laugh.
She honestly did not know how she was supposed to react if her friend had said something greatly worrying. Like, “He does not approve of women with a fondness for books or learning.”
Thatwould have had her reconsidering their suitability for a lifelong union… more than she already was.
Thankfully, Ashbrook did not seem to have any objection to the notion of women with a penchant for reading.
“Not if reading is the most mischief you could ever get up to,”he had said to her earlier, with that flutter-instigating smile of his.
But she had to do something about her reaction to that smile of his. It was simply far too…
Distracting.
