Page 49 of The Duke’s Matchmaker

“Oh, that would be lovely.” She smiled. “I do enjoy a nice glass of chilled wine on a warm day.”

He opened the bottle, poured some out, and handed her a glass. “A toast, then?”

“What are we drinking to?”

“To friendship.” He held up his own glass.

She grinned and tapped her glass to his. “To friendship,” she agreed.

Could that really be what this is? Could I keep her as a friend?

He had never had a friend quite like Dorothy. Gabriel and Jonathan were wonderful, but there was something about her that the two of them didn’t offer. She thought so differently, and she made him think about things differently too.

He took a sip of his drink.

The two of them sat in easy silence, both watching Colin as he played. Nathaniel was grateful for the distraction, for the fact that Colin gave them something to focus on other than each other. It made it that much easier to sit here without talking.

But eventually, he had to break the silence. “Have you any thoughts about who I ought to pursue next?” he asked. “Now that things are good and done with Lady Isabelle, I mean?”

“I thought perhaps Lady Amanda,” Dorothy said. “She’s the daughter of the Earl of Castell. This is her first season, and she hasn’t been a popular choice among the gentlemen because she’s a bit of a wallflower like me. But she’s pretty enough, and I’ve always known her to be very kind. I think she would make a good mother.”

Nathaniel turned the idea around in his head. He was a little surprised that Dorothy had come up with another name so quickly. But then, that was what he had asked her to do, so he couldn’t be too shocked by it. It made sense. “Lady Amanda,” he repeated, committing the name to memory. “You may need to point her out to me at the next ball we attend.”

“Of course I will.” She smiled at him, and the unpleasant surprise he’d felt at the readiness with which she had made her suggestion faded somewhat. There were still a lot of things that had to be done before he would be in a position to marry anybody. And perhaps things wouldn’t work out with this Lady Amanda—perhaps it would be the same as it was with Lady Isabelle. That should have troubled him, but instead there was a strange relief in it.

After a while, Colin turned and ran back up toward them, waving a hand in the air. “Look what I found!” he called.

“He better not have pulled something out of the water,” Nathaniel murmured.

“Wait and see,” Dorothy counseled. “He might have found whatever it is on the bank.”

Sure enough, the rock Colin deposited on the ground in front of them was dry. It sparkled in the sunlight. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Colin enthused.

“It is,” Dorothy said, picking it up. “What a find!”

“It’s for you, Mother!”

Everyone froze. Dorothy glanced at Nathaniel, who had no idea what he was supposed to say.

Colin turned beet-red. “I mean, Lady Dorothy,” he mumbled.

“It’s all right,” Dorothy told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m not your mother, Colin, but I would have been lucky to be. I’m sure she loved you a great deal.”

“It’s just that you look like her,” Colin explained, some of the heat fading from his face. “You look a lot like her. Same eyes.”

Dorothy frowned and looked at Nathaniel again. “I do?”

He was still frozen, still unsure of how to react. That wasn’t something that had ever occurred to him. Did she look like his mother?

He was going to have to think about it. It had just been so long since Nathaniel had seen his mother that he couldn’t be sure.

For a distraction from that awkward exchange, he unwrapped the cookies and handed them around, and everyone’s attention turned to how delicious they were. But Nathaniel couldn’t quite forget what he had heard.

Colin thought Dorothy looked like their mother. Enough that he’d slipped and called her Mother twice now.

Could he possibly be right about that?

CHAPTER 25