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Blast him for looking even more dashing in his regimentals now than he had four years ago. And blast him for distracting her! She did not have time to be distracted by Gabe Prideaux.
“Winslett!” Mr. Greywood’s voice came from the other side of the door and made Sophie’s heart nearly beat right out of her chest.
She touched a hand to heart, hoping to calm it just a bit as she whispered to her cousin, “You can’t tell him I’m here!”
Chase’s face took on a rather murderous expression all of a sudden. “Did hedosomething to you?”
“No, no!” What an absurd thing to suggest. Mr. Greywood was nothing if not gentlemanly. “But I’d hate for him to find me here.”
“I’d hate foranyoneto find you here,” her cousin grumbled. Then he gestured to the door behind him as he started for his settee. “Hide in there. I’ll get rid of him.”
Sophie bolted toward the room Chase had indicated and ignored the once-familiar fluttering in her belly as she brushed past Gabe in her haste to hide from Mr. Greywood. She closed the door behind her and sank against it. How in the world had everything turned upside down so quickly? She should have been able to sneak into the Albany, secure Chase’s promise to manage things with Grandfather, and return home without anyone being the wiser. But now Matthew Greywood was there andGabriel…Goodness! What was Gabe doing in Chase’s set of rooms? What was he even doing in England? Shouldn’t he be in Canada with the rest of the 9th?
Gabe stood directly in front of the door where Sophie had escaped, instinctively standing guard should the need to protect her arise. He heaved a sigh. He’d been completely unprepared to lay eyes on her again, and in a set of trousers that had very nicely outlined her legs and her bottom as she’d slipped past him. He’d never get the image out of his mind if he lived to be a hundred.
Winslett’s valet opened the front door and admitted a dark haired fellow whom Gabe had known rather well once upon a time. Why the devil wasMatthew Greywoodchasing after Sophie?
“Ah, Greywood,” Chase said from a spot on his settee. “How are you?”
Greywood glanced around Chase’s set of rooms and his brow furrowed slightly. “Did your cousin…” He shook his head. “That is, some fellow just asked me how to find your lodgings.”
“Oh?” Chase asked as he took a bite of his apple.
Greywood nodded in response. “Bore a striking resemblance to Miss Hampton, actually.”
“Yes, well.” Chase choked on his food. “My, uh, cousin, S…Sam.Samuelwas just here.”
Gabe winced slightly. Was that the best Chase could do?
“Samuel? Your cousinSamuelis a pageboy?”
“Down on his luck.”
What a ridiculous thing to say.
“He did look quite a bit like Sophia.”
Sophia? Greywood was on a first name basis with Sophie? Something about that tightened Gabe’s gut.
“Uh, yes, well, a distant cousin.” He took another bite from his apple. “You know how prodigious in numbers we Winsletts are. Probably six or seven who look like me.”
Greywood had never been a fool and he narrowed his eyes slightly on Chase. “Indeed? Where is young Samuel Winslett the pageboy, then?”
“Gone.”
“Gone?”
Chase shrugged. “Just stopped by to say hello.”
Which was allSamuelwould have had time to say between the time of Sophie’s and then Greywood’s arrivals. Amazing how Gabe’s two oldest friends could be so completely different from each other. Christian would have already dispensed with Greywood and left him smarting from the experience, but Chase would still be here in an hour, digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole with each new set of words. There was nothing for it, Gabe would have to intervene.
“Slightly reckless fellow,” Gabe began, because Sophiehadalways been slightly reckless. “Looking for gambling funds, but when Chase refused, he made a quick exit.”
A smile spread across Greywood’s face. “Prideaux! I just now realized you’re you. On my life, it’s been a million years.”
And it had been. Ever since Eton, in fact. Gabe agreed with a nod of his head. “You look well, Greywood.”
“And you! I thought you were in Canada.”
