I was dancing with her only last night. She’s Lady Sophia Cleeve, the Earl of Yardley’s daughter.” He raised his eyes heavenwards when his brother’s besotted expression did not alter. “Anyone would suppose you’d never seen a pretty face before.”
“Pretty? A totally inappropriate description!” Benedict scoffed. “She’s exquisite.”
Nicholas considered this for a moment or two. “Opinions differ. Some consider her a beauty. However, blondes are all the fashion this Season.”
His brother appeared decidedly unimpressed. Evidently flaxen hair was not to his taste. “My, my, the little minx appears to have you well and truly in her toils,” Nicholas remarked, highly amused now by the unfortunate encounter with the Earl’s daughter. “Not that I don’t think it’s high time you were leg-shackled, brother, but if you take my advice you’ll look elsewhere for a wife.”
A heart-rending possibility occurred to Benedict. “She isn’t married already, is she? Or engaged?”
“No, nor likely to be, either.”
“Why? What do you mean?”
“She doesn’t seem interested in marriage. At least,” Nicholas amended, memory stirring, “certainly not a marriage to a member of our class. If what she tells me is true, she prefers the company of grooms to dukes.”
“Ha! She must have been teasing you,” Benedict scoffed, thinking his brother highly gullible.
“Perhaps,” Nicholas conceded. “I’m only repeating what I was told last night. Furthermore, she’s received four proposals of marriage to my certain knowledge since her arrival in town, and has refused them all. Which would suggest that she certainly isn’t hankering after a husband, let alone a title.” His wicked sense of humour coming to the fore, he gave a shout of laughter. “Why, she paid more attention to you out there in the street just now than she pays to most members of her own class.”
Evidently his brother did not share the joke, for he sat silently staring out of the window. “Don’t disturb yourself,” Nicholas advised. “There’ll be plenty of other pretty wenches gracing the Season once it officially gets under way.”
“I dare say you’re right,” Benedict murmured, a decidedly calculating gleam springing into his striking blue eyes, “but it’s Lady Sophia Cleeve I intend to get to know. So perhaps, all things considered, it might serve me best if I remain incognito for a while longer.”
“How on earth can that benefit you?” Nicholas asked, totally at a loss.
Benedict transferred his gaze to his sibling’s puzzled countenance. “You said yourself that she prefers the company of grooms…And if there is one thing I do know…it’s my way around a stable!”
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