“I have a confession to make,” Gryff said. “Do you remember that time we were all playing hide-and-seek in the woods back at Trellech? We were back for the school holidays and you must have been around fifteen or sixteen.”
“Iremember,” Maddie said. “I hid in a holly bush and ruined my favorite pair of gloves.”
Harriet was sure her cheeks were heating. “Yes.”
“Well,” Gryff said, “I saw you and Morgan both hide in the folly. And since it was obvious to anyone with eyes that the two of you fancied each other, I pretended I couldn’t see you.”
“You didn’t!” Harriet gasped, scandalized. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I thought Morgan would take the chance to kiss you and get it out of his system,” Gryff said, “and I knew he would kill me if I interrupted him.”
Maddie’s eyes were wide with fascination. “You, Gryffud Davies, are anagitator. You just love to stir the pot and create a little mischief.”
Gryff shrugged, utterly unrepentant. “All’s fair in love and war. Constance and Prudence would have beenproud of me. It’s exactly the kind of thing they would have done.”
Maddie turned to Harriet. “Sodidhe? Kiss you, I mean?”
Harriet shook her head, beyond embarrassed. “In the folly? He did not.”
Maddie’s shoulders slumped, and even Gryff looked a little disappointed.
“How vexing of him,” Maddie said. “I thought he had more initiative.”
“You Montgomery women can be an intimidating bunch,” Gryff muttered.
Maddie whacked him playfully on the arm.
“I think he might have kissed me,” Harriet admitted, “but I left before he had the chance. But if hehad, it would only have been to embarrass me, or to have something to blackmail me with later.”
Gryff snorted. “You’re as blind as your father. Morgan’s always been attracted to you.”
“Ha! Then how come he’s shown such an interest in other women?” Harriet countered. “It’s not as if he’s remained celibate all these years, pining away for me.”
“Maybe he wasn’t ready to settle down and commit to a single woman before now?” Gryff said. “We men are slow learners. It takes us a while to recognize the one woman we’re actually happy with.”
Maddie rolled her eyes at his reasoning. “Or perhaps he didn’t thinkyouwere interested inhim? You did pull away, after all. And despite theirmanyother failings”—Maddie shot a taunting glance at her husband—“the Davies men are extremely honorable when it comes to treating women with respect. Morgan would never have forced a kiss on an unwilling recipient. You probably dented his pride.”
Harriet shrugged, desperate to get off the subject. If she and Maddie had been alone, she might have admitted to still pining after Morgan and asked her opinion, but there was no way she was discussing such a thing in front of his brother. Even if Gryff, surprisingly, didn’t seem to disapprove of the two of them as a couple. “Who knows what goes on in the male brain? It’s a source of endless mystery.”
“We’re really not that complex,” Gryff chuckled. “We like to pretend we are, but we’re usually just thinking about food, women, sports, or business. And nine times out of ten, it’s women. Just so you know.”
Maddie shook her head but couldn’t hide her smile. “And I thought you were all such complicated creatures.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
The look Maddie sent Gryff made Harriet blush even more. “Oh, you never disappoint me, Husband,” she purred.
Harriet laughed at their innuendo-laden banter. In truth she was envious of the playful relationship they had. It just went to show that despite hundreds of years of feuding, a happy union between a Davies and a Montgomerywaspossible. Tristan and Carys had proved the same thing.
But a permanent union between herself and Morgan? Impossible. Even if he did, by some miracle, consider her for a wife, he was still going to sail away and have adventures without her. And that just wouldn’t do.
The flickering torches of Lady Scarborough’s Belgrave Square mansion illuminated the carriage interior, and they rocked to a stop.
“Ah, here we are.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Harriet followed Gryff and Maddie up the front steps and handed her shawl to one of the waiting footmen. The three of them drifted into one of the many anterooms that were already overflowing with guests, and her heart seized as she caught sight of Morgan’s dark head and broad shoulders among the throng.
