“She’s certainly taking her time about it,” George grumbled. “One of her suitors should plan a proper courtship if they have not already.”
“Hmm.” Edmund eyed him critically. “And what would proper courtship look like?”
“Pursuing her! Making her fall in love. Not whatever it is the gentlemen are doing to leave her lukewarm and wandering up decaying trees.”
“Is that what you would do? Pursue her?”
“Yes!” The word jumped out before he could stop it. He tried not to flush, but he had a horrible inability to control that particular biological nuisance.Damn it. He should not notice Jane or wish to pursue her. She was his friend's little sister, and that made her completely off limits.
He should not notice her for other reasons, too. He never noticedany woman without a dead husband in her past. Widows were for him. Not debutantes.He would marry someday, and hewishedto marry. Hell, he wanted tofall in love.Humiliating but true. And impossible as long as his uncle remained ensorcelled. He’d not invite a young woman into that particular hell. But if, as the new doctor promised, his uncle could be weaned slowly from his nasty dependency on opium… maybe soon.
“You know, George,” Edmond said, “I think you're right. I think Janedoesneed a more ardent suitor. And the sooner the better. How about you?”
George jerked, sending off a firework display inside his head to rival those at Vauxhall. “Me? You can’t be serious. You… you don’t wishmeto pursue yoursister.”
“I do, actually. Oh, don’t look at me like that. A union between the two of you makes sense. I’ve thought so for some time.”
George continued staring. He quite literally had no words.
“Why do you think I stayed at Whitwood Manor when Jane went to London for her season?”
“You had estate business to attend to.”
“Always do, but nothing that can’t be handled in the city as well as in the country. I’ve an excellent land manager.”
George shook his head slowly, still unable to process his friend’s revelations.
“I stayed here to give more weight to my request you watch over Jane during her season. If I was not there to watch over her, you’d have to step up and stand in for me. Father certainly was not going to keep her safe.”
George had not kept her safe, either.
Edmund grunted and weaved his fingers together behind his head. “I thought my request would produce a love match, not a scandal. I should obviously not take up matchmaking.”
“I…” George stammered, “I… thought lusting after your friend’s sister was a thrash-able offense.”
Edmund glared. “No one said anything about lusting, Abbington. Falling delicately in love with her, however…”
George snorted. “Coventry thrashed his best friend, Baxter, some years back after the man ogled his younger sister. Then right after that, Sir Willoughby eloped with Reginald Archbrook’s sister. They haven’t said a word to each other since.”
“Coventry and Baxter are addlepated. And Archbrook and Willoughby have not a lick of sense to share between them.”
George lifted an imploring gaze to his friend. “Jane is your sister. And you wishmeto court her?”
Edmund shifted forward with a sigh. “I assume you’re a bit slow because your head is currently muddled. So, I’ll be clear enough that even Coventry, Baxter, Archbrook, and Willoughby would understand. I not only condone, I support your courtship of my sister, Lady Jane Crenshaw.”
“But why?”
Edmund slumped back into the chair. “I want, more than almost anything, for her to be happy. I believe, and have for a while, that you can do that for her. Do you remember when she tried to learn to play the harp?”
“Don’t remind me. Head hurts remembering it.”
“You didn’t tell her that. You sat your ass in a chair and listened to her play for an hour every day until she gave it up herself.”
“I was merely curious how the scheme would go.”
Edmund raised an eyebrow. “You could have chosen to read anywhere else in the house that fortnight, yet you did not.”
“She needed support, a friendly presence to buoy her.”
