Lady Lilias and the Devil in Plaid - Julie Johnstone Page 0,33

occurred between yer concocting this plan to make ‘our friend’ see what he’s lost and just moments ago when ye adeptly manipulated ‘our friend’ onto the dance floor to interrupt the dance?”

Guinevere glanced toward Nash, whose entire attention was focused on Lilias, and the look of yearning and fury on his face stole Guinevere’s breath. And as for Lilias, Guinevere saw her friend’s eyes widen when she noticed Greybourne approaching, and the longing on Guinevere’s face was unmistakable.

“Greybourne occurred,” she whispered in her husband’s ear, breaking her rule so there would be no confusion. “It was in his voice when he spoke of her just now. It was in the way he stared at her as if she were the very thing he needed to survive.”

“I didn’t see or hear that,” her husband said.

She waved a dismissive hand. “It’s there. We need to draw it out of him. Simply telling her what I saw and heard will not do. She’s quite determined to move on. He hurt her immensely yesterday. Again. I think she’s been waiting for seven years to confront him.”

Asher slipped his arm around Guinevere’s waist and drew her against the length of his body. She wanted this for her best friend—for her to be in the arms of the man she loved, not simply a man she would wed to do her duty. Then Asher scandalously nuzzled Guinevere’s neck, and she let him. She didn’t care if people whispered about them.

“We’ll need to let Kilgore know ye’ve set a rabid hound on his heels,” Asher said in a low voice in her ear, amusement in his tone.

Guinevere snorted. “He deserves it for his obstinance in not admitting that he loves Lady Constantine.” When silence met her statement, she met her husband’s eyes. “Did he admit as much to you?” she demanded for the hundredth time.

“Ye know very well I cannot discuss what’s been told to me in confidence, but I’ll advise ye again not to pursue trying to make those two a match. It’s not going to happen.”

“Because he’s stubborn?” she prodded, but her husband simply smiled at her. She loved his honor, but in this moment, it was a hindrance to progress. Silence again was his answer. “Fine,” she finally said. “Will you at least help me with the other couple in question?”

He arched his eyebrows. “Didn’t I already?”

“Well, yes, but this is likely the beginning. You must tell me if our newly returned friend comes to you and admits any feeling toward a particular lady in a lovely, daring, ruby gown. I fear she’ll go and get herself betrothed before I can uncover the truth.”

“Men do not readily admit feelings, mo chridhe. Especially a man like the one in question.”

“What sort of man would you say he is?” she asked, genuinely curious how one man would view another. She saw Greybourne as cold and withdrawn and, well, of course, utterly handsome. She had known him when his twin had been alive, and Greybourne had not been nearly as withdrawn then, but he always had been serious, as if he carried a heavy burden.

“Darling?” she prodded when Asher did not answer.

A beat passed, and then he said, “Broken.”

She sucked in a sharp breath and kissed her husband right in the middle of their ball. It was unheard of. It was scandalous. Tomorrow they’d be on the tip of gossiping tongues. The besotted, vulgar duke and duchess. She didn’t care. “You’re brilliant!”

Asher grinned, and her heart skipped. “I like to think so.”

“Tomorrow we must find out exactly what it is that broke our friend, though I imagine it has something to do with his brother’s death.”

Her husband’s dark eyebrows dipped together in confusion. “And then ye propose we try to fix him?”

She laughed at that. Her husband was brilliant, except when it came to matters of the heart. “Of course not, darling,” she said, squeezing his very solid waist. “That will be Lilias’s job,” she whispered.

“Will she know it?”

Guinevere rolled her eyes at her husband. She could not help herself. “Of course not, darling. Do keep up.”

Chapter Five

One rule. Nash had made one unbreakable rule for himself in regard to this ball tonight: stay far away from Lilias. And now he’d made an exception to the rule. Of course he damn well had. He was not a bloody idiot. He was a man who made contingency plans. If he had to get near her, say, for instance, Owen approached him with Lilias in tow or he ended