The Virtuous Ward - By Karla Darcy Page 0,66

his face. Dev raised an eyebrow in question. "It was nothing," Max said hastily.

"Stubble it!"

"All right. All right. I kissed her, if you must know." Max raised a hand palm outward in defense. "It happened when we fell in the water trying to rescue a cat. It meant nothing. It was the excitement of the moment and it was forgotten right afterwards. Of course I apologized. Amity was flustered but she puffed it off as just a kiss between friends."

"And you bought that? Good Lord, Max. You have got straw in your cockloft," Dev crowed. "So you will let your ward marry an unsuitable man while you do nothing to prevent it. Strange actions for a guardian. By the way, I find it hard to believe that the inventive Miss Amity you have described is in love with the unexciting Lord Bancroft Paige. Why is she marrying him?"

"Because I told her to," Max growled. "As her guardian it is my duty to advise her. She trusts me. I told her I thought it would be an excellent arrangement." Dev stared down his nose in condemnation of such stupidity. "What could I say? I was not aware of my feelings at the time. Besides she does not think of me in any way other than as her guardian."

"Are you sure? Did she seem horrified when you kissed her?"

"Well, no. On the contrary, she appeared to quite enjoy the incident," Max said, a momentary glimmer of hope in his eyes. Then he shook his head in rejection. "She has not had much acquaintance with lovemaking so I expect it was the novelty of the experience."

"Believe me, Max, if she did not have some feeling for you, she would have reacted with either horror or affront."

"Do you think so?"

There was a look of such expectation on Max's face that Dev was hard pressed to restrain his laughter. "At least give the girl a chance. Besides it matters not whether she can love you. As her guardian, you cannot sit back and let her betroth herself to that stiff-necked Paige. You cannot ignore the situation."

"You're right, Dev," Max said with conviction, but then his face took on an anguished look. "She told me once that she wanted to get married in order to have a baby, if you can believe that kind of nonsensical reasoning. She understands little about love because she has had so little in her life. Besides she is convinced that I am about to offer for Honoria. I have given her no reason to expect otherwise, so I am not sure she will believe that I have had an abrupt change of mind. Worse than that she has already accepted Bancroft. Even if I tell her I do not think he is the right man for her, she will still feel honor bound to defend his suit. I understand her well enough to know she will never cry off and risk hurting Paige, despite the fact that he will make her most unhappy."

"In that case you will just have to convince Paige that she would make a very poor wife," Dev concluded.

"That's just what I'm trying to tell you. She will make a wonderful wife. Only a dolt and a dunderhead would not be able to see that!" When Max looked up, he noted the gleam of roguery in Dev's eyes and he blinked in sudden awareness. His mouth pulled wide in a devilish grin. "I say, old bean, are you suggesting that Lord Bancroft Paige might be a dolt and a dunderhead?"

Dev spread his hands in a gesture of innocence and his blue eyes were guileless as he returned Max's glance. A deep chuckle rumbled up from Max's chest and he raised his snifter in a final toast.

"To Paige."

"Hear! Hear!" responded Dev.

For Max it was like a return to the old days and he wished Reggie and Dickon were here to join forces. He moved his chair closer to Dev's and they began to consider possible strategies.

"Oh Betta, I shall shrivel up under Ophelia's disapproving eye," Amity wailed. "Whatever will I do if Bancroft's sister cannot like me?"

"Iffen you don't hold still, she will take one look at your hair and run screaming from the room," the harassed abigail said as she tried to anchor a hairpin in her mistress' coiffure. Her plain face was set in disapproval since she was not partial to Lord Bancroft Paige. She had had other ideas as to whom Miss Amity should marry.

"I'm