Courting Miss Lancaster Read Online Free PDF Page B

leaning back casually in his chair near Athena. “Our prince will receive an invitation he dare not refuse but is terrified to accept.”
    Adam was silent. And absolutely still. Athena’s eyes flicked between everyone in the room. Persephone was watching Adam, her expression hopeful. Mr. Windover wore his usual look of casual amusement. Adam looked intensely thoughtful.
    “Georgie was irritatingly rude at the last drawing room,” Adam said. By Georgie, Athena assumed he meant the prince, though she had never heard him referred to that way.
    “Heart-stopping fear can do that to a fellow,” Harry observed.
    Athena held back a smile.
    “The spineless lump of dough deserves a moment of abject humiliation,” Adam declared as if insulting one’s prince was quite a normal thing for a person to do. “Plan your ball, Persephone,” Adam ordered. “But allow me to word the royal invitation.”
    “Let us leave your sister to express her gratitude,” Mr. Windover suggested quietly and offered Athena his hand to help her rise. As they passed Adam, Mr. Windover said, “I will see that Miss Lancaster has her wrap and ascertain whether the carriage has been brought around.”
    “You practically live here, Harry,” Adam said tersely. “If I have to listen to the two of you Mister and Miss each other for the rest of the Little Season, one or the other of you is not going to live to see Christmas.”
    Athena tensed. But Mr. Windover laughed. “So for our health, if nothing else, we should endeavor to be on a Christian-name basis in family settings.”
    “There is no endeavor about it,” Adam said. “You will do so.”
    “But you never have called me out, Adam,” Harry answered. “And you have promised to do so many times.”
    “Do not tempt me.”
    “How shall I spend my excessive free time if I abandon one of my favorite hobbies?”
    Adam’s eyes narrowed. Athena tugged on Mr. Windover’s arm, concerned that he’d finally pushed Adam too far.
    “Harry, do step out,” Persephone insisted. “I have no desire to bid my husband farewell with you in the room offering a running commentary.”
    Mr. Windover laughed his infectious chuckle and led Athena from the room. The door was firmly closed behind them.
    “They are a little nauseating, aren’t they?” Mr. Windover said.
    “I do not understand them,” Athena confessed. “Adam is so surly and unapproachable, and Persephone is so obviously in love with him.”
    “Surly and unapproachable.” He seemed to be weighing her word choice. “I do believe that is the tamest set of descriptors I have ever heard attached to Adam’s name.”
    Which brought to mind another thing that had puzzled Athena. “Does Adam often refer to our prince as Georgie ?”
    “Only when Adam is particularly cross with him,” Mr. Windover answered with another characteristic laugh. “It was that nickname that brought about the aborted duel I told you of recently.”
    “Indeed?” Athena was intrigued.
    “Adam called the prince Georgie —to his face—at a rather important gathering of society’s most elite. It was, of course, a monumental embarrassment to His Royal Highness, and he said something rather regrettable to Adam. It was that comment which led to Adam’s issuing a challenge.”
    “Good heavens,” Athena said. “What did the prince say? It must have been something drastic to warrant calling out the heir to the throne.”
    Mr. Windover smiled at her, that twinkle of devilment in his eyes Athena was beginning to realize was commonplace for him. “You are anticipating an insult of the highest magnitude, are you not?”
    Athena smiled back at him.
    “Perhaps you are envisioning a set of words so base or horrendous that I would hesitate to repeat them in the company of a genteel young lady such as yourself.”
    “Except your tone tells me such an assumption would not be entirely correct.”
    “Very wise, Athena—and, I assure you, I am using your Christian name at the