What Happens At Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page B

cordiality.”
    â€œYou would feel no need to sweep her into your arms, shower her with kisses and pledge your undying love?”
    Gray laughed. “Good Lord, no.”
    â€œIf you are sure—”
    â€œI am.”
    â€œExcellent.” Win nodded. “Mother left for London three days ago with instructions that when Lady Lydingham or the rest of her family arrived, Cook should prepare a basket of her best scones and cakes and biscuits to be sent to Millworth Manor as a gesture of neighborly goodwill. They are still the best in the county. Mother was a bit confused as to whether or not Lady Lydingham’s mother and sisters would be in residence for Christmas as well, as she had heard Lady Briston and her youngest daughter were in Paris.”
    Gray cast his cousin a suspicious look. “And?”
    â€œAnd, according to my information, Lady Lydingham arrived yesterday. Cook has prepared the basket and it needs to be delivered.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œAnd, while I can certainly send a footman, Mother would have my head if it wasn’t delivered by a family member.”
    â€œI suspect she intended that family member to be you.”
    â€œOnly because she didn’t know you would be here. But I have a great deal to do.” Win aimed the younger man a hard look. “While you have been off making your fortune, I have been learning everything Father intended the two of us to share—business, finance and management of all the family’s properties and investments. Which means I am an extremely busy man. It is an immense burden, you know—”
    â€œI can only imagine,” Gray murmured.
    â€œAnd leaves me little time for social niceties.”
    â€œProbably why you keep losing fiancées.”
    â€œI wouldn’t be at all surprised. Why, I had to practically steal the time for a ride today before you arrived. And I need you to deliver this gesture of neighborly Christmas cheer to Lady Lydingham.”
    Gray stared. “No.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œI’d prefer not to, that’s all.”
    â€œWhy?” Win studied him closely. “You said you weren’t avoiding her.”
    â€œI’m not.”
    â€œAnd the two of you were friends long before you fell in love with her.”
    â€œTrue enough.”
    â€œYou said you have no lingering feelings. You have put her behind you. And should you meet, you would treat her with nothing more than polite cordiality, as one old friend encountering another.”
    â€œI did say that, but—”
    â€œBut?” Win’s brow rose. “Unless, of course, you didn’t mean it. Unless, you still harbor feelings of affection. Unless you fear seeing her again will bring back—”
    â€œBloody hell, Win,” Gray snapped. “I’ll take the blasted basket.”
    â€œIt is, after all, the very least you can do after abandoning me for all those years to—”
    â€œI said I’d do it!”
    â€œYes, I know, but I was having so much fun.” Win cast him a triumphant grin and started for the door. “I’ll tell Cook to ready the basket and you can be on your way in, oh, a quarter of an hour, I would say.” He reached the door, paused and turned back to his cousin. “Regardless of what you say, I know this will be a bit awkward for you. You haven’t seen her for eleven years, and until you do, you can’t truly say with any certainty that your feelings for her are completely dead.”
    â€œRubbish,” Gray said. “There isn’t a doubt in my mind, even if there is in yours.”
    Win considered him for a moment, then nodded. “Excellent. And when you return, you can help me with my plan to at last be wed by next Christmas.”
    â€œI suspect you need all the help you can get, as you have no one in mind at the moment.” A wry note sounded in Gray’s voice.
    â€œIt just makes it more of a