As You Are Read Free Page B

hadn’t said more than a handful of words. He’d wanted to. He’d rehearsed a few things, both before arriving and as he’d sat in her sitting room. What little he’d managed had come out too uncertainly, too quietly.
    From the moment he’d stepped into Mrs. Bentford’s sitting room and seen her amazing eyes turn toward him, Corbin had been unable to do much beyond stand—or sit, as it were—and try to avoid making a further idiot of himself. He’d seldom been so uncomfortable, so lacking in self-assurance. Every intelligent observation he’d mentally scripted had fled from his mind.
    There had to be a means of improving the impression he’d made, something he might say or do the next time they were in company with each other that would show he was not a bumbling idiot or a simpleton.
    Ivy Cottage sat only a mile from Havenworth, tucked behind a copse of trees. Corbin hardly had time to reflect on his visit before arriving home, and the sight that met him at Havenworth’s portico immediately shifted his thoughts.
    Corbin recognized the Jonquil family arms emblazoned on the door of the traveling carriage sitting in front of his house. The earl’s coronet included in the arms identified the carriage’s owner as his eldest brother, Philip, the Earl of Lampton.
    Corbin dismounted, allowing Johnny from the stables to lead Elf away. He took the stairs quickly, feeling his smile grow. He nodded to Simmons, the butler, as the man opened the door to allow Corbin inside.
    “They are in the sitting room, Mr. Jonquil,” Simmons informed him.
    He headed directly there, looking forward to seeing his brother again.
    “I believe I shall find myself a tartan waistcoat, my dear,” Philip was saying when Corbin reached the sitting room door. “No point standing out among the local population.”
    “Then you had best hope the local population are horribly bruised, Philip,” his wife, Sorrel, replied. “Because if you begin sporting an even more ridiculous wardrobe than you already wear, I will beat you with my walking stick.”
    Not what one would expect to hear from a newlywed couple, and yet Corbin was not the least surprised. And as he fully expected, both his brother and new sister-in-law were smiling at each other, sitting beside each other on a settee, completely oblivious to Corbin’s presence in the doorway.
    “Perhaps not the tartan, then,” Philip conceded.
    “We may expunge the dandy out of you yet,” Sorrel said.
    “That is quite an undertaking, Sorrel.” He leaned closer to her, one eyebrow raised.
    “Philip.” She half laughed, half scolded as he leaned ever closer.
    “Yes, my dear?” Philip kissed her quickly.
    “Suppose Corbin were to walk in suddenly?” Sorrel pushed him back a little with her hand.
    “He would be pleased to see you haven’t murdered me yet.” Philip leaned back at her continued insistence.
    “ Surprised , perhaps,” Sorrel answered.
    Corbin stepped back out of the sitting room. It would have been terribly awkward to have entered while the couple was talking about him. He waited a moment before reentering.
    “There you are, Corbin,” Philip said.
    Corbin nodded, his usual greeting. He offered Sorrel a bow.
    “We’ve come to brighten your day, brother.” Philip smiled. Sorrel seemed to roll her eyes. “Bring a little color.”
    Philip gave the immediate impression of a dandy, a man with little but fashion and nonsense on his mind. Corbin knew better, as did all of the Jonquil brothers, save one. Jason, Corbin’s twin, found Philip and his posturing annoying and made a point of making his feelings obvious. Corbin did not know why Philip had adopted the mannerisms he had. But since falling in love with the lady who was now his wife, Philip had begun showing signs of returning to the intelligent, thoughtful gentleman who had resided just below the surface for years.
    “Simmons said you were away from Havenworth,” Sorrel said.
    “I was visiting. A neighbor.” Corbin