Catherine Coulter the Sherbrooke Series Novels 6-10 (9781101562123) by Coulter Catherine

Author:Coulter, Catherine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin USA
Published: 2001-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CORRIE ARRIVED AT the Sherbrooke town house the following morning to be told by Willicombe that the younger lordship was in the estate room, doing a bit of work to resharpen his brain.

“He doesn’t need papers to sharpen his brain, he needs a good argument,” Corrie said, and waved Willicombe away when he would have announced her.

She opened the door quietly to see James sitting at his father’s desk, a piece of paper in his right hand, a pen in his left hand, his head resting on the desktop. He was sound asleep.

She started to back out of the room, when he jerked up, stared at her, and said, “It’s about time you got here.”

“Why aren’t you in bed?”

He stretched, rose, and stretched again, then yawned.

“You’ve lost weight, James. I will speak to your mother about this.”

His arms dropped to his sides. “Don’t worry. My mother is stuffing food down my gullet every hour on the hour. You lost weight as well. Where have you been?”

“I chanced to meet Judith McCrae, you know, she’s the girl who’s very interested in Jason, if I don’t miss my guess. Of course, every girl in London is interested in both you and Jason, but she seems different, more suited to him, perhaps.”

Whatever that meant. He said, “She’s the niece of Lady Arbuckle. How did you meet her?”

“She was coming out of a milliner’s shop with Lady Arbuckle. They were having a very intense discussion, but when Judith saw me, she was all smiles. I don’t think that Lady Arbuckle was pleased to see me. I suppose Judith knows that I’m a childhood friend and thus someone to be cultivated.”

“Jason hasn’t spoken much about her lately.”

“No wonder, since his brother disappeared and could very well have been killed.”

“I think he quite likes her too. Now that he sees I’m well again, he’ll resume his course with her.”

“I wonder what course that will be. Was Juliette camping out in the drawing room when you woke up this morning?”

“Well, she and her mother did visit not long after breakfast. I was in bed.” He struck only a very slight pose since he was still too weak to goad her to his normal standards. “Do you know, I believe she enjoyed my company, her mother sitting comfortably in the corner, benignly watching the tableau.”

“And I don’t suppose you enjoyed all that dripping attention? All the cooing? Did she smooth her palm over your poor brow?”

“I can’t recall a single coo, except maybe from her mother.”

“Well, yes, that makes sense. You’re the heir, after all. You know, James, I really can’t imagine that she would want to marry you.”

“Why ever not?”

“Juliette is very rightly aware of her own beauty. The problem is that you’re more beautiful than she is. Just imagine, both of you could be looking into a mirror and she would come in a very poor second. I can’t see her tolerating that.”

James streaked his fingers through his hair, standing it on end. “Bloody hell, I’ve already let you distract me.

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