Page 17 of Moonstone Landing
“No,” she said, stiffening. “I am home. Moonstone Cottage is my home now.”
“Nonsense, Hen. You belong with us. I’ve brought Anne and the girls with me to convince you. Henley, Phoebe, and Chloe missed you desperately and cannot wait to see you again.”
She groaned. “You shouldn’t have done that. I won’t go with you, and now the girls will be heartbroken all over again. Stay the week, but then you must go home.”
“Hen,” he said with a wrenching groan, “you are my little sister. How can I abandon you?”
She glanced over his shoulder to Brioc, who was right behind him and taking in every word. “You are not abandoning me. I am happy here. Truly. I will show you. The girls will have so much fun here. I’ll take them down to the dock and show them the fish market. Then we can have tea in Mrs. Halsey’s tea shop. I have a cook and maid and groundskeeper to take care of all my needs.”
“And what of the ghost?”
Brioc arched an eyebrow.
She took her brother’s arm. “Help me climb the rest of the way up, and I will tell you all about him. He is a hero, did you know?”
“Does he really exist? Will he scare my little girls?”
“No, of course not.”
“And what of me and Anne?”
“He will not harm you, either. I promise.”
Her brother sighed. “And what of Ashbrook?”
She inhaled sharply. “Ashbrook? He came with you? Oh, Robert! Why did you allow it?”
Brioc growled softly. “I thought you said there was no one.”
“There is no one,” she shot back without thinking.
Her brother looked over his shoulder to where Brioc was now standing, two steps up from him. “What are you talking about, Hen?”
She frowned at Brioc.
He frowned right back at her. “Who the hell is Ashbrook?”
Chapter Six
“What are yougoing to do, Hen?” Brioc paced across his bedchamber, eager to talk to her now that she had retired for the evening, and they had time alone. “Why did you tell me you had no one? The Earl of bloody Ashbrook is not exactly no one.”
“He is a good friend of my brother’s. Best friend, really. He does not love me. He is doing this because he thinks it is the honorable thing to do for my brother’s sake. Did you see the slightest look of longing in his eyes?”
“Yes.”
“You are just saying that because…” She turned to face him. “Are you jealous?”
Brioc folded his arms across his chest. “I am a ghost. How can I be jealous?”
“You would also have to love me, I suppose.” She shook her head to dismiss the notion. “Trust me, he does not love me. I am doing him a favor by rejecting him.”
“Hen, do you have any idea how truly beautiful you are?”
She sank onto the chair by the hearth and tucked her legs under her bottom. “Are you going to tell me again that you would have courted me had we met during one of my London seasons?”
“Why is it so farfetched?”
“Because you are too handsome for words. You are a sophisticated captain, and I am a wallflower. Can we please not have this conversation? You would have looked past me and never once noticed me. Just as Ashbrook did not notice me until my brother confided my situation to him. Suddenly, about two months ago, the man was having flowers delivered to me, horrid ones that made me sneeze because he did not think to ask me which ones I preferred or whether I had any particular sensitivity to them.”
