Page 38 of How to Cross a Marquess (The Way to a Lord's Heart 3)

He acknowledged her teasing with a smile and returned to his subject. “I told you about the group of young men I’d noticed, who’d suffered unfortunate losses in their lives, and my wish to help them.”

She nodded.

“Well, in doing so I’ve become a bit of a matchmaker.”

“You have?” Her blue eyes opened very wide.

“That isn’t quite the right word,” Arthur said. “I didn’t make the matches.” He thought of his nephew’s case. He had rather pushed that along with some remarks he’d made to a spirited young lady in London. “Or not exactly.”

“What then?”

“It’s been more a matter of promoting connections that…revealed themselves over time.” Arthur found himself searching for the right way to put the matter, a rare experience. “I wouldn’t presume to—”

“For whom?” Helena interrupted.

“First my nephew Benjamin and a delightful young lady with very decided views on the care of children.”

“Children?”

“Benjamin is…was a widower with a young son.”

“And now he is married again?”

“Yes.”

“And happy?”

“He certainly seems so. He says he is blissful.”

“Who else?” asked Helena.

“Another of the young men I mentioned before and the sister of a ruined baronet.”

“Ruined! How romantic that sounds,” she said. “So your schemes have gone well.” Her sharp gaze suggested that she was aware of where this conversation was heading.

Arthur didn’t like the wordschemes. Yet he couldn’t deny it. He nodded.

“And now you’ve turned your attention to Roger.”

“Yes,” Arthur acknowledged. “That is, I came to see if there was any help I might offer him. I don’t set out to make matches, you understand. Marriage might not be the answer. I’m simply on the lookout for ways to promote these young men’s happiness.”

“And yet it’s always love,” she said.

He looked down at her.

“Happiness is always about love.”

Arthur considered this statement.

“The happy people I knowlove,” Helena added. “Their husbands or wives, their children or other family, their occupations or pastimes, perhaps just their dogs.” The skin at the corners of her eyes crinkled in amusement. “Very often their dogs, actually. But someone, something. Those who don’t are forever discontented.”

“A good point,” said Arthur. She’d surprised him once again with hidden depths. “You don’t have any dogs here at the moment?”

He’d meant it as a joke, but Helena’s smile faded. “Arabella didn’t like them.” She made a balancing gesture as if trying to be fair. “Raymond’s two dogs were old when he died. A bit deaf and feeble, and theydidslobber over one. She didn’t care to be near them. So she didn’t want them replaced when they died.”

“A puppy?” Arthur suggested.

“Roger got her one. She thought it messy and loud. It chewed up some lace. Roger gave him to a neighbor’s child.”

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