“Yes, 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.”

“Rubbish,” 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.”

“I 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.

“It just makes it more of a challenge, old boy. And I have always loved a challenge.” Win grinned in the wickedly confident manner he had had since boyhood and took his leave.

Gray’s smile faded with the closing of the library door. Damnation, why did Win have to force this visit on him today? Tomorrow, perhaps, or the day after, or maybe even on Christmas Day. . . . Yes, that would be perfect. A chance encounter at Christmas services surrounded by any number of people, that would be the civilized way to see again, after so long, the woman who had, however unintentionally, broken his heart.

Gray swirled the brandy in his glass and paced the room. He hadn’t lied to Win, not really. He had long ago put Camille in the past. Just as he had long ago come to the realization that what happened between them was as much his fault as it had been hers, more perhaps.

He had known Camille for years, but he hadn’t realized he loved her until she was about to wed Lord Lydingham. No, that wasn’t true. He had realized it long before, when one day he abruptly saw the girl who lived on the neighboring estate had become a woman. The woman who owned his heart. He simply hadn’t done anything about it. He had been young and uncertain; and when he looked back, something of an idiot as well. It wasn’t until the day before she was to marry that he had at last declared his feelings.