Evan stared at him. “Cousin Yates doesn’t like you, you know.”
Heathbrook blinked, taken off guard by the not-so-veiled attack. “The feeling is mutual,” he said acidly. “But just for fun, why don’t you tell me why he dislikes me?”
“He says you’re a rake,” Zachary piped up. “Or that’s what I heard him tell Evan.”
“You weren’t supposed to hear that,” Evan muttered.
“I know,” Zachary said. “No one ever wants to tell me anything. Everyone thinks I’m a baby. But I’m not.” Zachary paused, then gazed at Heathbrook with guileless eyes. “I can’t figure out what it means, though. How can a person be a rake? Rakes are for gathering up leaves, aren’t they?”
As the other two lads groaned, Giselle said, in a decidedly teasing tone, “Yes, Heath, do tell us what a rake is. I’m sure your explanation will be quite enlightening.”
When he shot her a dirty look, she laughed.
He thought about how to explain it to an eleven-year-old. “When someone talks about a person who is a ‘rake,’ they mean a ‘rakehell.’ That’s a man who seeks only pleasure in life, mostly with women.”
“Or with girls, Zack, if you’re the rakehell.” Kit laughed.
Zachary frowned. “I’d never do anything withgirls. Girls are … are …”
“I’d be careful with what you say next, lad,” Heathbrook interrupted, fighting to restrain a smile. “We’re in the presence of a girl right now.”
“Who will one day be your sister-in-law,” Evan added.
Zachary shook his head. “Giselle isn’t a girl. She’s a lady. Like Mother. It’s not the same.Girlsare disgusting. They play with dolls, which are creepy. And they want to kiss you all the time. It’s … it’s …”
“Disgusting?” Giselle said gently. “What would you have them do, Zachary?”
“Don’t call me Zachary,” he grumbled. “Everybody calls me Zack. And … and girls should … you know … do what boys do. Hunt and ride and fish. Play soldier. Find bugs to put in jars.”
“When I was a girl, I found bugs to put in jars,” Giselle said. “I had a little garden I tended that I was very proud of. I would pluck the bugs off the leaves and put them in jars and let them out down the street so they would not eat my flowers and vegetables.”
Of course she’d done that. It was so like her to treat bugs with the same kindness as she treated people. Like his brothers, for example, who could clearly use some kindness.
His heart twisted in his chest at the thought of kindness being denied to Zachary all these years.
“Why didn’t you just smash them with your shoe?” Zack asked with great seriousness.
Giselle shrugged. “They were just doing what was in their nature. You should not smash them for wanting to eat flowers and vegetables. You eat vegetables, do you not?”
“Not if he can avoid it,” Evan said dryly.
“How did you come to be around girls, anyway, Zack?” Heathbrook put in. “Yates has no children.”
“One of our tutors had a girl that came with him to the house,” Evan explained. “His daughter or granddaughter, I think. Cousin Yates allowed it, since the man had no one to watch her. While he was teaching us, she played with Zack. She was sweet on him.”
“She was not!” Zack cried. “Take that back!”
“Perhaps Zackisa rakehell,” Kit teased. “Like Heath.”
“I amnot,” Zack said sullenly.
Belatedly, Heathbrook realized that Kit had just called him Heath. As if it were the most natural thing in the world.
He felt a little less unsteady. Perhaps he could do this after all. But first he had to stop their constant squabbling.
Fortunately, they had just pulled up in front of his town house. “We’re here, lads,” he said.
And just that quickly, the argument was forgotten.