Seth smirked. “Understood.”
“Though, to be fair. I suppose I’m also to blame for how things turned out.” Cooper gave a dramatic sigh. “I should have spoken to the housekeeper.”
Seth frowned. “What housekeeper?”
Cooper pursed his mouth to the side and raised his eyes to the sky.
“Lord Bolderwood’s.”
Pausing, Seth considered his words.
“You mean Margaret?”
“Was that her name?”
A clinking of flatware and the low buzz of conversation drifted from the dining room in the silence between them.
“Youneverspoke to Margaret?”
Realization hit him harder than Cooper had in Hampshire when Cooper shrugged and gave his trademark grin. Seth could have throttled him. Looking back, he saw the strings that tied him to his new wife. It wasn’t Cassandra that trapped him.
It wasCooper.
Seth’s jaw dropped.
“You lied to me.”
Cooper arched a brow. “Oh, are we counting lies now?”
“You put Cassandra in the room next to me!”
“No,Lady Jasminedid,” Cooper corrected. “It was a genuine mix-up. I was supposed to be in that room, which I thought was obvious. I didn’t put Cassandra there.” His eyes shifted away. “I just didn’t… move her.”
“You broke your promise to her on the first day. You interfered at every turn!” Words quickening, Seth counted on his fingers. “Youtold me to waltz with her, youoverlookedthe library, then you sent her on the hunt, where you saw mekissher and you saidnothing.” Seth jabbed a finger at him. “And you sent me to get her from that tree!”
Cooper nodded at each accusation and took another sip of his brandy.
“Why?”
“She wasn’t going to make it down on her own,” Cooper said flippantly.
“Not only the tree,” Seth grit out. “You threw her at me.”
“Threw her?” Cooper’s voice pitched with indignation. “No, no, no, I thought you needed apush. How was I to know you’d sprint all the way to the finish line? As for thewhy, I broke my promise to Cassandra because I made a previous promise that conflicted with it.”
“And that was…?”
“To see her happily married.” With a proud smile, Cooper extended his hand. “You have my blessing, Reeves, and you would have had our father’s. Take care of Cassandra.”
“I will,” he promised, taking Cooper’s hand in a firm grip. Returning Cooper’s grin, they stepped from each other. “That was easier than I expected.”
“What can I say?” Cooper laughed. “I had low standards from the start.”
Inside, Cassandra conversed with Lady Jasmine and LordBolderwood. A foreign kindness and a soft-brow graced the old man’s normally hard features as he spoke to the women. Feeling their gazes, Jasmine turned to them. With a grin, she tugged at Cassandra’s arm and pointed through the door. Cassandra winked at him and gave a small wave before returning her gaze to Lord Bolderwood.
His magnificent wife. Seth wanted to make all of her dreams come true, and the one they shared was to have a house full of children, as many as she would give him. London was no place to raise a family the way they wanted. They would need a country home, a sizable one, and after scouring maps and considering locations, there was only one place he had in mind.
“Cooper?”