“All right,” Jarrod gave in. “We’ll give him a try, but if he whines or complains, he’s out.” He looked at Griff. “How about you? Any candidates?”
Griff took another sip from his coffee cup. “I’ve had my eye on the new Marquess of Courtland.”
“Alex Courtland?” Sussex asked.
Griff nodded. “He’s a year or two younger than we are, but I’ve been impressed by what I’ve seen so far.”
“He was a year behind me at Eton,” Sussex said.
“If I’m not mistaken, he danced with Colin’s bride at Lady Harralson’s the other night,” Jarrod added. “Handled himself very well. Made a favorable impression on me and on Colin.”
“We’ll take a vote,” Jarrod said. “Shall we approach Courtland and Barclay?”
“Yea.” All three of them raised their hands.
“And Colin?” Jarrod asked. “Yea or nay?”
Griff and Sussex turned to Jarrod. “Send for him.”
Chapter Twenty-six
“He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such a she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fullness of perfection lies in him.”
—William Shakespeare, 1564-1616
King John
The toy sailboats sat outside the outer door to the Ivory Suite for two days before Colin and Gillian decided to put them to use. It rained all day the first day and part of the second. But the sun came out from behind the clouds on the afternoon of the second day, and the honeymoon couple emerged from their bed in an effort to prevent their honeymoon from becoming a deadly dull affair.
Gillian picked up her bonnet and gloves as Colin buttoned her into a simple pale green muslin gown. She hummed a happy little tune and swayed to and fro while he struggled with the buttons. “Hurry.”
“Hold still,” he said. “Or I won’t be responsible for what happens to your buttons.”
Gillian stared at the toy sailboats resting on the table. “Do you think they’ll still float?”
“I’m sure of it,” Colin said. He and Gillian hadn’t left their bedroom in two days, but Pomfrey had sent word that he’d located two toy sailboats in the attic and would leave them outside the suite as soon as he’d cleaned the decades of grime from them.
Colin had retrieved the two boats after he and Gillian had climbed out of bed following a leisurely morning of lovemaking and a hot bath. The two boats—one red and one blue—were as clean as Pomfrey could make them, and Colin had no doubt that they would float.
He leaned forward and placed a kiss on his favorite spot at the nape of Gillian’s neck. “All done.”
Gillian pulled on her gloves and preceded Colin out the door, the red sailboat cradled safely in her arms. Colin followed close behind with the blue sailboat.
They exited the house through the back door and made their way across the garden around the labyrinth to the fishpond. Gillian ran toward the pond, and Colin gave chase. He caught up with her as she reached the water’s edge and gave her a quick kiss before they prepared their boats for launching.
“Shall we race?” she suggested.
“What shall we wager?” he asked.
“Wager?”
“What’s the point of racing if there’s nothing to win?” he asked.