Page 22 of Mr Winterbourne's Christmas

Lysander turned to him. “That’s a big sigh. Is something wrong?”

Perry met his gaze, an odd expression on his face. “Just thinking,” he said.

“What about?”

Perry shrugged. “Things have been different since you went to Edgeley Park. This last year without you—it’s been awfully quiet.”

Lysander felt a pang of regret. He’d been so absorbed at Edgeley Park that he hadn’t given Perry much of a thought. He felt guilty about that now. They’d been best friends since they were boys, near inseparable, but he’d neglected Perry since he’d met Adam.

“Have you been bored?” Lysander asked, trying to shift the melancholy tone with a teasing smile. “Maybe you need to find something new to spend your time on? There are only so many boxing matches and races a man can go to.”

“Perhaps I should join the army.”

Lysander chuckled wryly. He could think of few people less suited to army life. Perry had an aversion to following orders. At school, he’d barely been able to sit most days from the number of canings he’d been given.

“Or perhaps,” Lysander said teasingly, “You should get married.”

“What?God, no!” Perry exclaimed.

Surprised at his vehemence, Lysander frowned. “Why not?”

Perry flushed, his cheeks staining pink. “I—just—” He broke off, then concluded lamely, “No reason.”

Lysander eyed him for a moment. He’d always thought Perry would likely marry young. The man had an easy, affectionate nature and, despite his occasional wildness, was quite a domestic fellow at heart. “Don’t you want to?”

Perry met Lysander’s gaze then, and his own flashed with surprising temper. “No, I don’t. Doyou?”

It sounded very pointed the way he said it, almost accusatory.Do you?

“No,” Lysander said truthfully. “Not in my case.”

Perry glanced away. “Well, not in mine either,” he said stiffly.

He was being distinctly odd.

“Is something wrong?” Lysander asked at last, watching his friend closely. There was something bleak about Perry’s expression as he stared straight ahead.

Perry didn’t turn Lysander’s way. “Why d’you ask?”

“No reason,” Lysander said, but he sensed Perry was preoccupied, thinking.

For a while, the man brooded, and they trudged onwards, through the snow. And then, seemingly out of the blue, Perry said, “So, you and Freeman. What’s that all about?”

Lysander’s gut shifted with unease at Perry’s flat tone. “I’m not sure I know what you’re asking,” he said carefully.

Quite suddenly, Perry stopped walking, so Lysander did too, watching his friend with concern. “Perry,” he said, more urgently this time. “Is something wrong?”

Perry did look at him then, and his gaze was burning. “I saw you,” he said. “Kissing him.”

A fist squeezed Lysander’s heart—he couldn’t think, couldn’t even breathe. “Perry,” he whispered.

His friend’s expression was devastated, anger and grief written all over his face, and Lysander didn’t know what to say, how to explain what Perry had seen, and likely didn’t understand. How to explain that helovedAdam. That their happiness harmed no one else and if Perry was disgusted by that, then he could—

“If that’s what you wanted, why didn’t you ever kissme?” Perry cried hoarsely.

Lysander blinked at him, astonished. Perry was asking this of him.Perry.

“You wouldn’t have wanted that,” Lysander said faintly. “You’re not...you’re notlike me.”