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Again, Reg interrupted him. “—still is, in fact. God, she’s amazing, and so clever.” His wide grin was back. “Why else do you think I couldn’t wait to marry her last year?”

He harrumphed. “Uh, because I found you both in a near compromising position?”

“Ha!” A bout of laughter escaped the other man.

“Sure, you found us in that old folly after we’d made love, but I had already proposed, had already planned to marry her.

” He waggled his eyebrows. “As I said before, when you find the right woman, everything changes, and conversely, everything falls into place.”

“Perhaps for you.”

Edward frowned as he looked at the man who’d been his friend the longest out of anyone.

Unlike Reg, he had never found a woman who’d held his interest, whom he might unbend enough to offer his heart to, for being a mistress was one thing, and love quite another.

Yes, he’d had ladies in his bed and on his arm over the years, but only once did he think he might offer for a woman.

Granted, he hadn’t loved the female in question.

His parents had told him she was a good match and joining the families would have created a powerful alliance within the beau monde .

Additionally, since his father had been the stiff upper lip type, and his mother hadn’t talked about how a man needed to let down his guard and show his emotions at times, Edward had never learned how to live with his own emotions—good or bad.

Therefore, he’d shoved them deep down within himself to either be forgotten or to fester into greater problems.

Yet he’d been impressed upon numerous times by his father that he had a responsibility to the title that would eventually be his. He would be an earl someday, and that would require a wife to help quell rumors that he might be a negligent landowner or an absent lord.

So at a summertime ball, he’d danced with the chit—it had been her Come Out year—and afterward, he’d asked to pay his addresses to her.

The lady in question had been thrilled… for all of five minutes, for when she’d asked him if he was in love with her and he’d told her no, she turned all frost and icicles.

After that, she’d made it known quite clearly that she would only marry for love, so she’d given him the cut direct.

Just like that. It had been the scandal of that Season.

In some ways, he’d not recovered from it, for it had been quite embarrassing and a bit aggravating.

He’d been forced to not only leave the ball early, but also retreat to his country estate until the gossip had died down, and it had driven his emotions that much deeper.

He'd vowed to never again offer for a woman—in love or not—for they were nothing but trouble.

“Do stop, Armestead. One rejection from one lady doesn’t mean there is something wrong with you.” Amusement wove through Reg’s statement.

“Of course not, for there is something wrong with them .” Though he was cognizant enough to hear the ring of arrogance in that response. Edward heaved out a huff of frustration. “I am aware that over the years I have done my best at erecting walls around my person as well as my heart…”

Reg snorted. “That assumes you have a heart. Do you?”

Despite the subject matter, a grin tugged at the corners of Edward’s lips. “It is difficult to say. I’m not certain I have ever been in love enough to even know.”

And at the age of eight and thirty, the likelihood of that happening was growing slim.

“Well, if you are desperate to marry, then do it. Perhaps love will come later.” Reg heaved himself out of his chair. He set his nearly empty brandy glass on the desk next to Edward’s. “Keep all the mistresses you want, but marry to further the line.”

“That is rather a dim view of looking at it, don’t you think?”

“I do.” With a sober expression, Reg peered down at him.

“But that is close to what you told me when I asked you last summer if I could pay my addresses to your sister.” He frowned as Edward gained his feet.

“You told me you were perfectly content with your mistresses and didn’t need or want to marry. ”

“I remember.” Yet now that Kitty seemed wonderfully happy in her relationship, and she’d been averse to marriage—for different reasons than he—he thought perhaps he might like to meet someone at the house party who might consent to be his wife. “But your position and mine are clearly different.”

“Societal rankings, yes, but as men? No.”

“I… I have long grown bored of taking mistresses. If you must know, I haven’t had a woman in my bed for a few months.”

“What about a woman against the wall or on a chair?” Reg asked with a cheeky expression and laughter in his eyes.

Damnation, the man was annoying. “No.”

“A pity, that.” For long moments, the other man remained silent as if he were pondering closely over his next words.

“I am not saying you should marry. I’m not even saying go out right now and put a babe in some poor woman’s belly so you’ll have to marry her.

But I am saying that perhaps letting yourself be open to the chance that there are good women out there will give you a different perspective on a few things.

And it is nearly Christmastide. Romance is more easily stumbled over during this time of year than any other. ”

It wasn’t bad advice, but it just wasn’t for him. And Christmastide? Uck. It was a holiday he could largely do without. “I miss my parents and grandparents more during this time of year than any other, and with my sisters busy with their own families, I’d rather just be alone.”

“Like a coward or a crotchety old man?”

Now that wasn’t funny. “You know, Reg, just because you are happily married doesn’t mean you’re suddenly more clever than me.”

“Pardon me, but I think it does. I’ve learned a lot since taking Kitty to wife, and she’s done her fair share of talking to me about you.”

“Oh, God.” There was so much there to tell, more than Reg would have known since becoming Edward’s best friend. “Colored through her life though. Take it all with a grain of salt.”

“Piffle.”

“What?”

“You hard me. Piffle. Do you want to know what I think?”

“Not especially, but I feel that you will tell me all the same.” Why was it a good idea to throw this house party again?

“You want marriage and the prospects of starting a family, but you are afraid.”

“I’m not.”

“No? Then perhaps you had your heart crushed at some point in your past by a woman and you’ve neglected to tell me about that trauma? There must be a reason you are afraid of love.”

“My pain, if there is such a thing that I’m struggling with, is my own.

” As far as he knew, he had never fallen in love.

Had he? Not even with Nancy before she’d ignored his very existence, though he was beginning to doubt that as the years drew on, for while he could easily dismiss her from his mind, evicting her memory from the chambers of his heart was more difficult.

But why?

“Ah.” Reg reached the door and turned back to regard Edward with a grin.

“Not to worry, my friend. We’ll find someone for you before Twelfth Night.

Never fear. And yes, I’ve been wonderfully happy, absurdly so, since marrying your sister.

” He winked. “I want that for you too, and I rather hope it’s with a woman who turns your world upside down, because those sorts of women are the best after all. ”