The Reluctant Suitor (31 page)

Colton glanced askance at Felicity, unable to ignore the fact that she was encroaching unusually close.

Her deflated pout gave him cause to wonder if he had been
too
obvious in his eagerness to converse with Adriana. However guilty he had been of limiting his consideration entirely to one woman in the presence of others, Colton tried to ease the hurt feelings he had obviously elicited.

Sweeping his gaze about to encompass the three, he declared magnanimously, “I must say, ladies, you make it dreadfully difficult for a man who has long been bound to the battlefield to decide which of you fair maidens would win the prize for beauty or the most winsomely attired lady in the area. I do indeed feel honored to find myself in your collective company.”

“You’re very kind, my lord,” Felicity replied, conveying her best impression of a genteel lady. The temptation to slip her hand through the bend of his arm was nearly beyond her ability to resist.

“You are most generous with your praise, my lord,” Melora added, smiling.

“Be careful,” Adriana warned, giving him a sidelong perusal and a brief glimpse of a tight smile. “Your pretty words will likely have us all smitten with you.”

His eyes sparkled as they delved once again into the depths of those dark pools. “Then I would count myself fortunate indeed to have such comely maids under my spell.”

Felicity gasped suddenly as she wobbled from side to side. In the next instant, she caught Colton’s arm and held on with all her might, as if fearful of falling through a crack in the cobblestones. The idea for her ploy had come to her when she happened to recall the incident wherein the brunette had whirled through the elegant corridor of Randwulf Manor into the arms of the marquess. Whether that particular event had been planned or a chance occurrence, only her ladyship could rightly say. As for her own ruse, it certainly gave her the chance that she had been seeking. “My goodness,” she gasped, slipping a hand through Colton’s arm and drawing it close to her soft bosom. “I would have fallen if not for you, my lord.

”

Proving unstinting in his willingness to accept the lady’s ploy for the accident she claimed it to be, Colton consolingly patted the gloved hand that clasped his sleeve. “I’m pleased to have been of service, Miss Felicity. It isn’t everyday a gentleman is gifted with the pleasure of having such a winsome lady upon his arm, however fortuitously it came about.”

Felicity beamed with delight, pleased that she had managed to fool the man. “Oh, my lord, you truly are kind.”

Adriana subdued an urge to emulate her father’s habit of snorting in derision whenever he had reason to doubt circumstances to be what they seemed. If she were to do such a thing, she’d likely scandalize her sister, who’d then break all records racing home to tell their parents of her unladylike manners.

Colton met Adriana’s cool stare briefly before her fine nose elevated and her gaze went chasing off.

From all indications it seemed the lady was none too pleased with him, which did much to heighten his curiosity. Was she miffed merely because he had lent assistance to another woman?

Reluctantly Adriana turned a smile upon her rival. Although she was fairly certain the two were together for some special purpose, she was most curious to know just what that was. “You’re looking so radiant this morning, Miss Felicity, I’m led to wonder if my sister and I are keeping you and his lordship from an important event. Considering the exquisiteness of both your appearances, I can only imagine that you two must be going to Bath, or perhaps to Bristol.”

Felicity was suddenly aflutter over the idea. “Oh, yes. Wouldn’t a trip to Bath be nice!” She glanced at Colton, hoping to receive an invitation similar to that which her ladyship had mentioned, but she was soon to be disappointed, for the gentleman remained discreetly mute. She sighed and, in a wistful tone, assured them, “I would really like to go there . . . someday.”

Colton could not have relished Adriana’s probing inquiries any more. Had she asked outright if he had plans to whisk the blonde off in his carriage, her irritation over that idea could not have been displayed more vividly. At least now he understood why she had seemed so annoyed. She obviously thought he was paying court to the lady.

Adriana cast a glance toward Colton and once again found herself the recipient of his warmly challenging gaze. The fact that he had not yet seen fit to disengage himself from the blonde’s grasp seemed reason enough for her to snub him. Thus she turned her face aside and endeavored to ignore his unswerving regard.

Nevertheless Colton directed his inquiries to the two siblings. “Will Lady Jaclyn be coming to the wedding? ‘Twould please me immensely to see her again after all these years and, of course, to be introduced to her family.”

Melora peered up at him with a smile. “Yes, of course. In fact, her whole family will be arriving a day or two before the wedding, so you’ll be able to get acquainted with them prior to the nuptials, if you so choose.”

Coolly distant, Adriana deigned to meet those glowing gray orbs that seemed eager to meet hers. “I’m sure Jaclyn will be delighted to see you again, my lord.”

Having noticed the strange quirk that had briefly elevated her brow when he had spoken of the harmonious compatibility that Melora and her betrothed enjoyed, Colton wondered if she deemed him incapable of experiencing a similar attachment to a woman. Feeling directly challenged, he probed, “And you, Lady Adriana, are you not hoping to mirror your sister’s good fortune in finding a fiancé whom you can cherish and who will treasure you in return?”

“That seems to be the wish of every maiden, my lord,” Adriana replied woodenly, thoroughly convinced that he was seeking some way to escape what his father had once decreed for him. His delay in answering her parents’ missive seemed to bear that out. “As for myself, I suffer no grand illusions about the one who was chosen for me. He seems an independent sort, unwilling to bind himself to nuptials. I shan’t be surprised if he departs for worlds unknown rather than comply.”

The lady’s answer was certainly affective in snuffing the heated lust he had recently been battling, Colton realized, but then, perhaps that would prove beneficial if it meant he could enjoy a good night’s sleep for a change, instead of remembering how beautiful the lady had looked in his bath. Even so, he couldn’t resist an equally nettling rejoinder. “I’ve heard that you have many smitten swains following at your heels, my lady. I would think you’d find it difficult to choose among them. Of course, there will always be Mr.

Elston, should the others lose all hope of winning you for themselves. He seems adamant enough to stay the course through thick and thin.”

The dark eyes flared with indignation. “Mr. Elston is merely an acquaintance, my lord, nothing more,”

Adriana stated frostily, her temper sorely pricked. “As for the suitor my father chose for me, I must bide my time till the true nature of such a match can be determined. I owe that much to my parents and the memory of the elderly gentleman who extended as much affection to me as he did his own daughter, yet I really don’t foresee anything of measurable significance materializing from that relationship.”

Colton raised a brow to a lofty level, rather amazed that she put no store in the honor she had been bequeathed by being his sire’s only choice for a daughter-in-law. “I take it, then, that you have no interest in this . . . ah . . . relationship?”

“A friendship can hardly be nurtured between two individuals unless they spend some time together, my lord. Thus far, that has not occurred. Even if his lordship and I were to become better acquainted, I cannot hold out any hope that the agreement will bring about the desired end that our parents once hoped it would. We are at the very least strangers, and I cannot foresee that fact changing significantly either in the near or distant future.”

Colton managed a laconic smile. It would certainly serve the lady her just due if he turned a deaf ear to the pleas of his parent. “Perhaps with a little patience, my lady, you will come to see the way of it. As will he.”

Wondering what he meant, Adriana searched the depths of those dark gray eyes once again for what they would reveal, but the glowing warmth was no longer there. With a clipped smile and a murmured excuse, his lordship begged leave of them all and, pivoting about, limped toward his waiting carriage. In watching his departure, Felicity released a dejected sigh and then, after a moment, made her excuses to the two women before departing in the opposite direction.

Melora pinched her sister’s arm, breaking the thoughtful trance into which Adriana had descended as she stared after Colton Wyndham.

“Keep your hands to yourself, Melora!” the younger sibling snapped, turning upon her indignantly. “You hurt me just now!”

“Considering the stone you have for a heart, I was wondering if you’d even notice,” Melora retorted. “

How could you have answered Colton like that? You might as well have slapped him in the face.”

Adriana tossed her head, dismissing her sister’s jibe. “If mine is of mere stone, then surely his must be made of hardest granite.”

The petite sister elevated a challenging brow. “Two of a kind, in other words?”

Adriana leveled an ominous glower upon her older sister, annoyed because she had made such a comparison. Yet, when she turned aside, a gloomy sigh escaped her, for she had to wonder what in the world Sedgwick Wyndham had thought he had been doing when he had created this hellish torment for her. Would she ever be free of it? Would she ever be able to live a normal life with a husband who loved and cherished her above all other women? Or would she be constantly reminded that she had never been the choice of her husband and that, if he yielded at all, he would do so only to avoid wounding his mother?

S
weeping off his top hat, Colton stepped into the parlor of Samuel Gladstone’s three-story Cotswold house. It had been several days since he had met Felicity Fairchild in town, but he had not forgotten his former promise to look in on her grandfather. That was the reason for his visit this day, to renew his acquaintance with the elder after his lengthy absence.

With the aid of his walking stick, Colton limped along behind Samantha as Jane Fairchild led the way upstairs to her father’s bedchamber. At the elder’s door, his sister paused to talk with Jane and motioned for him to precede her.

Soon after crossing the threshold, Colton noticed books upon layers of books stacked in nearly every available nook and cranny of the spacious room. A tall, elongated, glass-enclosed wooden case residing against the inside wall was completely full of weighty tomes. On a trestle table near the foot of the man’s enormous bed were other volumes of comparable size intermingled with a number of others that were both smaller and larger.

Garbed in clean nightshirt and nightcap, Samuel Gladstone was sitting up in his bed with covers draped across his lower torso and a makeshift desk lying across his lap. Several goose-down pillows had been stuffed behind his back, providing a wealth of cushioning against the lofty Elizabethan headboard.

Colton paused, reluctant to disturb the elderly miller who seemed engrossed in perusing the contents of a ledger. Thus far, the man had failed to notice his entrance. Looking back to Jane for guidance, Colton received encouragement as she urged him on with a smile and shooed him inward with fluttering fingers.

He stepped closer to the bed.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Gladstone.”

Lifting his gaze, Samuel readjusted wire-rimmed spectacles upon his nose as he squinted curiously at his visitor. It was not altogether rare that such a well-garbed gentleman came to see him. Lord Harcourt visited him quite often, in fact, bringing with him others who often left him chortling in glee, but the looks of this one was closely reminiscent of another he had once known and respected for a goodly number of years prior to that one’s more recent death. Although equally as handsome and tall, this one who progressed toward his bedside with the aid of a fine walking stick was younger by perhaps thirty years.

Samuel Gladstone slowly waggled a finger at his guest as a smile stretched across his aging lips. “I

recognize yur face.”

Colton grinned and peered at the elder rather dubiously. It had been more than six and ten years since he had last seen the miller, and in that time they had both aged considerably. Indeed, the elder’s hair was now totally white and much more sparse than it had once been. “Are you certain?”

Samuel seemed pleased that he could reply with an affirmative nod. “Though I’ll warrant me legs aren’t as strong as they used ta be, me noggin’s still workin’ fairly well. Aye, yu’re the late Lord Randwulf’s son. Yu’ve the same looks.”

Colton chuckled. “So everyone around here keeps telling me. I can’t seem to fool anyone, and yet I’ve found myself incapable of recognizing any of the townspeople.”

“Sit down, sit down,” the miller urged, motioning toward a nearby chair. “Yur sister kept me up ta date ’

bout places yu were at an’ the many conflicts yu fought durin’ different times o’ yur military career. Most o’ the people hereabouts have been mightily impressed wit’ yur heroism. Mainly the stories come from others livin’ outside our area, men what were in yur command an’ others what fought alongside yur regiment.” Samuel chortled suddenly in amusement. “O’ course, me gran’child can’t seem ta talk ’bout anyone else. She told me yu’d been wounded, an’ needed a cane ta get about wit’.”