The Reluctant Suitor (47 page)

Almost on the heels of his question, a stifled scream came from within, prickling his hackles and giving him impetus. Taking a step back, he raised his left leg and applied a well-heeled foot with driving force against the door, very near the handle, and with enough strength to send the portal flying open as the strip of wood around the lock gave way beneath his determined assault.

Emitting an angry snarl, Roger rolled away from Adriana and leapt to his feet. Having failed to subdue her ladyship sufficiently to accomplish what he had set out to do, he could now foresee a frantic bid to escape. His face stung from the deep gouges the beauty had wreaked with her fingernails, having raked them with savage intent from his brow to his chin. His lips were sore and distended from the blow he had received when she had thrust a fairly sharp elbow into his mouth. It certainly hadn’t helped when she had turned into a raging virago and, with viciously sharp teeth, had started gnashing vulnerable areas that came within reach, launching him into a bit of a panic as he tried to save his ears, throat, even his nose from those deadly fangs. As fine, bright, and gleaming white as her teeth were, he suffered no doubt now that they had been made primarily for bloodletting.

Unable to foresee the pleasure of mounting an unconscious woman, he had refrained from driving a fist into her lovely jaw as he tried to protect himself. He had wanted her fully awake when he took her, so she’d know forevermore that he had her before any of her lordly aristocrats. He especially yearned for the marquess to be aware of that knowledge, and just maybe the man would decide against marrying her.

In spite of her valiant struggles, he had managed to loosen his trousers and actually been in the process of unbuttoning his underwear when the door had burst open and his adversary had come charging in, sending him scrambling off the bed in heightening panic.

Stumbling awkwardly to his feet, Roger raised a leg to flee, but his falling trousers took revenge upon him, binding his ankles firmly together, and sending him flying headlong into the corner of a sturdy armoire. A sudden flash of pain exploded inside his brain, and in the next instant blood began dribbling from his brow. Darkness descended, narrowing his world considerably until nothing but a black void

remained as he crumpled into an unconscious heap upon the floor.

“Are you all right?” Colton demanded, rushing to Adriana as she hurriedly scrambled to her knees. So little remained of her undergarments, she might as well have been naked. The lace camisole had been ripped to shreds; only a few remnants hung from her waist. Of her pantaloons, a meager strip fell over her hip. What little was left of her stockings were strewn over the rumpled velvet counterpane where the struggle had ensued.

The lady was shaking so badly, so much in a fog, and so intent on hiding her nakedness with the thin scraps of her clothing that Colton had to grab her arms and shake her to bring her to her senses, at the very least to claim her attention. “Adriana! Are you all right?”

A choked sob escaped her as her face crumpled, and she nodded jerkily as tears began to well forth.

Repulsed as she had been by Roger’s rough caresses and lusting kisses, she could not subdue her convulsive shivering. The apprentice had managed to frighten her to the depths of her being, yet, for all of that, she was grateful for having come through his assault unscathed except for her trauma, a few bruises, and scrapes. Her hands still ached from the fight she had launched against him. Indeed, it felt as if the skin had been scraped from her thin fingers. If not for his inability to keep her physically restrained and avoid the blows she had laid on him as he sought to unfasten his underwear, she would’ve likely become his victim well before Colton had knocked on her door. It had been a veritable tug-of-war over possession of her undergarments, with Roger trying to haul down her pantaloons while she had struggled desperately to hold them firmly in place. Her undergarments were now nothing more than a few token scraps, insufficient to hide her nakedness from a lord of the realm.

Colton’s ire rose with mounting fury as he viewed the paths Roger’s greedy fingers had taken, for reddened streaks marred the creaminess of Adriana’s round breasts, stomach, and thighs. Her throat bore a rash, no doubt from a bearding even a boyish face could produce.

Adriana’s hands shook uncontrollably as she sought with one purpose in mind to secure her modesty, but as much as she tried, her failure could not be avoided. Tears streamed unchecked down her face, attesting to her shame and distress. In some embarrassment, she laid an arm over her breasts as she settled her free hand over her womanhood, the best she could manage under the circumstances.

“You look like you can use this,” Colton murmured sympathetically as he doffed his coat and laid it around her shoulders. It reached almost to her knees and was so large she looked like a little girl in her father’s coat.

“Thank you for coming to my rescue,” she croaked, lifting her gaze to his. She saw his face through an indistinct blur as unchecked tears impeded her vision. “If not for you, I would’ve been . . .” After what had just possibly been her most terrifying experience with fear, she could not force the words through her lips. She swallowed against the rawness in her throat as she brushed at the wetness flowing down her cheeks. “But how did you know Roger would be up here?”

“ ‘Twas merely a simple deduction that left the man no other recourse in his attempt to have you,” Colton murmured. “He could either take you by force or not at all. Obviously he decided to take advantage of this evening’s ball and the fact that your family is downstairs entertaining friends.”

Colton wasn’t able to count the number of times since the night he had found the lady asleep in his bath that his memory had conjured up such sights to which he was now privy. His coat was a stranger to her winsomely curved form and refused to conform, yielding him an unhindered view of the lady’s unfettered breasts.

Considering the tears that streamed in cascading rivulets down her cheeks, he pointed inside his coat. “

My handkerchief . . . will you fetch it?”

Still very much in an emotional fog, Adriana patted her hands over the garment in search of hidden pockets, but to no avail. Her brows gathered in confusion until he took hold of the lapel and, pulling it outward to allow him enough space to move his hand beneath the coat without the threat of touching her, reached down inside to the inner pocket. Traumatized by her near ravishment, she offered him no resistance. It really hadn’t been Colton’s intent to shock her more than she had been already, but upon drawing the linen from its niche, the back of his hand brushed across a soft, pliant peak, causing Adriana’

s breath to catch sharply in her throat.

“I’m sorry, Adriana, I didn’t mean to . . .” Words failed him as a convulsive shiver shook her, and he had to wonder after her recent trauma if she would faint. Then her dark eyes lifted and delved almost pleadingly into his. If ever he had wondered what it would feel like to be drawn out of himself and absorbed into softly appealing orbs, he found himself experiencing that very thing. Never had he known the consuming warmth that could fill his very being with a feeling of . . . Was it love? Compassion, perhaps? Or simply desire? Whatever name could be laid to it, it seemed to draw him forward like a disembodied spirit.

“Glory sakes alive!” Maud gasped as she stumbled into the room, snatching Colton abruptly to his senses and causing him to quickly reverse his steps. Having been forced to delay her ascent of the stairs because of an attack of wooziness, the maidservant now scurried toward her mistress with a look of distress, taking in the wildly tossed coiffure, the bruises and red marks evident around her soft mouth, and the bare knees barely visible beneath the oversized coat. “What’s been goin

’ on in ’ere?”

She halted abruptly with mouth agape when she espied the apprentice lying sprawled in total oblivion near the armoire. As the realization dawned, she turned eyes widened in horror upon Adriana again. “

Merciful ’eavens, m’liedy, what did ‘at filthy rat do ta yu?”

Adriana wiped at the cascading rivulets flowing down her cheeks before managing to shake her head. “

No real harm has been done to me, Maud,” she choked out. Pausing, she cleared her throat in an attempt to dislodge the thickness that still impeded her tone. “But that is only because Lord Randwulf arrived in time to save me from the apprentice. Thanks to him, the worst I suffered from Roger’s attack has been a few bruises and scrapes.”

Reaching for the handkerchief Colton still clasped, she searched his face through a blur of tears as she drew it from his grasp. He was still staring at her, trying desperately to disentangle his mind from the encroaching vines that had entangled his thoughts a brief moment earlier. What craziness was he experiencing? he wondered. Indeed, even now he felt as if he were being absorbed into those dark, liquid pools.

“ ‘Is lor’ship thought yu might be in danger, m’liedy, what wit’ Roger still in the house,” Maud rushed on to explain, remembering that not too long ago her mistress had seemed dismayed by their approaching courtship. “ ’E wouldn’t wait till I ‘ad a looksee. ’E come sprintin’ hisself up ’ere ta make sure no ‘arm were done ta yu.”

“I’m grateful he didn’t delay, Maud,” Adriana replied shakily, her eyes delving into the gray orbs as she tried to find some reason for Colton’s apparent befuddlement. Bestowing a tremulous smile upon her maid, she assured the elder, “If not for Lord Randwulf, Roger would’ve likely accomplished what he had set out to do.”

“Then ‘tis thankful I am as well ‘at ‘is lor’ship come rushin’ ta yur aid, m’liedy, for none other could’ve reached yu in time.” The maid crossed to the bed with a tentative inquiry. “Can I fetch a dressin’ gown for yu, m’liedy?”

Adriana snuggled the lapels of Colton’s coat up close around her neck as she folded her arms beneath her bosom. She didn’t dare let the woman see what little remained of her underclothing. “Papa needs be told immediately what has happened here, and you’ll have to be the one to carry the news to him.”

Knowing the rage that would likely consume her father, Adriana glanced toward the unconscious apprentice, hardly expecting a shiver of revulsion to shake her so thoroughly that she was forced to sit back upon her heels.

“Please,
get that man out of my sight,” she bade in a strained whisper, turning her face aside as if he were something too hideous to look at.

Colton mentally shook himself from his thoughts and, in compliance with the lady’s wishes, stepped toward Roger. “Maud, if you can show me a place where this unwelcome baggage can be sufficiently confined until his lordship is ready to deal with him, then I shall take care of that matter posthaste.”

“I’m thinkin’ ‘twould serve ‘at wily beggar ‘is just due if ’e spent some time in the linen closet,” Maud announced, motioning toward the adjoining room. “ ‘Tain’t ‘ardly big enuff for a body tu breathe, much less twitch a muscle.”

“Sounds like just the place for our Mr. Elston,” Colton quipped.

Lifting a lip in a disdaining sneer as she considered the apprentice, the maid offered some insight of her own. “For a paltry li’l apprentice, ’e sure ‘as some uppity ideas, what wit’ ‘is forcin’ ‘isself ‘pon me mistress like ’e were expectin’ ’er pa ta take it all in stride. The bloke don’t know it, but ‘twere ‘is good fortune yu gots ta ‘im befo’ ‘is lor’ship, else yu’d be carryin’ out a corpse.”

Squatting down beside the unconscious man, Colton rolled him over and considered the large, swollen gash that now marred the once-smooth brow. An open split from hairline to eyebrow still oozed dark blood. A sticky, red pool of it had collected on the oriental rug, causing Maud to fuss as she fetched a wet cloth to clean the stain and a dry linen to wrap around Roger’s head. As the servant busied herself scrubbing the spot on the rug, Colton laid Roger over his shoulder and carried him into the bathing chamber. The linen closet provided even less room than a casket, causing a smile to play on Colton’s lips as he squeezed the apprentice into the narrow space. At the moment, he could think of no one more deserving than the apprentice of being initiated into the horrible dread of close confinement.

Maud finished her task and approached the door, announcing that she was going down to inform Lord Gyles of the attack on his daughter. “ ’E won’t take kindly what’s been done up ’ere, m’liedy. I can almost ’ear ‘im bellowin’ now.”

“Perhaps it would be wise if you told him beforehand that I haven’t actually been harmed,” Adriana cautioned. “He’ll be less likely to fly into a rage and make a scene in front of the guests if he has been assured that I’m all right. But whatever you do, don’t say anything to Mama, or she’ll be flying up here in a near faint. For the time being, just say that I’m not feeling at all well and won’t be down to bid farewell to the guests. Do you understand?”

“Aye, m’liedy. If’n it’s all the same ta yu, I’ll be lettin’ yur pa do the tellin’. Yur ma ‘as a way o’ gettin’

more outa me ‘an I means ta tell.”

By the time Colton returned to the bedchamber, Maud had already left on her unenviable mission.

Adriana was now perched on the edge of her bed with his handkerchief pressed over her mouth as she tried desperately to muffle her harsh sobs. In gentle compassion Colton rested a hand upon her coat-shrouded shoulder. “Are you going to be all right?”

Embarrassed at being caught weeping, Adriana hurriedly wiped at her tears. “I will be once the shock of Roger’s attack ebbs.” Her breath fluttered outward in a lengthy sigh as a violent shudder shook her. “I’ve never been more frightened in my life than when I had to fight off his attack.”