The Reluctant Suitor (8 page)

Yet the two made me feel as if I had truly been welcomed into the area. Were I as wise as the sages of old, I might’ve recognized them as two angels on missions of mercy.”

Colton laughed in hearty amusement as a memory from his youth came winging back. “Miss Fairchild, I should warn you that you were
not
the first creature these
angels
have taken under their wings,” he observed drolly. “Lady Adriana and my sister have been companions since well before the younger could talk, and I can verify from firsthand knowledge that both women have long championed hospitality as a valiant cause to be nurtured. However, they have not always limited their benevolence to humans.

Although I shall likely be chided for making comparisons between past and present, I distinctly recall that, at a fairly early age, the two were wont to bring home injured animals or their young, and as dedicated as they were in that mission of mercy, I can only believe they continued in that endeavor long after I left. While I was still at home, they made every effort to nurse whatever creature they had found

back to good health, but if one happened to expire, they’d sob their hearts out till none could bear their lamentation a moment longer. In truth, Miss Felicity, you’re only one of a strange collection these
angels
have brought home over the years.”

“Colton, for shame,” Samantha scolded, her smile doing much to negate her rebuke. “Miss Felicity will surely be taken aback by your comparison.”

Facing the fair-haired woman, he clasped a lean hand to his scarlet blouse as if to offer a pledge. “Truly, Miss Fairchild, I meant no disrespect. Actually, there’s no real comparison between you and the furry or feathered creatures my sister and her most valued friend were inclined to bring home. I’m certain in your case both ladies were delighted to be able for a change to extend the benefits of their hospitality to one of their own species.”

He glanced toward Adriana, who was standing a short distance away, listening to their conversation as she rested a slender hand on the massive staircase’s heavily carved Jacobean newel. Though he offered her a warm smile, she met his gaze with a gravity that brought back memories he had tried so often to suppress, that of a thin little girl with enormous eyes whose heart he had once broken. How could he have known so long ago that Harrison had let her in with her parents and had asked them to wait outside the drawing room from whence moments later he had launched strenuous objections to his father’s plans to sign a betrothal agreement committing them to each other?

He held out an arm invitingly, desiring to have her near. “Come join us, Adriana. Standing there like that, you remind me of that little girl I once knew who always hung back with a yearning look in her eyes whenever Samantha would come to me, pleading for a favor. It always seemed as if that little girl, with her huge dark eyes, really wanted to join us, but wasn’t quite sure if she should. Please do. I can promise you, I’

ve truly enjoyed seeing you again.”

A tentative smile tugged at the soft lips as he beckoned her forward, and when she finally complied, albeit hesitantly, he laid an arm about her shoulders. “My sister hugged me and welcomed me back, Adriana.

Might I dare hope that you’re delighted enough with my return to do the same?”

“Welcome home, my lord,” she murmured, offering him a tentative smile as she drew a step closer.

“Come, give us a hug,” he urged warmly, as if she were only a child of six again. “And a kiss.” Her apparent reluctance caused him to crinkle a brow above a warmly glowing, yet somewhat dubious stare.

“You’re not afraid of me, now are you? Where is that little girl whose pluck won my father’s admiration?

”

Considering that every eye in the hall was upon her, Adriana mentally took a deep breath to barricade herself against the nervous jitters. How could they understand that in all her life this was the only man

who, as a youth, had wounded her so deeply that she hadn’t yet forgotten it? She had often wondered if that singular experience had been the reason she didn’t allow suitors to get too close even now.

Tentatively she slipped an arm about his shoulders as he bent near to accommodate her height. Even so, she felt her heart hammering in her chest and found that very strange indeed, considering that she had come to believe that no man frightened her. She was rather surprised to hear the chortling laughter of the other nobles as her lips brushed his warmly bronzed cheek.

“There now, that’s better,” Colton murmured near her ear before he drew away. When Adriana looked up, she found her gaze ensnared by the glittering sheen of the gray eyes. A pleased smile curved his handsome lips, deepening the furrows in his cheeks. His voice was husky and muted as it invaded her senses. “Now I truly feel welcomed home.”

“So that’s how you wrangle a kiss from the pretty ones,” Stuart observed drolly from several paces away. Grinning, he eagerly beckoned to Adriana. “Leave that wily rascal, my girl, and come here to me.

Although I may not have known you as well as his lordship before his departure, I’ve certainly become better acquainted with you since. Am I not more deserving of your affection? Am I not more pleasing to look upon?”

Chuckling at the other’s playful cajoling, Colton laid a hand lightly on the sleeve covering Adriana’s forearm, as if to forestall the possibility of her falling into the man’s trap. “Stay near, my dear,” he advised roguishly. “You need my stalwart protection, for the major is obviously a rake, of whom tender young maids such as yourself should be wary.”

At the major’s scoffing hoot, Colton slipped his own arm about the lady’s shoulders and faced his challenger with a grin that seemed waggishly proud of his triumph over the other. Colton was amazed to feel his senses awakening to the delicate scent of roses that clung to the lady. Dipping his head near the brim of her top hat again, he breathed in the intoxicating bouquet.

“Your fragrance reminds me of Mother’s rose garden from years back,” he murmured warmly. “Do you suppose there are any blooms in it this time of year? I’d be pleased if you’d show it to me ere the day is over.”

If the warmth in her cheeks didn’t cause her enough chagrin, Adriana could feel the heat rising to her ears. To her regret, her tormentor noticed and seemed somewhat amazed as he brushed a fingertip along the dainty fold curving over the top of an ear, just beneath the brim of her hat. “I do believe you’re blushing, Adriana.”

Although Colton would’ve acted no differently had he thought of the young man who had chased her into the house, it soon became apparent his presumptuousness in handling the lady with casual ease snapped that one’s restraint. With eyes blazing, the fellow crossed the hall with long, outraged strides.

The brisk, intrusive approach of metallic-clad heels claimed Colton’s immediate attention, bringing him sharply about to face the man with an eyebrow arched at a challenging angle. Just as quickly the hounds launched into fierce barking, setting themselves before their master and the girl at his side.

Being accosted by a stranger in one’s own home was enough to tweak anyone’s temper, but Colton considered the apprentice’s actions immensely galling, especially since he seemed desirous of separating him from a woman whom he had known even before she had been a toddler running underfoot.

Well able to defend himself without the wolfhounds’ protection, Colton thought it was time that Roger Elston became cognizant of that fact. The man was obviously being less than rational in his passion to protect . . . or, more accurately, to place a barrier around the lady in his desire to keep other males from

sniffing her scent, which in this case was very pleasant and not anything approaching what dogs would be interested in following. As for the human breed, well, that was an entirely different matter indeed. He hadn’t indulged in a woman’s sweet fragrance in many a month, and this one seemed especially evocative. Even now, the memory of her sleek, delectably curved form pressed close against his own did much to awaken his manly imagination.

Pivoting about-face on his good leg, Colton leaned heavily upon his cane as he progressed rapidly toward the north end of the manor whereupon he snatched open a door leading from the morning room to the outside terrace. At his whistle, the hounds dashed through without pause and bounded off toward the distant woods. On closing the portal, Colton limped back to face his would-be rival from very close range.

“Did you have a matter you wished to discuss with me, Mr. Elston?” he asked crisply.

Roger was startled by the fact that the man knew his name and could only believe that others in the family, namely the marchioness, had spoken of him earlier, in what context he likely would never know.

Though he opened his mouth to retort to the other’s challenge, he came abruptly to the realization that he now held claim to the keenly attentive ear and eye of everyone in the room. The men definitely seemed to be peering down their noses at him as they awaited his reaction, but then, they’d probably say it was only his imagination.

Grinding his teeth in vexation, Roger swung his head about, much like a bull in close confinement, and finally mauled a surly reply. “Not really.”

“Good!” Colton shot back. “Then, if you’d kindly give me some space, I shall finish my discussion with Lady Adriana.”

Colton perused his adversary with a blatant disinterest that did much to rankle the younger man. Beneath an unruly mass of light brown curls that fell over a smooth brow was a face that seemed unusually youthful. Indeed, Colton almost expected to see a bit of fuzz on the pale cheeks, but that idea was quickly dispelled when he noticed a recent nick just below a bushy sideburn.

Roger could feel the vivid heat creeping up to the roots of his hair as he found himself the recipient of the other’s inspection. Smoldering with inner rage, he maintained a stony silence, prompting his host to elevate a challenging brow.

Nothing to do but ignore the man,
Roger thought furiously and turned rather stiltedly to face the dark-haired beauty. As much as he longed to, he dared not touch her for fear his boldness would be openly reviled and he’d be humbled before his lordship. His proximity went against all protocol. To silently imply any right to a lady of the peerage, especially in front of another nobleman, was at the very height of lunacy.

Throughout his lifetime, Roger had found numerous reasons to lament his paltry upbringing, but never so much as now when he saw the very real threat of losing Adriana to a man who had everything, including entitlement to the lady. Although the regal beauty had known only a life of privilege, she had seemed little affected by her noble status. Even so, she had given him absolutely no reason to hope that her feelings for him would eventually deepen into something more satisfying in spite of the fact that he had indicated as much to his father, who had then seen some advantage in investing a tidy sum in gentlemanly attire for him. The clothing that had once sufficed for a tutor had seemed paltry indeed among landed gentry and had proven a painful embarrassment to him on more than one occasion. Yet even now Roger feared such extravagance would come to naught and he’d rue the day he ever deceived his parent, for no matter how diligently he sought to bestir some deeper affection within the heart of the tall, slender, stirringly beautiful

brunette, she seemed content to keep him at arm’s length, offering him nothing more than a congenial graciousness, and
that
strictly on her terms.

He stretched forth a thin hand in invitation, exercising caution lest he touch her and she pull away. “

Should we not be going now, my lady?”

Colton shifted his gaze to Adriana to determine her response to the apprentice’s impertinence to urge her to leave. He hardly expected his scrutiny to be challenged, and yet, beneath his close attention, she lifted her delicately refined chin with stately aloofness, as if daring him to question her association with a commoner.

Colton felt his hackles rise, a reaction almost as unsettling as the surgeons telling him he’d likely lose his leg. Never before had he considered himself disdainful of common men. Almost half his lifetime, he had trudged in their footsteps through rain-soaked muck, raced ahead of them amid the thunderous din of exploding cannons, fought hand to hand beside them against the fury of the enemy, and many times had fallen asleep within a handbreadth of the very ones who had called him “milord Colonel.” He didn’t know precisely what there was about Roger Elston that nettled his mood and temper. Having only this hour met the fellow, he was incapable of laying a finger to the exact cause. It could hardly have been spawned by his own jealousy. Considering his lengthy absence, the girl was merely an acquaintance from his past, definitely exquisite beyond a mortal man’s comprehension, but one who over the years had become estranged to him. Whatever the cause of his vexation, he accepted it as fact that he disliked the apprentice intensely.

The lady’s unspoken challenge did much to rally Roger’s hopes. It was rare indeed that she had encouraged him, and he felt a surge of boldness in his desire to establish her as his own fiancée, yet when he actually tried to take her hand, he felt an icy shiver of rejection as she retreated a step and then, as if blind, looked through him rather than at him. The lady definitely had a way of conveying her annoyance, and he could only construe by her frosty detachment that she hadn’t appreciated his attempt to demonstrate some right to her. Nor apparently had she deemed herself answerable to the marquess for her conduct or her association with a miller’s apprentice.