“Both Holly and Rox are missing now.”
“I’ll go with you. Your men are competent to handle the cooling process.”
“But you don’t know where I’m going.”
“Neither do you. A smart man would ask himself where Rox would retreat to.”
“Whitcomb Hall?”
“Exactly.”
* * * * *
Tanner might have enjoyed the two-day drive from London if it had not been racked with such suspense. It did not help that Fredrick drove part of the way, since it allowed Tanner to focus on the possible death of all his plans. When had he become so desperate? Before the appearance of Rox, he could take or leave women. Like Fredrick, his joy and passion had been work.
Now he didn’t much care if the business foundered, except for Fredrick’s engine. He had some fears in that respect, that an engine compact enough to run a wagon might for all its economy still be too dear for shepherds or draymen to afford, but someday it would come into its own.
Fredrick was driving when they crossed a bridge over the River Exe and turned up a short lane to a gatehouse. Holly and Lady Whitcomb waved to them through the window. Fredrick went to stable the horses while Tanner sought out the object of his desire, Roxanne. How odd that he had stopped fretting over Holly as soon as he knew her location but that his concern for Rox had mounted with each mile.
He saw a figure in white muslin moving about in the garden, the strings of her wide-brimmed sun hat trailing behind her. Picking beans was an occupation that seemed to fit with what he had learned of her.
He walked up behind her and took the basket. “I feel lucky to find you, finally.”
She turned to him with a sad smile, holding her sun hat on her head. “I don’t believe in luck.”
An argument already. He could only laugh at her refutation. “Very well, I asked your brother where you would be and he was right.”
“Good fortune must be earned.” She pulled another handful of beans and dropped them into the basket. He took that as agreement that he might stay.
After they got to the end of the row, she walked toward the trellis and bench that marked the entrance to the kitchen garden and sat in the shade of the climbing roses. He wondered why the setting looked so familiar. Then he realized it was not unlike the bench he’d destroyed at Vauxhall defending her from Ian Stone. He’d been in love with her ever since.
He sat beside her but she took the basket and placed it between them.
“I agree. Fortune should not be inherited, but deserved. In some ways I am no better than the idle aristocrats who treat their tenant farmers like slaves.”
“They are not all like that, any more than all men of business care only about money. The world is a strange mix of people.”
“I let you down. I never believed in your conspiracy until it was almost too late.” Tanner watched those long dark lashes draw down over her blue-green eyes as she began shelling beans.
She shrugged and cast him a glance. “You are not singular in that respect. Everyone I know has let me down at one time or another. Some have betrayed me past repair. With the exception of Fredrick and Holly. Harding has been a faithful friend as well. Why can you not give him and Holly your blessing? Let them be happy even if you cannot.”
Tanner laughed. “Is that your final term for winning you, that I should approve their marriage?” The scent of the roses was intoxicating and he wondered if that was why she had sat down here.
“It is somehow tied to my own happiness. I love you, Tanner, but I want to think well of you besides that. I admire you in all other things.”
“I would have gladly given my consent had Captain Harding not stormed out of my house informing me that they didn’t need any of my money or Holly’s.”
“Perhaps he thought you were trying to buy his allegiance. I cared too much about you to let you buy me. I could have stood it with anyone else.” She blinked and looked away. “No, that’s not true. Once I met you, a love match with anyone else was unthinkable.”
“But you are a woman who prizes equality. Should he not have consulted Holly before he whistled her fortune down the wind?”
“Yes, marriage should be a partnership, not one person taking care of another but a reciprocal arrangement.”
“Guilty on all counts. I tried to buy you with security. I thought I was doing the right thing. But I’m not a hero after all. No white knight certainly. I make mistakes. Why do you think that is? Have you a theory about it?” He laughed a little in a desperate sort of way.
“I have been thinking of little else these past two days. It is because you are human but you won’t admit it. You think you know what is best for everyone and act on that without consulting them.”
“Guilty as charged.”
“Of course, I do the same thing.”
He repressed his smile. She was being serious and he did not want to mock her. “Dare I agree with you?”
“I suppose you are here to take Holly back. Well, don’t expect her to be the compliant child whose life you almost ruined. It was only to make you happy that she almost stepped into the trap you set for her. She’s now made of stronger stuff and will not bow to your demands.”
“And you’ve only had her under your wing a few weeks. I will not ask her to leave. What impulse made you bring her here?”
“She begged to come with me, away from London. I guess it was the same impulse that led me to follow her as she cried her way out of her own ball. No one should be that unhappy.”
“And yet you were and never complained of it. But without telling anyone?”
Roxanne snapped her gaze back toward him. “What are you talking about? Fredrick knew. And your mother agreed.”
“Mother knew?”
“Of course. She didn’t tell you?”
He rubbed his forehead. “I didn’t ask. I was hoping to find Holly before I had to confess to Mother that my stupidity had forced her to run away. Mother’s health only just recovered from the abduction. I was afraid to break the news.”
“Well, if that isn’t the most craven—”
He stopped her breath with a kiss and when he paused, she stared at him, her eyes brimming with tears.
“I just wanted to do that since I can’t seem to say anything right. What, no criticism of my kiss? Give me your worst review.”
“It was too short,” she said breathlessly.
He swept her into his arms, dumping the beans on the ground, and kissed her thoroughly, aware in the back of his mind that they could be observed from either the gatehouse or main road. Then he looked at her. It seemed so perfect now, the two of them in this rose-scented bower.
“What now? Shall we argue some more?”
“I don’t know what happens now,” she said from the nest of his arms. “I’ve never gotten this close to love before. It’s almost frightening.”
“Is that why you drew back from me? Because you were afraid I might ruin it?”
“Yes. So long as we were just friends, you had not yet betrayed me and I had not done that to you either. It seemed the safer course.”
“I’m no expert but it strikes me that there is nothing safe about love. To give into it means we must accept our hearts will be broken once in a while.”
“But mended again after much apology.”
“I’m not saying I’ll never make another mistake but I want you to tell me when I do.”
“Never fear. I will not let the slightest error pass without comment.”
He glanced toward the gatehouse and released her. “Can you forgive me for accusing you of the baseness that was mine—seeking money rather than love?”
“I couldn’t do it, marry you for your money. And when I realized that, I found I couldn’t give such false allegiance to any other man, even Sir John Marbrey, whom I genuinely like. Is there nothing I can do for him now that he realizes he is ruined?”
“I can see that he keeps his estate. Perhaps by paying exorbitant prices for all
those horses you love so dearly. Or perhaps I need a right-of-way across his land. Why do you care for him so much? His son was only trying to get your inheritance. Were we the only ones in London ignorant of your fortune?”
“Possibly, since we don’t listen to gossip. I feel for Sir John because he was so deceived. He trusted his son and daughter-in-law and they betrayed him. Everyone he knew betrayed him.”
“And you have much experience of that.”
“Yes. At one point I even thought my mother betrayed me. Besides, he is a dear man.”
“But not one you wish to marry?”
“It seemed like an easy choice when we were arguing so much and I despaired of you ever changing. He needed me and you didn’t.”
“But now?” He picked up one of her hands and entwined his fingers with hers.
“Yes, love changes everything. It makes you refuse to settle for less than the perfect life.”
“What is your perfect life?” He turned her face up to look at him and tossed her sun hat out into the bean patch. It sailed away from them like a delicate bird.
“You, silly. You are my perfect life. If I can’t marry you, I won’t marry at all.”
“But that is what I want, to marry you. It’s what I’ve wanted all along.”
“Even when I caused you so many problems?”
“More than ever then.” He released her hands and stroked her cheeks with his fingers.
“Even after we fought, you came to rescue me and without my even asking.”
“I wasn’t very good at it. I didn’t believe you when you said not to fear the pistol.”
“You had only seen it fired, not misfired. Did you really think I would confront my uncle with a loaded pistol? Nothing could be sillier.”
“I should have guessed you would be sensible. So we have taken care of all and we too are to have a happy ending? Could I have asked you to marry me that first night and saved us all this bother?”
“No, because you were arrogant. Charming but too sure of yourself. And I did want Fredrick to succeed on his own.”
“You wanted nothing for yourself.”
“When you think you are responsible for your father’s suicide, you don’t think you are entitled to a life.”
“Oh, Rox, who made you think that?” His hands slid down her shoulders to her waist and he gave her a warm hug.
“I thought of it myself. It was easier to blame me than Father or Mother. Once I introduced you and Fredrick, I could not interfere in his success.”
“Still, you refused me when Fredrick’s future was secured.”
“By then I feared for his life and Mother’s. I could not think of myself. But really it all hinged on how you treated Holly. If you had refused to let her find happiness with Captain Harding, it would have cast a shadow over my love for you.”
“I have been well instructed in empathy from you, not to mention humiliation. I have no pride left nor confidence in my judgment.”
“And I never had any pride or confidence so we are free to be ourselves.”
“I was trying to be something I was never meant to be. And I dragged my sister along resisting.”
“I was trying to do something my conscience would not allow.”
“Are we done with pretense then?” he asked as he tugged at a lock of her hair.
“Yes. Look.” Roxanne pointed toward the river. “Holly and Harding walk out along the tow path. Don’t they look perfect together?”
He rose and pulled Rox to her feet. “They may be perfect but we are who we are, with all our faults and mistakes.”
“And we care not a whit what the rest of the world thinks.”
“Not a whit.” He swept her into another kiss, ignoring the faces of her mother and brother at the window smiling at them.
About the Author
Barbara Miller teaches in the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. She has published mysteries, young adult novels and historical romances, including one nominated for a Rita. She lives on a farm with her husband and a pack of unruly dogs.
Barbara welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Barbara Miller
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A Cotillion Country Christmas anthology
Christmas Kisses anthology
Governess for a Week
Music Master
Reluctant Heir
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Ellora’s Cave Publishing
www.ellorascave.com
Fortune’s Folly
ISBN 9781419940132
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Fortune’s Folly Copyright © 2012 Barbara Miller
Edited by Carrie Jackson
Cover design by Dar Albert
Photos: Sean Nel and Dash/Shutterstock.com, fotolia.com and commons.wikimedia.org
Electronic book publication July 2012
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