Collector of Hearts

by Cassandra Samuels

  ‘I’ve missed your kisses.’

  ‘Then you will have as many as you want. But first, I want you to get better and then I want to marry you. Last night I realised nobody else makes me feel the way you do. Nobody makes me crazy the way you do and nobody fills me with sunshine by offering a smile, only you. Will you marry me, Arabella? I swear I will spend the rest of my life trying to be the best husband I can. I can’t promise I’ll be perfect but I do promise to love you always.’

  It was painful to breathe, let alone cry and smile all at the same time. Happiness unlike anything she had ever felt radiated through her as tears spilled down her cheeks. Nothing mattered but him. ‘Oh, Robert. I don’t want you to be perfect. I just want you to love me as I love you.’

  He smiled that smile, halfway between a grin and a smirk, that made her heart melt and her pulse quicken. ‘Then you will do me the honour of becoming my wife?’

  ‘Yes. Yes I will.’

  ‘You have made me a very happy man. I will endeavour to make you never regret having married me, Bella. I will devote myself to you and, God willing, our child with all that I am capable of.’

  ‘Child? You only want one?’

  ‘Child, children; one or twenty, it doesn’t matter to me, as long as they are with you.’

  ‘I like the sound of that, Lord Shelton.’

  He grinned and winked at her. ‘So do I. Please do everything the doctor has told you so that we may be married as soon as you are recovered.’

  ‘Will you stay with me and keep me company while I convalesce?’

  ‘Of course. I shall annoy you every day until you are recovered. I shall read to you from one of those horrid novels you love so much. Play chess with you and beat you at cards. It will be the courtship you deserve.’

  She lifted a brow. ‘Beat me at cards? I don’t think so. I am a dab hand at whist, I’ll have you know.’

  He laughed and the sound filled the room and her heart.

  ‘I believe, my dear, we will have a marriage worthy of envy from all the ton. For I promise to love you freely and completely, forsaking all others until death do us part and I mean it, even if you do snore.’

  ‘I do not snore!’ She winced. ‘Do I?’

  ‘I’m sure it was the draught the doctor gave you. It was endearing, really.’

  She wanted to throw something at him but nothing was at hand. ‘You were saying? About forsaking all others?’

  ‘Ah, yes. Forsaking all others. There is only room for you in my bed, in my heart and in my soul. There have never been any others since the moment I set eyes on you, Arabella.’

  ‘I am glad to hear it.’ She reached for him. He came willingly, but carefully, into her embrace and kissed her softly, slowly.

  His voice was a mere whisper near her ear. ‘I feel at home, here, in your arms.’

  She felt her smile tremble. ‘Then here is where you will stay.’

  ‘Where is she?!’ She heard a man yell from the other side of the door. Robert turned.

  ‘Gregory, for heaven’s sake keep your voice down.’

  Arabella looked up at Robert. ‘Oh no, that’s my mother and father.’

  Robert gave her a reassuring smile. ‘I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry, and don’t you dare get up.’

  She watched Robert opened the door. She could see there were more than her mother and father in the hallway. They must have been delayed by the state of the roads no doubt, but now they were all here, anxious to see for themselves that she was going to be fine. She saw her father stride forward and stop in the doorway, anger and worry etched on his face.

  Robert put his hand up. ‘Now Tremaine, calm down. The doctor said she was going to be fine.’

  ‘I have only one word for you, Shelton.’ Then, without warning, her father punched Robert in the face. A nice uppercut that caused him to stumble backwards and fall on the floor. ‘Move!’

  Her father was shaking his bruised knuckles as he thundered into Arabella’s room.

  ‘Papa! What did you do?’ Arabella wailed from the bed as she attempted to remove the covers and go to Robert.

  ‘What I should have done the moment I found out that he had his eye on you,’ he stated.

  Isabelle rushed into the room and convinced her to stay in bed, as Lady Shelton rushed over to her son lying on the floor.

  ‘Mama!’ Arabella cried and found herself enfolded in the arms of her mother.

  ‘Hush now, sweetheart. Lord Shelton will be all right. See, he is rousing even now.’ A loud groan confirmed Robert was coming around.

  ‘How could you?’ Arabella said to her father.

  He took a breath and then launched back at her. ‘How could you? There will be no more of this courting rubbish and delaying tactics, my girl. You are marrying this … this person and that will be the end of it. You’ve made your bed, now you will sleep in it, whether he likes it or not.’

  ‘Tremaine, Arabella has already agreed to marry me as soon as is legal.’ Robert tried to sit up, rubbing at his jaw.

  ‘She has?’ He paused. ‘Well then, that’s … just as it should be. Though I would have hoped better for you than... him.’

  ‘You can handle another wedding, can’t you, Tremaine?’ Robert got unsteadily back on his feet.

  Tremaine paled and then cleared his throat. ‘I’ll be damned if I am paying to fix this mess.’

  ‘Of course we can handle another wedding.’ Lady Tremaine took her daughter’s hand in hers.

  ‘We wanted a large ton wedding in London with all the trimmings, didn’t we, darling?’ Robert said with a wink in her direction. Arabella’s father went paler still. ‘But then we thought we should just get married at Bloomfield as ton weddings take too long to organise and Arabella and I are anxious to be married.’

  Tremaine looked relieved for a moment before he frowned. ‘Why would you be so eager? Is she breeding? I knew it! I should give you another shiner, you blaggard. Friends indeed!’ Tremaine yelled again, his fist raising.

  ‘Spare your fist, Papa. I am not with child.’

  Her father paused, his fist hovering in midair.

  ‘I am willing to forgo her dowry and pay for the wedding, as long as none of this goes past this room.’ Robert looked around the shocked group as they stood staring between Robert and Arabella as she slid lower in her bed. Slowly they all nodded.

  Robert waved in the direction of the door. ‘Now, if you will all shuffle out, I think Arabella needs to rest. And we could all do with a drink, or two, don’t you think? We have an engagement to celebrate.’

  The stunned group all nodded and headed down the stairs. Except for Quinn and Isabelle.

  ‘Well defused,’ Quinn said to Robert.

  ‘You think so?’ He rubbed at his chin again. ‘My God but that punch caught me unawares. Lucky for me fisticuffs isn’t a duelling option, eh what?’ Robert gave his friend a tentative smile.

  Quinn tugged at his waistcoat. ‘I didn’t say you didn’t deserve it.’

  ‘Neither did I.’

  They both chuckled.

  ‘Will you forgive me?’ Robert asked.

  ‘I will if you will,’ was Quinn’s reply.

  Robert laughed, kissed Arabella. ‘I’ll return to you later.’ He then hugged Isabelle before turning back to Quinn. ‘I have it on good authority that you’re an excellent second. I find I have need of one, but do you mind if your duties include a church service and safekeeping of some rings?’ Robert slapped Quinn on the back as he followed him through the door, before winking at Arabella over his shoulder and closing the door.

  Only Isabelle remained in the room. ‘Well, sister. High drama has been had and although I am very cross at you for nearly getting yourself killed and giving me heart palpitations, I am much relieved this is all over.’

  ‘I am so sorry, Izzy. I have ruined your honeymoon, haven’t I?’

  Isabelle shrugged and then sat on the foot of the bed. ‘The Lakes District will still be there tomorrow, dear he
art. We shall do lots of purposeless walking in many a picturesque setting and be back in a few weeks to attend your wedding. But you must promise me you will take your time healing from your injuries. I will not be here to stop you doing something reckless.’

  ‘Like falling in love with the Collector of Hearts?’

  Isabelle looked contrite for a moment. ‘I confess I may have actually encouraged you to do so, but you have the gist of it.’

  ‘I promise to do only as the doctor orders.’ The two sisters held hands then and Isabelle lay next to her sister on the bed and listened to the sound of merriment from downstairs.

  They said nothing more. There was no need. They knew each other’s happiness as if it were their own, because it was.

  Thanks for reading Collector of Hearts. I hope you enjoyed it.

  If you’d like to know more about me, my books, or to connect with me online, you can visit my webpage cassandrasamuels.com, follow me on Twitter @CSamuelsauthor, or like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/CassandraSamuelsAuthor.

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  Reviews can help readers find books, and I am grateful for all honest reviews. Thank you for taking the time to let others know what you’ve read, and what you thought.

  You’ve just read Book #1 in my Hearts series.

  If you liked this book, you may like my debut book A Scandalous Wager.

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  ISBN: 9781489259745

  Title: Collector of Hearts

  Copyright © 2018 by Cassandra Samuels

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises (Australia) Limited, Level 13/201 Elizabeth Street, Sy
dney, NSW, Australia, 2000.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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