Loftus didn’t strike Colin as the selfless type. Seeing his doubt, his lordship confessed, “My wife dotes on her. Before Lady Rosalyn arrived, my lady was always after me to return to London. She hated the country. Dragged me back to Town every chance she could and made me miserable between times. However, since Lady Rosalyn arrived, I’ve been allowed to hunt to my heart’s content. I want my wife happy. Besides, you will represent me well in the Commons. You know your place. You understand how the world works.”
Colin could have confessed that he didn’t believe that the purpose of the House of Commons was to represent the aristocracy. But he knew he’d be speaking to a wall. Like all nobles of Colin’s acquaintance, Loftus assumed everyone would hop to his command. Colin wasn’t fool enough to say anything that would cause the offer to be withdrawn.
In fact, marriage to Lady Rosalyn was suddenly sounding like a capital idea.
“I was thinking I needed a wife,” Colin said, warming up to the idea. He should be able to work his way around her prickliness. Of course, once they were married, they didn’t have to spend time together. He could live his own life in London, and she could manage Maiden Hill and entertain Lady Loftus.
His lordship clapped his hands together. “Good! The seat is yours, that is, once you and Lady Rosalyn are duly married—”
“But the seat should be mine!” Shellsworth stepped between Colin and Loftus’s desk. “I’ve busted my back, done everything you’ve asked me to do with the expectation of being rewarded with that seat.”
All goodwill vanished from Loftus’s eye. In its place was the shadow of a vindictive temper. “Shellsworth, I’ve made my decision. Don’t push me.”
For a second, the lawyer appeared ready to fight, and then he crumpled. “Yes, my lord.” He stepped out of Colin’s way.
“Very well,” Loftus said. “Now, mind you, Mandland, I expect you to treat our Lady Rosalyn well. I know she likes to pull on the bit, but use a gentle hand and she’ll bend to you.”
“I’m certain,” Colin agreed. He also knew without a doubt Lady Rosalyn would not like being compared to a horse. Nor did he think she would be overjoyed at knowing they had been planning her future. “What happens if she refuses my offer? I have no control over her acceptance, and I will still want the seat.”
“She won’t refuse,” Loftus answered.
“She might,” Colin said. “She has a mind of her own.”
“Then it will be your job to change it. Perk up, Mandland, she wants Maiden Hill. She wouldn’t think of saying no. Come along now. Let us return to the ladies.” He came out from behind his desk and walked out of the room, ready to inform Lady Rosalyn of his decision.
Matt caught Colin’s arm. He whispered hurriedly, “Have you thought about this, and do you truly understand what it means?”
“I want the title,” Colin answered. “The end justifies the means.”
“But the end may be a long way off. In fact, until death you do part.”
Colin laughed. “With Lady Rosalyn’s temperament, that could be tomorrow.” Gleefully ignoring the glower Shellsworth threw at his back, he reassured his brother, “Don’t worry. Lady Rosalyn certainly can’t be more of a trial than the French were.”
“I wouldn’t place a wager on that,” was Matt’s serious response.
Chapter Four
Rosalyn stood the moment she heard the gentlemen outside in the hall. Lady Loftus rose with her. Rosalyn held out her hand, and her dear friend gave it a squeeze.
“Everything will be fine,” her ladyship repeated, as she had continually for the past half hour or so. Rosalyn prayed she was right.
Lord Loftus was the first through the sitting room door. His smile was full of confidence, and the moment his eyes landed on his wife, he gave her a nod. Lady Loftus released her breath with a sigh of relief. “It will all be fine,” she said with more assurance than before.
Then the Mandland brothers entered the room. Reverend Mandland appeared gravely concerned. She looked to the colonel. He was smiling.
She didn’t see any sign of the deed. Her one hope was that Mr. Shellsworth still had it.
The slam of the front door broke the silence.
“What was that?” Lady Loftus asked.
“Shellsworth,” her husband answered. He gave a dismissive wave. “You know his tiffs.”
“He’s upset? Should we talk to him?” his wife said.
“I will later,” Lord Loftus said. “After he has had a chance to regain his senses.”
Rosalyn’s heart dropped to her feet. The lawyer would not have left if he had the deed. She had lost.
Lord Loftus looked to the colonel. “Well?” he prompted. “Get on with it.”
A flicker of irritation crossed Colonel Mandland’s face, so swift and brief that Rosalyn could have imagined it. Certainly, Lord Loftus didn’t notice. However, having lived most of her life swallowing the will of others, Rosalyn understood immediately. The colonel was being pushed, and he was not a man who liked being pushed.
She also sensed the “push” did not bode well for her.
Lady Loftus let go of her hand and moved to stand beside her husband, leaving Rosalyn alone to face Colonel Mandland.
“You won,” she said quietly.
There was a beat of silence. He said, “This isn’t a situation where either of us wins. We both lose something. I lose goodwill; you lose your home.”
Yes, she did. The thought of leaving the sweet haven of the Ribble valley almost broke her. Her throat ached as she forced back disappointment. She was a Wellborne. They were made of stern stuff. Had she not proved that over and over again?
“Life is not a fair game,” she said, her voice tighter than she wished. She offered her gloved hand. “Congratulations, Colonel. Maiden Hill is a wonderful estate.”
He glanced down at the proffered hand and then raised his gaze to meet hers. For the first time, she noticed his eyes weren’t dark but a bluish gray, like storm clouds.
“Lady Rosalyn, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
Rosalyn stood still, uncertain if she’d heard him correctly or if she was growing as fanciful as Covey. She gave her head a shake to startle her senses. She’d thought he’d asked her to marry him?
“Oh, my dear, that is so wonderful!” Lady Loftus said in ringing tones. She threw her arms around Rosalyn. “You are going to be married, married, married!”
He had proposed to her.
All her life, she had waited for a proper proposal of marriage, and now she had one—from a man she disliked and distrusted. A man who’d taken everything of value away from her.
A man her closest friends obviously felt she should accept. Lord Loftus grinned like the village fool. He’d planned this and felt he’d done her a tremendous favor.
Did everyone really know so little of her?
She glanced at Colonel Mandland and knew in an instant he expected her to throw the proposal in his face.
Rosalyn wasn’t going to let him down. Gently, she eased out of Lady Loftus’s teary-eyed embrace and said witheringly, “Marriage? To you?”
“Considering the other two men in the room are already married, you are left with me.”
His brother said his name as if to chastise him, but Rosalyn overrode his words. “Oh, you mean they aren’t taking part in the farce?”
Was it her imagination, or was there a gleam of admiration in the colonel’s eyes?
Lord Loftus bullied himself right in, “My dear, is that any way to answer a man’s honest proposal?”
“Honest?” Rosalyn countered. “There is not an honest word in him.”
Colonel Mandland clutched his chest and pretended to be having an attack. “You wound me, my lady,” he mocked. “I am devastated. I shall be forced to repair to the country and nurse my damaged heart.”
Rosalyn motioned a hand in his direction, silently encouraging Lord and Lady Loftus to see for themselves what sort of man he was. “Do I need to say more?
”
“Does this mean you don’t want to marry me?” Colonel Mandland asked, tossing aside the role of wounded suitor.
“It means I would rather see you boiled in oil by wild natives,” Rosalyn returned levelly.
“My dear!” Lord Loftus said, both he and his wife equally shocked by her bluntness—especially to a proposal they had obviously encouraged.
But Colonel Mandland had a different reaction. He tilted back his head and laughed. The sound of it caught Rosalyn off guard. His whole countenance was transformed. He was a handsome man to begin with, but laughter made him a god.
His brother started chuckling, too—and then both brothers were laughing.
“You know,” the Reverend said, “she may be the best thing for you. I’ve never seen anyone so handily put you in your place.”
The colonel agreed with him before addressing Rosalyn. “My lady, I don’t think wild natives are going to overtake the Valley any time soon. However,” he went on, sobering, “you wish to live at Maiden Hill. I hold the deed. Marriage gives you what you want. It’s very simple.”
“I’m no green goose,” she said. “Why should you agree to a marriage that gives me everything and you nothing?”
“Oh, she is definitely on to you, Colin,” Reverend Mandland said, wiping a tear from his eye.
“Nor is she afraid to ask the hard questions,” his brother concurred. “I like that, Lady Rosalyn. You are right, I will receive something—”
“Don’t tell her!” Lord Loftus ordered.
“His lordship has offered me a seat in the House of Commons if I marry you.”
Lord Loftus groaned his frustration out loud. “Why did you tell her that, man? No woman wants to hear something so blunt.”
He was right.
When the colonel had first proposed, for one magical second, Rosalyn’s heart had leaped in her chest. He was exactly the sort of man she had longed for—strong, intelligent, arrogantly confident…and very, very handsome.
However, life was not fairy dreams. Even the chivalrous concept of love was a fantasy. Hadn’t her mother proven that?
No, better she had both feet planted firmly on the ground, and apparently the colonel harbored no romantic notions, either. She could almost forgive him the blunt honesty…but, oddly, not the lack of romance. “Thank you for paying the compliment of speaking to me as an equal,” she said to Colonel Mandland. “Better I know now than discover after we married about Lord Loftus’s bribe, however well-intentioned it was.”
“We want you to be happy and stay with us,” Lady Loftus said. She pulled Rosalyn closer to the colonel as if sizing them up as a couple. “You and Colonel Mandland would make a very good match.”
“Yes, very good,” her husband agreed. “You are both long-legged, have good wits, all your faculties. Your children would be lookers.”
“My lord,” Lady Loftus complained, “you are making them sound like horses.”
“Well, that’s how it is done,” her husband said. “You wouldn’t want a mismatch. The children would be ugly. And you know the Mandlands are good breeders. Look at the Reverend there.”
Hot color flooded Lady Loftus’s face. “I am so sorry, Reverend. My husband speaks his mind a bit too often.”
“No offense taken,” Reverend Mandland said with his customary courtesy, and then he added, “but your husband is right. We are good breeders.”
His brother smiled in agreement, and Rosalyn had had enough. This may be some sort of a jest to them, but she had better things to do with her time and her life.
“Thank you for your—” She paused. Should she say kind? Not hardly. Factitious? More the word, but definitely undiplomatic. “—offer,” she said. “Regretfully I must refuse it. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to return home to make preparations for moving my household to Cornwall. Good day to you all.”
Lady Loftus made a soft moue of disappointment. Rosalyn didn’t wait. She marched to the door, head high, her back straight as a poker. She may not have a home, but she still had her pride.
Harkness waited for her in the front hall with her bonnet. She tied the ribbons into a bow as he opened the door. She was just preparing to leave when she heard a step behind her.
Colonel Mandland.
He didn’t speak but took her arm and led her out onto the front porch landing. Closing the door behind him, he said, “You are making a mistake.”
“Because I’ve refused you?”
“No, because you are letting your pride get in the way of what is an opportunity for both of us. So we marry.” He shrugged. “We can live separate lives. You can go on as you always have, controlling society in the Valley with an added advantage. You will also have the protection of my name.”
“What do you receive in return?” she asked.
“I want a knighthood, Lady Rosalyn. To someone born an earl’s daughter that may seem presumptuous, but it is a new age. In these modern times, a man can make something of himself if he has the right connections. The Commons seat will give me that.”
His voice dropped intimately. “Marry me, my lady, and I will see you want for nothing. In fact, I’m fairly well off now, but one day, I will be a rich man. I’m intelligent and I work hard. All I own will also be my wife’s.”
Rosalyn was taken aback. Here was a man who didn’t wait for the world to come to him. His ambition attracted her…almost too much. It was as if the devil knew her innermost desires and had created this man as the lure.
She took a step back. “A woman owns nothing, even in this day and age, sir. I’m sorry, I can’t marry you.”
“Can’t? You won’t,” he corrected, his frustration obvious.
With an impatient sound, she signaled for Old John to drive the pony cart forward. This conversation was ludicrous.
“You are making a mistake,” Colonel Mandland said, behind her, his voice low.
“Perhaps,” she agreed and then knew she had to say something or it would all roil inside her the rest of the day. “The truth is, Colonel, I believe marriage must account for something more than unbridled ambition.” Truth rang in her words, and she thought of her mother, who had been coerced to marry her father for a title and prestige and who had never found happiness. Suddenly dark memories and doubts came rolling back.
She changed the subject. “You will give me a week to pack?”
“Of course,” he replied, equally stiffly.
“Thank you.” She escaped to the pony cart and knew without looking back that he watched her leave.
Matt came out on the step with both of their hats. “You weren’t successful.”
“Yet,” Colin corrected. “She’s interested.”
“She didn’t appear that way to me,” Matt said.
Colin smiled. “Then she will be interested,” he amended. “I must give her time to grow accustomed to the idea. But she isn’t indifferent, Matt.”
“Brother, the woman is cold to you.”
“Would you care to place a wager on it?” Colin challenged. “She’ll come to her senses. She has no choice.”
“They always have a choice,” his brother answered, “and I will tell you something else I’ve learned from years of being married—they will always surprise you.”
“She’s already done that,” Colin confessed. “There’s more to her than meets the eye. She’s an attractive package, but that wit of hers…” He shook his head. It had been a long time since a woman had engaged his mind as well as his body. “In the end, she’ll come around to me. Whether we like it or not, there is something between us,” he said thoughtfully.
“I saw no sign of it. But then, you always were optimistic when it came to women.” Matt handed Colin his hat. “So, are you going to be camping on her doorstep?”
“My doorstep?” Colin corrected. They walked to their horses. “No, I think I’ll have others speak for me. Right now, she’d slam the door in my face, and I can only let her get away with that once.”
“So you ar
e setting up a siege, are you?” Matt said.
Colin paused before swinging up into Oscar’s saddle, and then he smiled. “Yes, I do believe I will.”
With that the two brothers rode back to the parish rectory.
Rosalyn found the next three days very hectic. Word traveled fast in the Valley. ’Twas said you could sneeze in the morning on one side of Clitheroe and by noon everyone would know you had a cold. She discovered firsthand the saying was true.
Within a day, her friends and neighbors had heard not only that she was leaving but also that she had refused Colonel Mandland’s proposal—something that shocked and surprised them all.
“Don’t you want to marry?” Mrs. Sheffield asked. She was the mill owner’s wife and was one of a long line of callers. She was accompanied by her friend Mrs. Blair.
“Marriage to a stranger is an affront to the sacrament,” Rosalyn replied coolly. By now, she’d had a good deal of practice at defending her position.
“He is very handsome,” Mrs. Blair observed.
“Handsome is as handsome does,” Rosalyn murmured. “Would you care for another glass of sherry?” Mrs. Blair rarely refused.
There were also those who came specifically on Colonel Mandland’s behalf. Lady Loftus was a daily visitor, and once she even dragged along the colonel’s sister-in-law. Mrs. Mandland was quiet and reserved. She was someone Rosalyn didn’t know well but respected.
However, as Mrs. Mandland was leaving, she did say she hoped Lady Rosalyn would give her brother-in-law’s proposal some consideration. “He needs a wife.”
“But must it be me?” Rosalyn questioned.
Even several of Colonel Mandland’s former tutors from Stoneyhurst paid her a call and offered character references.
“I thought he was considered rather headstrong in his youth?” Rosalyn said to Mr. Dalyrimple, an ancient man with rheumatism.
“A lad…with spirit…is not always…a bad thing,” the gentleman said, groaning between words. “Without it, he would not…have served against the French…so well.”
She could not argue that point.
She did, however, notice the one person who did not call was Colonel Mandland himself.
The Seduction of an English Lady Page 5