When the conveyance halted outside Randwulf Manor, Colton briefly alighted and cordially offered his adieus to his sister and brother-in-law. He spoke mutedly to Bentley a moment and then climbed back into the landau.
Adriana could hardly ignore Colton’s efforts to secure their privacy or the fact that he had chosen to ensconce himself beside her rather than in the opposite seat. His gray eyes glowed with the reflected light of the carriage lanterns as he watched her unrelentingly for a lengthy space, heightening Adriana’s tensions until she could hardly bear the suspense.
“Is something amiss?” she asked in a voice that quavered.
Even in the meager light, her unparalleled beauty proved a strong lodestone from which Colton could not drag his gaze. “Nothing untoward, Adriana. I merely wanted to talk with you privately for a few moments. We haven’t been able to do much of that lately, and I thought it especially needful tonight.”
“Why tonight?”
Colton canted his head, considering how best to approach the subject. Although in the deep recesses of his mind he had sensed that something had been troubling Adriana for some weeks now, it had taken the miller to awaken him to the realization that the radiance had gone out of her smiles. “My concern has much to do with what Roger said this evening.”
Adriana managed a nervous little laugh. “You shouldn’t let what he said bother you, Colton. You must know he would enjoy having his revenge upon you in any manner available to him. What he said was utter nonsense.”
The marquess remained silent for a long moment before asking her outright, “Should I believe you’re displeased with me or our courtship?”
“Nooo . . .” she moaned, and then cringed in chagrin, fearing she had sounded much like Melora when she hadn’t been able to cope with some minor adversity. Averting her face in embarrassment, Adriana directed her gaze toward the moonlit, snow-patched hills looming in the distance. The fact that they were going in the opposite direction from her home had not escaped her attention. In a voice fraught by emotion, she asked, “How can any woman be displeased with you, Colton? If I can discern anything from the countless rumors being bandied about, you have become the dream of every woman living in the area.”
“Is that the way you feel about me?”
Adriana groaned within herself. If he only knew how her heart ached for fear of losing him, he wouldn’t even consider asking such a question. “I have always held you in the highest esteem.”
“Even after I left home?”
Rather than leave herself open to his unyielding stare, Adriana lowered her gaze to her lap and began toying with the decorative beadwork on her purse. “I must admit that even at so young an age I was wounded by your harsh refusal to consider me suitable for your future wife, Colton. There are some young girls who cherish a vision of a handsome knight in splendorous armor and dream of that one marrying them and carrying them off to some wondrous place. That fantasy was shattered for me the day you left home. The fact that you had always been my hero made your rejection all the more painful, but you must remember that I was merely a child and didn’t fully understand your anger.”
“Let me look at you, Adriana,” he cajoled gently, but when she complied by lifting her head, his brows gathered in perplexity. The tears glistening in the long, silken lashes were difficult to ignore. Laying a lean hand alongside her cheek, he gently wiped away a droplet with his thumb. “What is troubling you so much that you feel a need to cry?”
Embarrassed because she couldn’t contain her emotions, Adriana responded with a frantic shake of her head. “I’m not!”
His hand moved downward to the creamy column of her throat, and he had cause to marvel at the rapid pulse he felt beneath his palm. She was far more upset than she wanted to admit.
Soothingly he stroked a thumb beneath the delicate structure of her jaw. “It hasn’t rained in days, Adriana, and yet I can plainly see your lashes are wet. If those aren’t tears, then what would you have me believe they are? Particles of snow?”
Adriana recognized the threat of her emotions welling forth in greater volume and sought to turn aside, but his hand, gentle yet unyielding, remained on her throat, refusing to allow her to escape his close inspection. She could do nothing but submit to his probing gaze.
“Please tell me why you’re crying,” he murmured pleadingly.
She brushed awkwardly at the tiny rivulets streaming down her cheeks, angry at herself for being so vulnerable in his presence. “Please, Colton, just let me go.”
“I will when you tell me the reason for your dejection,” he bargained gently.
Blindly fumbling at the drawstrings of her handbag, Adriana tugged it open and sought to find her handkerchief, but to no avail, for the dainty, lace-trimmed cloth was no longer there. She realized that Samantha had failed to return it. “I really don’t wish to talk about this now,” she mumbled miserably, drawing her beaded purse closed again. “My tears have nothing to do with our courtship.”
Removing his hand from her throat, Colton drew a clean handkerchief from the inside pocket of his frock coat and pressed it into her palm. “On the contrary, Adriana. I think our courtship is at the very heart of your gloominess, and if you’d care to enlighten me, I’d be most grateful. . . .”
A disconcerted shake of her head was her only response.
A heavy sigh slid from Colton’s lips. “I won’t pressure you about this matter any further, Adriana. If your parents know why you’re so miserable, perhaps they’d be willing to enlighten me.”
“Please, Colton, don’t trouble them,” Adriana pleaded, wiping at the tears that refused to be checked. “ ‘Twould only distress them to know that you’re upset with me. Just take me home and leave me to my misery. The matter is of no real importance.”
“On the contrary, Adriana, it is to me,” he countered, “and if I am upset, it’s only because you are, and yet I’m unable to fathom what has distressed you. Besides, after Roger’s attack, I can’t leave you in such a state at Wakefield Manor without your parents’ suspicions being aroused. They’ll likely think I’ve seduced you. . . .”
An abortive laugh escaped her. “Oh, I’d be able to assure them that you’ve been a perfect gentleman, so perfect I’m sure you can’t wait for our courtship to end. The sad fact is that nothing at all has changed since you left home to escape your father’s edict.” She cast her teary gaze downward at she entwined her fingers. “You feel no more affection for me today than you did then.”
“That’s not true, Adriana,” Colton argued, wondering how she’d react if he were to tell her just how often he woke from his dreams in a rutting heat, all because of a pressing desire to make love to her.
Adriana blew her nose daintily in the handkerchief he had provided and then, in a voice fraught with tears, offered a solution to her problem. “I dislike this pretense we’re going through, Colton, and have decided that it would be best if I released you from your commitments. Henceforth from this night, you may go your way without worrying about our courtship. I want no more of it. Indeed, I can bear no more of it! ‘Tis bruising my heart, and I cannot continue.”
“You’re not being rational, Adriana,” Colton argued. Reaching out a hand, he rested it gently upon her forearm as he sought to calm her. “Please, love, you’ll feel different on the morrow.”
“No, I won’t! I’ll feel exactly the way I do now!” she cried, throwing off his hand. Her voice broke with emotion as she demanded, “Please! Just d-don’t call me your love. I’m n-not your love . . . nor have I e-ever been.”
“Adriana, for pity’s sake . . . be reasonable,” Colton pleaded and tried to draw her toward him.
“I’m freeing you from your commitment, Colton,” she declared resolutely, shrugging free. “There’s no more to be said. The courtship is entirely finished between us!”
Colton launched a strenuous protest. “You cannot absolve me of my obligations to my father. . . .”
“Well, I do-oo!” Adriana insist
ed, her voice catching rather weirdly, this time in a hiccup. “I don’t w-want to continue with this travesty a-any longer. I tell you it leaves m-me fretting.”
“Seeing Roger again has obviously distressed you,” Colton reasoned decisively, leaning back in his seat. “A strong toddy will help soothe you. I shall ask Charles to prepare you one once we reach Wakefield.”
“I shan’t drink it!”
Ignoring her retort, Colton braced an elbow on the armrest beside him and laid two fingers aside his cheek as he braced his thumb beneath his chin. Peering intently into the darkness beyond the window, he stated doggedly, “I intend to discuss this matter with your father, Adriana. If you’re upset because of Roger, then I’m sure your parents will agree that the two of us must avoid any place where there’s even a remote possibility that we’ll meet up with the miller.”
“I d-don’t w-want y-you to discuss anything w-with them! Don’t you understand?”
Elevating a dark brow, he turned his gaze on her once again. “Should I then believe, dearest Adriana, that you’re upset solely with me?”
“I’m not your dearest. So d-don’t call me that!”
“On the contrary, you are my dearest, far more mine than any other’s, I’ll warrant,” he stated with finality and received a mutinous glower for his declaration.
“I’m n-not s-saying anything more to you, Colton Wynd-h-ham.”
“You needn’t, my dear. I’m quite capable of discussing this matter with your father, and to great length, if need be. To my knowledge, I’ve treated you with all the deference of a dedicated suitor and have given you no reason to be annoyed with me. Yet it seems you are. I can only hope your father can enlighten me as to what more you may be expecting from me, because at the moment I find myself thoroughly bemused.”
Adriana glared back at him in the gloom. “I forbid you to speak to my father!”
Colton slid his now little-used cane from its niche beside the seat and rapped the handle against the carriage roof before offering her a succinct smile. “Nevertheless, my dear, I intend to . . . with or without your permission.”
Adriana sought to present her back to her stubborn suitor but found herself bound by her own cloak, which being of like fabric as the velvet seat, refused to yield. When the ties threatened to strangle her, she was forced to tug them loose. Upon throwing off the garment, she scooted close to the door in an attempt to distance herself from her companion, though it proved much more a mental separation than a physical one.
“You may ignore me if you wish, Adriana, but I can promise you ‘twill change nothing. I intend to talk with your father until I get this matter settled between us. I have no intention of ending our courtship unless he has reason to believe that your contempt for me is beyond the measure I can bear.”
When Bentley finally drew the steeds to a halt before the gray stone facade of Wakefield Manor, Colton alighted forthwith and turned to offer assistance to the lady, but with an eloquent toss of her head Adriana rejected his invitation. Promptly throwing open the door nearest her, she kicked out the step and scrambled down in a most unladylike fashion. Upon hearing Colton’s muttered curses as he stalked around the boot of the carriage, she whirled in the opposite direction and scurried toward the well-matched four-in-hand. In her eagerness to escape, however, she failed to note that the hems of both her chemise and lace gown had been snagged on the metal-forged step, resulting in the rending of both garments as she stalked rapidly away in a fair tizzy.
Upon rounding the end of the conveyance, Colton immediately espied the ensnared hems and the swiftly separating garments. Under more intimate circumstances, he’d have admired the lady’s scantily attired derriere till his eyes crossed, but he was sharply averse to the idea of allowing Bentley that same privilege.
Mentally cursing the lingering stiffness of his leg, he rushed forward as swiftly as he could in an effort to halt the vixen’s flight. “Adriana, stop!” he cried. “You’re tearing your garments!”
He caught her arm and promptly received for his trouble her beaded handbag across his face.
“Get away from me!” she shrilled.
“Dammit, Adriana, listen to me!” he barked irately, throwing up a hand to ward off another blow.
Missing him completely, Adriana swung her purse around again in a wide circle, unaware that she had also gained her freedom from the step. “Take your leave, sir, before I really lose my temper!”
His hand shot out and seized her wrist. “Stop this nonsense, Adriana! I have to tell you—”
With a snarl of rage she snatched her arm away and immediately became convinced that she had left a goodly portion of her skin in his grasp. She would not be at all surprised if she later found her wrist bruised. “Leave me alone, Colton Wyndham. I have nothing more to say to you.”
“Adriana, for pity’s sake, listen—”
“Bentley!” Glancing over her shoulder as she stalked toward the lead team, she discovered that she already held claim to the elderly driver’s slack-jawed attention.
His query was at best cautious. “Yes, m’liedy?”
“If you have a care for your master, you’d better take him home. And if he should desire to return here upon the morrow or any time thereafter, kindly ignore him. You may save him from getting a hole shot through his left leg.”
“Yes, m’liedy,” the servant meekly replied, but made no attempt to comply. Ducking his head deeper into his driving coat, he let matters take their course, for he had already learned that, at a time like this, it was far better to pretend daftness and delay the execution of such orders.
“Dammit, Adriana!” Colton barked irately. When she came around once again in full readiness to deliver another wallop with the purse, he was ready for it and flung out a hand to halt its flight. Angrily he indicated her skirts. “You’ve ripped your garments, and at the present moment, you’re showing off your backside to Bentley!”
Adriana gasped in shock, realizing she was definitely feeling a chill against her rear. Frantically she clasped a hand behind her back and groaned aloud at her predicament as it immediately came in contact with her scantily covered buttocks. Twisting about in a tight circle, she sought to catch hold of the far side of her severed skirt. Absurd as it was, her efforts left her more or less chasing her tail.
Bentley made an heroic attempt to ignore what was going on as he laid a broad hand over his eyes and lifted his shoulders to bring up the stiff collar of his dapper coat. It served to muffle his hearing, but the laughter, which intermittently shook his shoulders, was not so easily suppressed.
Adriana noticed the driver’s self-imposed restraints and gave up trying to preserve her modesty. Not caring in the least what Colton could see, she stalked toward the manor. He had, after all, viewed her completely naked on a pair of occasions.
Of a sudden, Adriana found herself facing the incensed marquess who, in spite of his past impediments, had outdistanced her in his zeal to halt her flight. Standing firmly rooted in her path with arms akimbo, he dared her to test his patience further by going around him.
Heaving a vexed sigh, Adriana peered toward the livery. “Bentley, are you aware that your master is annoying me?”
The driver parted stubby fingers ever so slightly, enabling him to peer at the lady without compromising her modesty overmuch. He managed a heavy gulp. “Well . . . I . . . well . . . maybe not, m’liedy.”
“ ‘Twould seem your master is proving himself very, very foolish. If you care a whit for his hide, you’d better drag him back into the carriage before I fetch my gun. I’d certainly hate to do him more damage than he suffered in the war. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, m’liedy.” Bentley decided he’d better not ignore her threat, considering that even as a small child, she had walloped his present master and even blackened his eye once when she had had enough of his tomfoolery. Scrambling down from the seat, he diligently avoided looking at the severed gown as he scurried toward his employer. “Milord, don’
t yu think we’d better go now? Her liedyship really seems displeased wit’ yu right now. Mayhap aftah she calms down a bit, yu can come—”
“Dammit, Bentley, this is none of your affair, so stay out of it!” Colton barked. “Now get back to the carriage where you belong!”
“Don’t curse at him!” Adriana cried and swung her heavily beaded purse around again, this time catching Colton in the eye and causing him to stumble back in pained surprise.
“What’s going on out here?” a male voice bellowed from the front portal.
Whirling away from Colton as he clamped a hand over his throbbing eye, Adriana ran into the opening arms of her father. Burying her face against his stalwart chest, she released a floodgate of tears.
Deeply concerned over his offspring’s welfare, Gyles settled an ominous glare upon the younger man as that one staggered toward them. “Sir, if you’ve harmed my daughter in any way, let me assure you, marquess or not, you won’t live to regret it. This time I’ll take matters into my own hands.”
Colton tried to focus his blurred, watery gaze upon the incensed earl. “From what I’ve been able to ascertain from your daughter’s gibberish, Lord Gyles, I believe the problem stems from the fact that the converse is true. I swear to you that, where she is concerned, I’ve closely adhered to a gentlemanly code of conduct and have returned her to your care in the same unspoiled condition.”
Adriana plucked at the lapels of her father’s velvet robe. “Papa, please, just send him away.”
“Has he hurt you, child?”
“No, Papa, he hasn’t touched me at all.”
Clasping a trembling hand to his brow, Gyles sighed in relief. After Roger’s attack, he had become ever wary. A moment passed before he managed to regain some measure of his equanimity. He was then wont to question her further. “Then, daughter, what has the man done to make you weep so?”
“He has done absolutely nothing, Papa. He has been a perfect gentleman. . . .”
The Reluctant Suitor Page 39