Sally James (32 page)

'You have Martin's horse to lead. I can sit astride,' she said. 'Thank you, for rescuing me,' she added hesitantly. 'I don't know how to thank you enough.'

He smiled at her, a devastating smile which caused her to drop her gaze and bite her lip to prevent herself from showing him how much she loved him.

'You could do as I ask,' he said softly, walking slowly across towards where she still sat on the log, and sitting beside her.

'What do you mean?' she asked, not daring to look at him, but he took her chin in his hand and forced her head round to face him.

'You could - go back to Mrs Johnson's Academy, or begin to learn in a different school. You could marry me.'

She looked up at him, startled, and at the warm look in his eyes she frowned.

'But - Annabelle,' she exclaimed, unable to believe he really had once more said those words she had never expected him to say to her again.

'She will be perfectly well again in six months,’ he said, laughing. 'Ladies in her interesting condition are apt to behave a trifle - capriciously.'

'In her - ? You mean - ?'

'Hadn't you guessed? That was why she fainted yesterday, when I was so concerned.'

Kate looked at him, a sudden horrid suspicion in her mind. 'But you - ' she began, and then blushed painfully.

Adam laughed. 'Is it mine? No, my love. Annabelle and I have never been more than friends. When we were young people such as my mother urged us to marry, but we didn't wish it. We were never in love. From the moment she met Frederick he was all she wanted.'

'Then why do you behave as though you are lovers?' Kate demanded angrily.

'It amuses us,' he said mildly. 'It began as a wager, to see how rapidly we could set tongues wagging,  It was so easy we didn't like to disappoint them.'

'But doesn't her husband mind?' Kate asked incredulously.

'He loves her, trusts her, and he knows she loves him. If it amuses her he is content.'

'Well, I would not allow - ' she stopped.

'You would not allow your husband to play such tricks on the
ton?
What sort of parson's mousetrap is it going to be with us, my love?'

'I won't marry you just because - ' Kate began, but found that her mouth had somehow been possessed by Adam's.

'No, my darling, I know you won't,' he said soothingly when he released her. 'Your grandfather's commands set up my hackles too. I no more enjoy being compelled to do anything than you do. I wanted to win you on my own, without his influence.'

'You
wanted
to marry me?' she demanded, unable to believe her ears. 'But you gave no hint of it! When?'

He laughed. 'It was a crazy feeling I had. Sometimes I thought it was no more than a dream. I'd seen a nymph, a gloriously beautiful, fresh nymph, and all I ever wanted was to hold her in my arms for ever. But my horse had gone, I couldn't sweep her into my saddle and ride off with her. Foolishly I walked away, and regretted it immediately. I think that goat had affected my brain rather than - shall we say a more delicate part of my anatomy?'

'Right then?' she demanded, incredulous. 'How could you? I was wearing the most appalling gown, and you thought I was a milkmaid!'

'I've always believed I'd be struck as if by a thunderbolt when I first saw the girl I'd marry. I didn't expect to be struck into cow pats!'

She chuckled. 'I think I was hit by the same thunderbolt,' she confessed, dimpling. 'Why didn't you tell me?'

'Would you have believed me?'

Kate considered this. 'Probably not,' she admitted.

'But it was only when I began to wonder why you were so hot to reject me that I began to ask what was the matter with me,' Adam said mournfully.

'Arrogant, determined to have your own way all the time, and so odiously convinced you were always right! You were always trying to teach me something!'

He laughed. 'Annabelle confessed she was a little forward when she talked about the lessons we still have to pursue,' he said thoughtfully. 'Can you really learn to love me?' he asked, ruthlessly bringing them back to the matter in hand. 'I haven't been so clumsy as to deter you from the notion of marrying me?'

'I - already do. Love you, I mean,' she said, and gasped as he leapt to his feet and swung her up in his arms.

'My dearest beloved Kate!' he exclaimed, and for some time she lost herself in the renewed delights of his kisses.

'Adam,' she sighed when he at last released her. 'Your mother, she'll hate it!' she said slowly.

'She has been trying to push me into offering for one or another girl for years,' he said cheerfully. 'I think the three of us are rather alike, we don't appreciate being coerced into doing anything, even when it's something we want to do. She likes you, and will welcome you, once we make it clear we are determined. She hated the way your grandfather was trying to dictate to us, but she does like you, Kate, and will soon come to love you. Besides, I mean to suggest to her that she would enjoy living in Bath. She would prefer it, and it is near enough to Rhydd Manor for us to see her often. I trust you wish to make our main home there?'

'Yes, indeed, I love it!'

'So that is why you are accepting me?' he teased, and she had to spend some time convincing him this was not so.

'When?' he asked some time later.

Somehow all thoughts of returning to Bath had flown, and they were sitting on a log, their arms round one another's waists, indulging in kisses and caresses that were both tender and passionate. Even his earlier embraces had not prepared Kate for these delightful sensations.

'I'm eager to begin those further lessons at once, and it's as well for you it's not a hot summer's day. And the fire you lit might not keep us warm,' he added, glancing across at the smouldering heap that had once been a cottage.

She chuckled. 'Do we have to wait for the year of mourning to be up?' she asked wistfully.

'By no means! You don't want a huge Society wedding at St George's, do you?'

Kate shuddered. 'As quiet as possible,' she said. 'Just a few friends, Aunt Sophie, and I suppose Sir Edward. And do we have to ask his children? I'd like to ask Chloe. It might help her to forget Martin. And Annabelle of course.'

'It's turning into a party,' he groaned.

Kate laughed. 'All I want is you,' she whispered softly as he lifted her on the back of the big horse. 'And then can we spend the summer at Rhydd Manor?' she asked diffidently. 'I have had so many ideas for it, and I never thought I would be able to use them.'

'I said it was my house you wanted,' he said with a laugh, and when she smiled tantalizingly at him exclaimed in mock annoyance and halted their horses so that once more he could demonstrate to her that nothing except themselves mattered.

Copyright © 2007 by Marina Oliver

Originally published by Robert Hale [UK] (ISBN 978-0709082453)

Electronically published in 2012 by Belgrave House/Regency Reads

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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.