The Reluctant Suitor

  “You may know the man better by the name of Riordan Kendrick.”

  “Colonel Kendrick who gained fame as a hero in our confrontations with Napoleon?” Colton asked in amazement.

  “The very same.”

  “He is kin to Lord Harcourt?”

  “Riordan Kendrick was Lord Harcourt’s grandson before the elder passed on. Riordan is about your age . . . or somewhere thereabouts,” Philana explained. “His father, Redding Kendrick, assumed the duchy when the old man died, but he rarely comes to this area except to whisk in and out on brief visits with his son. On the other hand, Riordan seems to enjoy the family’s country estate and has acquired it from his father who really has shown no interest in being this far away from London. But then, perhaps Riordan chooses to remain in the area because of Adriana.”

  Colton paused to take a sip of tea before offering the conjecture, “Obviously there has been no match made between this Riordan Kendrick and Adriana. Otherwise Roger wouldn’t seem so hopeful of winning the girl.”

  “From what Samantha and I have ascertained from those who know the man, Riordan is definitely interested in changing those circumstances.”

  Colton traced the tip of his finger over the teacup’s delicate handle. “And Adriana? How does she feel about the man?”

  “Oh, I believe she likes him very much. Of all the young men who come around, he has been the only one she will sit and converse with for hours on end. The man has a good head on his shoulders. Your father said as much. Of course, there are always others here vying for her time, trying to thwart Riordan’s attempts to win her. It’s a wonder some of those gallants didn’t show up here today, but then, many of them have been reluctant to intrude upon us after your father died. Frankly, prior to Sedgwick’s passing, I wouldn’t have put it past a number of them to have had spies watching Wakefield Manor to see in which direction Adriana would ride after leaving home, because it wasn’t long after she appeared that they’d begin arriving on some pretext or another.”

  “Considering the rarity of the prize, Roger has certainly set his sights high, too high in my opinion.” Frowning thoughtfully, Colton posed a question to his mother. “Can Adriana not see the apprentice for what he is?”

  “Adriana isn’t necessarily thinking of marriage when she allows the apprentice to join her and her companions. She has merely been reluctant to send him on his way because she believes he has suffered terrible hardships throughout his life. You know how she and Samantha always were as children, taking in stray animals and coddling them until they were healed and able to fend for themselves.” Philana lifted her slender shoulders, finding no need to explain their compassion to one who had seen it for himself. “In the face of Adriana’s gentle empathy, Roger has just presumed too much.”

  “I thought she’d be married by now. One look at her leaves me wondering why she isn’t.”

  “She will eventually,” Philana replied after a lengthy space and lifted her gaze to peer at her son over the rim of the teacup. Pensively, she sipped the brew again and, after a long silence, settled the cup back upon its saucer. “Your father certainly didn’t care for Roger. As much as he tried to treat the young man with kindly deference, Sedgwick couldn’t ignore the underlying tension between them. For one thing, Roger didn’t appear to like the way Adriana doted upon your father or, for that matter, the converse. Call it jealousy, if you will. It seemed that way to me whenever I’d catch Roger watching the pair of them together. I suppose on the reverse side of that, Sedgwick considered Roger an interloper. You know yourself that your father always held the girl in high esteem, far above her sisters. She never made any pretense of being prim or skittish, and I think Sedgwick admired that about her, among other things. In fact, when Adriana left him behind in a horserace to the manor, he boasted about it for days on end. No one had ever beaten him before, not even Gyles. But then, your father admired her mind just as much as her courage. Even with all those qualities, she is still quite beautiful, is she not?”

  A slow grin crept across Colton’s lips as he leaned back in his chair. “I’m totally astounded by the changes that have occurred in the girl since I left home. Never for an instant would I have guessed this afternoon that the lady who bolted into the foyer was Adriana Sutton. Without question, she has become a rare beauty.”

  “Quite so,” Philana agreed, managing to curb a pleased smile. “Of course, your father never wavered in the belief that she would come into her own one day, but there were other, more important reasons he had for securing her as your future wife.”

  “I know Father had my best interests at heart,” Colton reluctantly admitted. “But, at the time, I just couldn’t accept at face value what he was proposing. For a young man to be betrothed to a mere chit leaves much to chance, and I wasn’t willing to let fate fall where it would. I had to be certain that I wouldn’t come to regret the betrothal. . . .”

  “Are you saying you would now be more amenable to such a contract?”

  A casual shrug prefaced his reply. “I think it would greatly behoove me to get to know Adriana better ere I make any serious considerations along those lines. In one respect, she is right. We are strangers.”

  “Even though she was the only choice your father ever made for you?” Philana gently prodded.

  “I prefer making my own selections when it comes to a wife, Mother. I haven’t changed at all in that respect.”

  “Then you’re still opposed to the idea of taking her for your bride?”

  “For the present moment, yes, but that doesn’t mean I won’t come to desire her as my wife in time. Unquestionably, she is difficult to ignore.”

  Philana considered her son closely. “I can imagine that Roger Elston would go to great lengths to have the girl for his wife.”

  Colton flicked his brows upward and, with a half-angry snort, lent emphasis to the derision detectable in his tone. “A blind man could see the fellow was keen on having her . . . as if he has any rights at all where she is concerned. At every turn of the hand, he seemed eager to challenge me for even daring to talk with her until he went too far, and I have no idea why.”

  Taking in a deep breath, Philana braced herself for the moment ahead and then, after a brief uncertainty, plunged headlong into the quagmire of the situation. “Perhaps that is because Roger is aware the two of you have been promised to each other.”

  The hand Colton had lifted to his brow slowly lowered as he stared at his parent in astonishment. “What are you telling me, Mother?”

  Percy and Samantha turned in surprise at the harshness of Colton’s tone and looked from mother to son before exchanging a worried glance with each other. Sensing his wife’s rapidly mounting concern, Percy reached across the table and squeezed her thin fingers, silently reassuring her that all would work out well.

  Philana folded her own slender hands in her lap, trying to subdue their telltale trembling as she searched for the appropriate words to explain what had been done. The last thing she wanted was to drive him away from the family again. “Your father was convinced that, given enough time, you’d change your mind about Adriana and come to see her as a potential asset to the Wyndhams . . . the way he always saw her . . . even at the very beginning . . . and continued to see her for the rest of his life. Sometime after you left, he and the Suttons signed the nuptial agreement, pledging her to you.”

  Try though he might, Colton couldn’t subdue the sneer in his tone. “Leaving home didn’t profit me in the least, did it, Mother? I’m still committed.”

  “Not altogether,” Philana replied, her voice losing its strength under the strain and at the possibility of opening old wounds with what she was about to reveal. “If you abhor the agreement so much, you can free yourself from it. Your father went to great lengths to make allowances for such a provision in the contract. They were there at the very beginning, but you refused to listen. You have only to pay earnest court to the girl for ninety days, and if, after that length of time, you still wish t
o avoid marriage with her, you can nullify the agreement. It’s as simple as that.”

  Colton stared at his parent, reading the tension in her face. Only now did he realize how much she had aged during his absence. Although still very lovely in a priceless, elegant way, she had allowed the burdens of her family and her concern for him to etch her face with tiny lines. His breath eased outward in a long sigh. “Ninety days, you say?”

  “Ninety days of earnest courtship.” Philana stressed the point. “That is the stipulation your father required in exchange for your freedom.”

  Thoughtfully Colton sipped his tea. It was the standard practice that if he refused to consider the terms of the contract, even the three-month tenure, then he’d be forced by his own recognizance to compensate the Suttons for his offense, but he wasn’t worried about that. Even without the largesse of the marquessate, he had managed to save enough in his career as an officer to accomplish that feat. Still, by so doing, he’d be closing off future access to Adriana as her suitor, and that was precisely where his manly instincts rebelled. He’d be wiser by far to test the susceptibility of his own heart in a compatible relationship ere he severed his association with the lady completely. It was a simple fact that she was far too beautiful for any man to turn his back on, much less one who had grown tired of the tawdry women who had frequented the encampments of the soldiers, or the others he had visited off and on.

  “I suppose if I can endure the stress of endless skirmishes for sixteen years of my life, I can suffer through three months of courtship with an utterly beautiful young woman.” He allowed a meager smile to convey his scant attempt at humor. “But after my lengthy experience as a bachelor, I’m afraid I’ll have to relearn the art of chivalry. There wasn’t much need for it in our encampments.”

  Philana lowered her gaze to hide the suspicions that flared within her mind. At times, her husband had voiced his concerns about the kind of life their son was mayhap leading when he wasn’t battling the enemy. Each camp had its share of harlots and loose women, he had fretted, and after so long a time, and no matter how much a father might wish otherwise, a man far from home would have difficulty remaining indifferent to temptations constantly at hand. Carousing with strumpets was hardly the way of life one expected of an exemplary existence, but, as parents, they had been unable to hope for anything better.

  Colton cocked a querying brow at his mother. “Does Adriana know about this agreement?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  All too clearly he remembered the coolness in the girl’s tone at odd and sundry times. “I take it that she’s none too thrilled by the arrangement.”

  “Adriana will fulfill her part of the bargain to please her parents.”

  “You mean that she’d actually agree to marry me just to satisfy them?”

  “The girl will do the honorable thing. . . .”

  “Though she may thoroughly loathe me?”

  “She doesn’t loathe you. . . .”

  “Pray tell, why not?” he demanded, and then couldn’t help but scoff. “Don’t tell me she has forgotten the vehement protests I made the day I left. If I discerned anything in her manner today, then I’m willing to wager that Adriana is still bristling over the incident.”

  “I’m afraid she was very much hurt,” Philana admitted. “After all, you were the one she and Samantha looked up to when they were both young. Had you been a god, they could not have adored you more. You must know that, considering the way they followed at your heels. Naturally, Adriana was wounded by your fierce rejection and could only believe you hated her. She blamed herself for your departure and suffered some chagrin until Sedgwick talked to her and explained that some young men like to make their own decisions in life and that your rebellion was mainly due to what he had tried to enforce. In most cases, time has a way of healing old wounds. After all, Adriana was only a child. Many things are forgotten along the path from youth to womanhood.”

  “While in Africa I learned that elephants do not forget. Though it’s true that Adriana was very young at the time of my infraction, I don’t think she has forgotten either. I definitely caught glimpses of a coolness in her manner toward me today.”

  “You’ll soon learn that Adriana is far more congenial toward friends than suitors. Sometimes I think the girl is just as averse to marriage as you are, but I believe that will change once she becomes convinced you are serious.”

  “Dearest Mother, though you may well desire a marriage between us as much as Father once did, you must understand that it may not come to fruition. I’ll not bind myself to a woman simply because she’s the primary choice of my parents. There has to be something more between us—”

  “Before we were married, your father and I were allowed no other choice but to accept the dictates of our parents,” Philana interrupted. “And still, not too long into our union, we came to realize that we loved one another deeply. I cannot believe you and Adriana aren’t meant for each other. Whatever your father saw in the girl initially, he became even more convinced of it after she grew into womanhood. He remained firmly committed to the idea that she’d be an excellent choice for you. Considering how much your father loved you, do you honestly think that he would’ve wanted you to be miserable married to a woman you’d eventually come to abhor?”

  “Adriana was no more than a child when Father arranged our betrothal!” Colton protested. “How in heaven’s name could he have imagined that she’d become anything but a gawky little twig?”

  “She has good blood and comes from a handsome family,” Philana insisted. “Her appearance was bound to improve . . . as you can see that it has!”

  “Father made his decision six and ten years ago, when she looked like a castoff collection of odd parts! Not even an accomplished seer could’ve foreseen the uncommon beauty she has today!”

  “Nevertheless, as you can see for yourself, your father’s predictions have proven accurate,” his mother stubbornly asserted.

  “Thus far,” Colton acknowledged tersely. “But that doesn’t mean that Adriana and I will come to love each other.”

  “Only time will establish what your feelings for one another will be.”

  He threw up a hand in frustration. “As you say, Mother, time will bear that out, but unless I am reasonably convinced that we can share some love or affection for one another, I shan’t be asking for Adriana’s hand in marriage. I refuse to go through life regretting the fact that I accepted someone else’s choice rather than my own.”

  “Have you . . . a choice in mind then?” his mother asked haltingly, fearful of what he would say.

  A heavy sigh slipped from his lips. “Thus far, I have found no woman to appease me or satisfy the demands of my heart.”

  “And what are they?”

  Colton shrugged, not knowing the answer to that himself. “Perhaps that is merely to fill the abyss I yet feel in my personal life.”

  Lifting her teacup to her lips, Philana held a steady grip on its delicate handle in an effort to hide the telltale trembling of her fingers. She felt a strong compulsion to suggest that Adriana would likely be the only one who could satisfy that void, but she knew her son would not appreciate such a trite statement, though it could very well prove to be true.

  After a long, thoughtful moment, Philana resettled her porcelain cup upon its saucer and announced quietly, “I shall leave you to decide when we should approach the Suttons about this matter, but know this, my son: Adriana’s appearance had little sway over your father’s judgment. He assumed it would improve, perhaps not to the degree that it has, but more than anything else, it was her character and intellect that he admired. The manner in which she and her siblings were brought up promised commendable behavior and principles, but in Adriana’s case those qualities have become jewels in her crown.”

  Feeling as if a trap were closing in around him, Colton glowered across the room until he realized he was staring once again at the portrait above the fireplace. In a way, it was like lookin
g at a reflection of himself; the resemblance was so very, very close, not only outwardly, but inwardly as well. His father had always had a mind of his own. Only Philana, with her soft, gentle ways, had been able to sway him one way or another. Colton had to wonder if Adriana would be as capable of softening his heart. As yet, no woman had ever succeeded.

  Other thoughts intruded, prodding him with spurs that made him mentally wince. How would he feel if he were to have a son as rebellious as he had proven to be? Would the day ever come when he would yield to arguments put forth by an offspring? Or would he hold firm to his own convictions and resolve, just as his father had before him?

  An inward honesty prevented Colton from offering dry, empty platitudes in defense of himself. Having been an officer nearly half his life, he knew he wouldn’t enjoy the prospect of being faced with revolt, even if it duplicated his own refusal to comply with his father’s wishes.

  Four

  * * *

  Now that Colton Wyndham was home and lord of the manor, he was deserving of chambers worthy of a marquess. Yet servants were still unpacking his possessions, freshening the linens on his bed and generally dusting and airing the several rooms that comprised his new, second-story apartments on the southernmost side of the house. When Colton expressed to Harrison a desire to find a quiet place to take a nap, the steward suggested that he retire to the room he had once occupied in his youth until the new accommodations were ready.

  Colton didn’t mind; he was too near exhaustion to care much where he slept. Just as long as he had enough privacy to doff his clothes and stretch out upon something approaching a serviceable mattress, he’d be content. After all the narrow canvas cots he had slept on during his military career, his old bed with its down-filled mattress would seem like a luxury. Thus, he stripped away his uniform and, in complete exhaustion, sprawled upon the bed that Harrison had had the foresight to send servants to turn down.