The Reluctant Suitor

  Smiling in satisfaction, Melora tossed an imperious glance toward Adriana. She was forever mindful of the amount of attention bestowed on her by her parents, other kinfolk, and friends in comparison to what her sisters received, especially since their father, because of common interests in hunting, riding, archery, and other pastimes, seemed to spend far more time with his youngest than he did his two older offspring. Melora never felt more gratified and victorious than when he bestowed lavish praise or testaments of love upon her in the presence of the other two. Yet she felt a sharp sense of disappointment when she realized that Adriana was oblivious to what was going on behind her. Her sister was staring almost wistfully through the diamond-paned windows overlooking the front lawns and the narrow lane that wended its way past their house toward the Wyndhams’.

  Unwilling to let this ambiguous affront go unrequited, Melora offered the conjecture, “I suppose Adriana’s wedding can’t be too far off now that Colton is back, Papa, unless of course she does something foolish, like allowing that scamp, Roger, to pop in unannounced as he seems inclined to do. I doubt that Colton is going to have enough patience for that, not after the countless battles he has been engaged in since the onset of his military career. From all reports, he was quite a warrior, dashing into danger ahead of his men. No wonder he was seriously wounded.”

  A sudden clatter of dishes on the tea table caused Gyles’s brows to gather in solicitous concern as he peered across the room toward his wife. “Is all well with you, my dear?”

  Christina nodded stoically, fearful of making any comment lest she betray her concerns. Since the early morning meal, both Roger Elston and Colton Wyndham had been preying heavily upon her mind, but it was her fear of the latter’s scarred appearance that had created her greatest anxiety. As much as Melora had sought information about the man, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to talk of his disfigurement, only that he had been seriously wounded. Bravely she offered a smile to her husband. “Would you care for a cup of tea, Gyles?”

  “Only if I can sit beside you and our daughters and drink in the warmth of your combined company.”

  Looping an arm possessively through his, Melora led him to the settee where he took a seat beside their mother. Melora claimed the only available spot next to him and then lifted a smug smile to her sister as that one turned from the window and approached. In an imperious manner, Melora indicated a chair across from them. “You’ll have to sit there, Addy. I know how you hate sharing Papa’s attention, yet ‘tis only fair that you do, considering how soon I’ll be getting married and leaving here.”

  Bestowing a glare upon her sister, Adriana settled into the proffered chair. Though she casually rejected Melora’s accusations of possessiveness as nothing more than something brewed from her sibling’s imagination, she was annoyed by the other’s tendency to shorten her name. “Don’t call me that, Melora. You know I dislike that moniker.”

  Melora dismissed her exasperated directive with a cavalier shrug of her shoulders. “Well, it suits you.”

  The dark eyes narrowed ominously. “It does not!”

  “Does, too!”

  “Girls! Girls! Behave yourselves!” Christina urged. “You know it isn’t becoming for ladies to bicker. The both of you sound like a pair of old scolds.”

  Melora offered a pretty pout for the benefit of their mother. “Just because I call Adriana a pet name now and then, she gets all riled and out of sorts. She’s so prickly.”

  Gyles cast a sidelong glance toward his fair-haired daughter in time to catch the superior smirk she tossed toward her younger sister. He also noticed how quickly her expression changed to a look of doe-eyed innocence when he made a point of clearing his throat to draw her attention.

  “Is something wrong, Papa?” Melora asked, making every effort to smile sweetly. At the moment, a grimace might have been easier for her to manage.

  Lifting his gaze reflectively to the ceiling, Gyles seemed to ponder the decorative molding with close attention. “Ladies shouldn’t make haughty faces either. One never knows when paralysis could strike.”

  “Haughty faces?” Melora repeated in a guise of angelic innocence. “Who . . . ?” She turned to her sibling with widened eyes, as if she were the one at fault. “Adriana, what did you do?”

  “Melora.” Gyles lowered his head and stared directly into the blue eyes that lifted in sweet confusion to meet his. Beneath his pointed stare, he noticed a red hue flooding into his daughter’s cheeks. “You know very well, my dear, that you dislike people calling you Melly. I’m inclined to think that neither Melly nor Addy is as lovely or befitting as the names your mother and I chose for you both. You’d perhaps benefit from the rewards of a more gracious behavior, Melora, if you wouldn’t deliberately go out of your way to antagonize your sister as much as you do, especially when you know Adriana detests that particular appellation.”

  “Are you saying . . . I’m not very gracious, Papa?” the petite beauty questioned hesitantly.

  “I’m sure Sir Harold thinks you are. Otherwise he wouldn’t have asked you to marry him. Still, there are times when you can be more than a little nettlesome to your younger sister.” As much as he had bitten his tongue to keep from challenging his second daughter in what had obviously become a sensitive area, he could no longer refrain from asking. “Did we coddle you so much before Adriana was born that you couldn’t bear to give up what may’ve become a coveted niche in the family? Should I think you’re resentful of her because she’s now the youngest?”

  “Oh, Papa, how could you even imagine such a thing!”

  “I do that on occasion when you seem the most spiteful, but please forgive me if I’m mistaken. I’m only trying to find some rationale for your occasional shrewishness. In any case, we’ll hear no more of it. From now on, you’ll refrain from calling your sister by anything other than what your mother and I do.”

  Somewhat chagrined that she had been reprimanded in front of one who, in her eyes, would always be a contender for her parents’ affection, Melora turned an outrageously smug smile upon Adriana, unable to resist using an address both their parents were inclined to use fairly often with each of them. “Dear child, how you do get into a snit over nothing!”

  “Melora,” Christina said in a softly muted tone, instantly claiming that one’s attention. Becoming the recipient of her daughter’s somewhat horrified, questioning stare, the older woman shook her head infinitesimally.

  It was a silent communication between parent and daughter, nothing more, nothing less, and yet Melora seemed to shrivel in mortification, for nothing seemed more shaming to her than realizing she had displeased her mother.

  Melora blinked away a start of tears as she rose and went to Adriana’s chair. Leaning down, she wrapped her arms around her younger sister’s shoulders. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I was being peevish. Will you forgive me?”

  “Of course.” Lifting a smile, Adriana reached for her sibling’s hand and gently squeezed it. “As you well know, I get that way at times, too, and must be chided.”

  The two women laughed, and the tensions were eased enormously as their parents joined them.

  Seven

  * * *

  Samantha’s not in the carriage with him,” Melora announced, with a full measure of astonishment evident in her tone as she peered out the front window overlooking the drive and glimpsed no one but the colonel in the halting conveyance. “What are you going to do? You can’t go with Colton without a chaperone.”

  “Really, Melora, must you always see a scandal burgeoning from every circumstance that isn’t up to your exalted standard?” Adriana needled, responding with a generous helping of sarcasm as she neared the drawing room door. “Though I seriously doubt Colton is even remotely interested in ravishing me, Bentley will be nigh at hand should it become necessary for me to scream.”

  “But Bentley is on top of the landau,” her sister protested.

  “As it should be. After all, Melora, he is their
coachman.”

  The simple logic of her younger sibling frustrated the petite woman. “Yes, and you’ll be inside all alone with Colton.”

  “Well, it happens to be daylight outside, and his lordship would be extremely foolish to force himself upon me when the door of his coach bears his family’s crest. Why, if he were to do such a thing, who knows what other people could see from their own carriages or wagons. Besides, we’re taking the three Jennings children to their mother’s funeral. I think he can be trusted to behave in a gentlemanly fashion long enough to deliver me to the Abernathys’, pick up the children, and then convey the four of us to the church and graveyard. Besides, I just can’t imagine his lordship doing anything foolishly untoward, at least what you seem to fear. If he assaults me, then Papa shall definitely instruct him on how to answer the minister as the marriage vows are being spoken.” She became a little irate that her sister could consider the son of Sedgwick Wyndham capable of such a deed. “Really, Melora, you think the worst of everyone except Sir Harold, and Colton is every bit the gentleman your fiancé is, perhaps even more so. After all, Philana is Colton’s mother, and we all know what a gracious lady she is.”

  “That doesn’t mean that Colton didn’t learn a way of life contrary to his upbringing while he was away. I’ve heard some shocking rumors about camp followers who service the soldier’s . . . ah . . . needs. You can’t make me believe Colton, as old as he is and as long as he has been away from home, hasn’t bedded down with some of them.”

  “You shouldn’t besmirch a man’s reputation on hearsay, Melora,” Adriana chided. “Were he a saint, you’d likely be wont to call him tiresome and unimaginative. I suggest that you give the man the benefit of a doubt until he proves himself a cad.” She didn’t dare indicate to her sister that she already had serious cause to wonder about the man’s propensities after their confrontation in the bathing chamber. Were she to be so foolish, Melora would run straightaway to their parents, claiming that Colton had exposed himself in front of her. She could just imagine her father’s hair standing on end as he blustered and irately deplored such shamelessness. It would definitely mean the end of the agreement between their families.

  Pausing in the vestibule, Adriana allowed Charles to settle her cloak about her shoulders. She briefly thanked the servant and then fluttered her fingers in a casual gesture of farewell to her sister. “I’ll see you later . . . if I’m not waylaid.”

  Smiling in puckish delight as she fairly flitted out the door, Adriana was pleased her timing allowed her to halt Colton in his progress to the front door. His uniform was just as neat and tidy as it had been earlier, making her wonder how many he actually owned to allow him to look so dapper all the time.

  “No need to come inside, my lord. I’m ready to leave if you are. Melora’s the only one home anyway, and I’d rather not have her curiosity appeased just yet. Sisterly love, and all that, you know.”

  “Something like you and Samantha?” he asked curiously as he handed her into the landau. From what he could remember of the three Sutton siblings, Adriana and his sister had seemed much more compatible.

  His companion skirted around his conjecture. “Perhaps not quite the same. Samantha and I get on famously most of the time.”

  She said no more, leaving Colton to wonder what had been said between the two. But then, were he to draw conclusions from his boyhood visits to Wakefield, the older sisters had always seemed a bit snooty toward the youngest, as if they just couldn’t be bothered by someone so young, thin, or gawky. It would’ve been more like the Melora of old to find some fault with her younger kin.

  In a few short moments, Colton was wont to think that Adriana came nigh to being angelic for the gentle, motherly care she exhibited toward the Jennings children as she bundled them up against the chilled breezes and slowly led the younger two to his carriage. He walked behind them with the older boy, watching her as she pointed out, named, and explained about the different animals the Abernathys kept in fenced areas alongside the walk. He was rather surprised to find himself inundated with strangely evocative impressions of what it would be like to be the lady’s husband and the father of her children. It certainly wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. Indeed, it was rather gratifying to know the lady suited him to the extent that he could imagine her as his wife and mother of his offspring.

  The Abernathys had gathered the other orphaned children into their large, many-seated, homemade conveyance, which had been built on a sturdy wagon base. After waving to the younger couple, they led the way to the small church, outside of which the funeral service was to be held, leaving Colton and Adriana to bring the deceased woman’s children. According to Mrs. Abernathy, the three hadn’t stopped talking about their ride in the fine carriage since their arrival. The change in the youngsters was remarkable. They were now neat and clean, garbed in new clothing, for which Colton had provided funds, and generally seemed content and definitely less fearful. The smaller two sat on either side of Adriana, and eagerly asked her questions. The eldest had chosen a place beside Colton and seemed no less inquisitive as he leaned back against the armrest and sized up the elder.

  “Did yu fight in the war like me pa?”

  “I was in the military probably longer than your father. Until recently I had made a career of it.”

  Joshua peered at him with new interest. “Where yu ever wounded?”

  “Yes, in the leg.”

  “Did yu come close ta dyin’?”

  Colton inclined his head briefly as he offered the boy a slanted grin. “Close enough to make me apprehensive.”

  “Apprehensive?” the boy repeated, perplexed. “What cha mean?”

  “Fearful.”

  Joshua seemed clearly taken aback. “Ya mean yu was sceered?”

  “Oh, yes. It’s quite natural for one to feel frightened of losing one’s life . . . or limb.”

  “Ya ne’er were in danger afore then?”

  “Yes, on the battlefield, but I had no time while I was fighting to think about dying. I was too busy trying to stay alive.”

  “Folks said me pa were a hero,” Joshua stated matter-of-factly. “I heerd ‘is friends tell me mum ‘at aftah ’ey brought ’er news ’e’d been killed. O’ course, ‘at didn’t make no ne’er mind ta me mum. She was jes’ skeered o’ what she’d be havin’ ta do aftah losin’ what li’l ’e’d been able ta send ‘ome.”

  Colton laid a comforting hand upon the boy’s shoulder. “From what I’ve heard about your father, I’m inclined to think he was a very admirable man, of whom a son can be extremely proud. I’m sure his memory will be beneficial to you in the future. Perhaps you can be a hero in your own way.”

  “Ya mean ta go off ta the war an’ be killed jes’ like ‘im?”

  Colton exchanged a smile with Adriana before returning his gaze to the boy and shaking his head. “No, Joshua, you don’t need to die to be a hero. You can be just as great a hero if you live. Heroes are people who are honorable and do good for their fellow man and their country without taking their own comfort into consideration. You can begin by watching over your brother and sister, teaching them right from wrong, protecting them from people who’d try to hurt them, and helping them with their everyday existence, perhaps lending assistance in bathing or dressing them, putting on their shoes, combing their hair. Being the eldest, you need to cherish and teach them, as your father cherished and taught you.”

  Adriana quietly listened as she combed her fingers idly through the girl’s pale strands. She could find no fault in Colton’s words. For the most part, they gave her hope and encouragement that the man’s heart was warmly sensitive toward the needs of the children. She could even imagine that he’d make a good father someday, but of course, whether that would also be for her own offspring remained to be seen.

  “Lord Randwulf was a hero in the war, too,” she volunteered as she bestowed a smile upon Joshua. “He fought to help save this country from the French forces who’d have likely made an attempt
to conquer us had they not been defeated.”

  “I wanna be a hero,” Jeremiah chimed in with a grin as he nestled close to Adriana. He jabbed a forefinger toward Colton. “Jes’ like ‘im. Then I could have a wagon jes’ like this one.”

  “Wagon, eh?” Colton chuckled.

  “I wanna be a hero, too,” Sarah declared timidly, and then chortled as Adriana tickled her chin. Hiding her face against the side of the woman’s breast, the girl peered at the man with one eye and then pointed upward. “Like pretty liedy.”

  “She is indeed a heroine,” Colton agreed as his eyes delved into the dark, silken-lashed depths. “Not only to numerous animals in the wild, but to three orphans in need of nurturing.” Speaking to her directly, he added, “You have a very motherly way about you, my dear.”

  His endearment brought a flush of color to Adriana’s cheeks and, in an effort to hide it, she lent her attention to the girl as she lifted her upon her lap. She busied herself rearranging the child’s golden ringlets and then, when she had finished, leaned back to smile into the youngster’s blue eyes. “You are so very pretty, Sarah. I have no doubt your father would have been proud of you, just as he was of Joshua and Jeremiah.”

  “ ‘At’s what me pa al’ays tol’ us, ‘at ’e were proud o’ us,” Joshua stated, and immediately had to brush a tear from his eye. “I wish maybe he wouldna’ve been a hero so he could be ’ere wit’ us today.”

  Resting a hand upon the boy’s arm, Colton squeezed it in silent empathy for what the youngster was feeling. Of a sudden, the child burst into sobs and threw himself upon the elder’s scarlet-clad chest. Adriana watched the pair, enthralled by the tender compassion Colton evidenced, for he slipped a comforting arm around the youngster and made no effort to protect his coat as he let the child weep upon it in overwhelming sorrow.

  Not many people attended the service. It seemed the dead woman had not been well liked or respected by her neighbors and acquaintances. As much as those who came conveyed their admiration for the father, they quietly defamed the woman for being a selfish, lazy sot who had done nothing for her children except to starve and keep them prisoners in a cold, dark shanty. Many who came expressed their astonishment at the changes that had occurred in the youngsters in so short a time. To all who were curious, Colton and Adriana praised the Abernathys for their dedication in not only caring for the Jennings children, but for all the other orphans they had taken in throughout the years. It was evident to all that the older children who’d been with the Abernathys longer were highly affectionate and respectful toward their adoptive parents, calling them Mama and Papa and answering Yes, sir, or No, ma’am.