The Reluctant Suitor (46 page)

They had proven redoubtable in their zeal to forge through the nearly impregnable throng that had been halted at the doors. The two opposing bodies pressed forward, the musicians and guests on one side and the matrons on the other, each group eagerly striving to slip past while unwittingly confining in a compact knot everyone who had been caught between.

Having found herself trapped in the crush of people, Adriana had felt her heart racing nearly out of control as she struggled desperately to cope with a fearful dread of severe confinement. Colton’s long, muscular torso had proven formidable in its steely hardness, and in rising panic, she had sought to free herself until she had heard him mutter a curse. Trembling uncontrollably and on the verge of bursting into tears, she had tried to placate his anger by apologizing and admitting her own horror of being crushed.

“I’m sorry, Colton, truly I am, but I can’t seem to catch my breath, and I fear I’m going to panic!”

At the time, Colton had had cause to recall an incident, which had happened a year or so before his departure from home. Adriana had come to Randwulf Manor to spend the night with his sister, and after dinner the two had set into playing hide-and-seek. As diligently as Samantha had searched, she had failed to discover the younger one’s hiding place and ran to look for her in another wing. Hearing screaming sobs moments later, Colton followed them to the guest room across the hall, where he discovered that Adriana had become trapped in a small chest after the latch had fallen shut behind her. In releasing her, Colton had found himself almost strangled by her fierce embrace as she shivered and wept. Thereinafter, she had been absolutely terrified of being enclosed in tight places or rigidly confined by some constricting force.

Pressed in from all sides in the ballroom, she had been nearly beside herself. Understanding her anxieties, he had settled his lips into her coiffure and, in a hushed, harried whisper, attempted to soothe her fears. “

Please, dearest, just calm down. I’m not angry with you but at myself for having my mind too much on other things. Just be confident that we’ll be out of this soon enough, and then you’ll be free, but for pity’s sake, Adriana, please keep still until we do. What you’re doing to me is giving
me
cause to panic . . . for fear I’ll embarrass us both once we’re out of this. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, just remember what you saw in the bathing chamber.”

For added emphasis, he had nudged his loins against her, causing her eyes to widen as he made her crushingly aware of his arousal. He had made no excuses for deliberately shocking her, merely peered down into her widening eyes as the dawning took effect.

Once the knot of people loosened enough to allow them to slip free, he had refused to let her fly lest he draw shocked stares from guests. Not having known what else to do, Adriana had stayed close in front of him, allowing her skirts to shield him from prying eyes as she led the way into the hall. She had thought they were safe then until a plump, matronly straggler scurried across their path in her eagerness to join her compatriots, forcing the brunette to an abrupt halt and, in turn, causing Colton to collide into the back of Adriana. The sharp gasp that had been snatched from her had closely emulated his. Had she sat upon a hot brand, she could not have jerked her hips forward any faster from the manly firmness she had felt against her buttocks.

Adriana heaved a sigh over her inability to cool her thoughts
or
her body. After doffing her gown, she draped it over a chaise and made her way into the bathing chamber. There, she wet a cloth, wrung it out, and laid it over the back of her neck. Her whole body was in desperate need of whatever cooling benefits the dampened linen could provide. Never in her life had she felt such burning heat in her cheeks or such quickening fires in the depths of her being as she had in that moment wherein Colton had nudged his hips deliberately against her. Why she hadn’t been outraged by his audacity was a mystery beyond her immediate comprehension. But then, even in her adult years, she had never been able to escape the inexplicable feeling of belonging to him.

Adriana heard her bedchamber door open and then close rather gently. Certain that Maud had come to lend her assistance, she felt a surge of relief. The woman could knead her shoulders and relax her as no one else could, at times leaving her feeling as limp as a rag doll, all cozy and calm and ready to face another challenge. . . . Except Adriana didn’t think she wanted her reserve tested by another delicious onslaught similar to that which she had recently experienced. Once was quite enough for one evening . . .

at least, until a marriage bound her to the man. Otherwise she couldn’t predict what would happen.

“Maud, you’re such a dear for coming to my rescue the very moment I needed you most,” she warbled.

“If you’d kindly massage my neck with scented rosewater, I’ll be able to return downstairs in fine form.

No one is as gifted at soothing frayed nerves as you are.”

Footfalls were muffled by the oriental rug cushioning the floor of her bedchamber, yet Adriana had been ensconced in the same rooms for most of her life, and she knew from the odd shadow cast onto the bathroom floor by the lamp burning near her bed that something definitely wasn’t the way it should be.

There was no evidence of a frilly cap adorning a rather large, frizzy head. Instead the shadow evidenced a fairly small head with locks closely clipped. . . .

A startled gasp escaped Adriana as she recognized the strangely distorted silhouette. Her chemise was a delicate combination of lace and satin, hardly worthy as a suit of armor. Its clinging tenacity caused her to snatch a towel over her bosom before she grabbed a bottle of essence. As the intruder stepped through the bathing chamber door, she whirled to face him.

“Get out of here, Roger, before I scream!”

The apprentice shrugged casually, unconcerned by her dictates. “I can’t do that, Adriana. I need you . . .

I want you . . . I
must
have you. No other woman will suffice.”

“You blackguard!”
Incensed, she threw the cut-crystal bottle at him, opening thin gashes along his cheek and earlobe.

Stumbling backward in retreat, Adriana thrust her arm out to indicate the path he should take to remove himself forthwith from her room. “Get out of here, Roger.
Now!
Or you will have to answer to my father.

So help me, if you dare touch me, you’ll never leave this room alive.”

Wiping away the blood trickling down his cheek, he advanced with purposeful strides as his eyes perused the lustrous fullness visible above the towel. “Your threats are useless, Adriana. I’m going to have you, just as I promised myself months ago! I’ll be long gone before your father comes up here, but if you think I’m afraid of him, I’m sorry to disappoint you. He’s an old man, after all.”

Adriana opened her mouth to scream, but immediately Roger leapt forward and clamped a hand across her lower face to stifle her outcry. His efforts enraged Adriana. She was incensed, determined, and strong. If she could control a stallion that most men feared, chief among them the apprentice, she vowed to give the fool a fight he’d long remember. Then he would see what her father would do to him.

Doubling a small fist, Adriana thrust it upward with all her might, hitting Roger’s bony chin, rattling his teeth and knocking his head back hard against the wall. In the next instant, her knee came up and hit him hard in the groin, something interesting she had learned about men from her first encounter with Colton after his return home. It caused even more of a reaction from Roger who nearly gagged as he doubled over in pain. In spite of his agony, he reached out a hand and, seizing her arm, hauled her forward against the wall with such brutal force that she was sent reeling from it in a dazed stupor.

A short distance down the hall, Maud paused to listen, somewhat bemused by the dull thuds she was hearing. Just a few minutes ago, cautious footsteps had seemed to draw near her mistress’s bedchamber.

Now it seemed as if a scuffling noise came from its spacious confines.

Shaking her head, Maud rejected the notion. In such an old house, she couldn’t be sure what she was hearing came from human sources. Her mother had often warned her as a child to be wary of strange bumps, groans, and ghostly shapes flitting through old houses.

Still, the sounds had done much to evoke her curiosity. Many guests were in the house, and there was always a possibility that some of them had gotten lost. It was the servants’ duty to direct them toward the right area. Cautiously she advanced down the hall, fervently hoping it was a human making the noises instead of something eerie.

“M’liedy? Is ‘at yu?” she called, and grew troubled when she received no answer. Settling her mind forthwith on one living and breathing culprit, she heaved an annoyed sigh and bustled down the hall with more vigor, laying the fault for the furtive scampering on a new maid in the household. Thus far, the chit had seemed far more inquisitive than industrious, having already been caught preening before her reflection while holding one of Lady Adriana’s best gowns in front of herself. Henrietta Reeves had warned the chit not to go rifling through her ladyship’s possessions ever again. Another infraction would likely see the girl packing her bags.

“Where be yu, Clarice? I know yu’re up ta no good ‘gain. Yu’d best come out now, or I’ll be tellin’

Miss Reeves on yu.”

“Yu callin’ me?” a voice from the opposite end of the hall inquired.

Maud whirled in surprise, wondering if her hearing was going bad. “What be yu doin’ now, girl? Didn’t Miss Reeves warn yu—?”

“Lady Melora said for me ta help Becky pack up the last o’ ’er belongin’s she left ’ere aftah the weddin’

an’ ta tidy ’er room afore she an’ Sir ‘Arold come upstairs tonight.”

“An’ yu’ve been ’ere all along? Wit’ Becky?” Maud demanded.

“Aye,” the girl answered and threw a thumb over her shoulder to indicate the other servant who had stepped to the open doorway behind her. “Becky be ’ere ta says so’s ’erself.”

Maud frowned in bemusement and, half turning, peered down the corridor toward the area from whence she had first heard the furtive footsteps.

“Is anyone ’ere?” she called, and when no answer came, glanced back at the two servants who were watching her rather oddly. The older woman decided forthwith that she needed fortification from her young mistress, or at the very least Miss Reeves or even Mr. Charles. One thing for sure, she was
not
going to search the long corridor alone.

Approaching the stairs, she announced to the other two servants, “I’ll be goin’ downstairs ta find Lady Adriana, an’ then I’ll be ‘avin’ a good look-see down the ‘all. If’n yu ‘appens ta sees ’er ladyship up ’

ere, kindly tell ’er I’m lookin’ for ’er.”

Colton turned from the ballroom entrance, somewhat bemused by the weighty footfalls on the stairs.

Instead of the beauty he had been waiting for, a middle-aged servant came into view. It seemed like ages since Adriana had gone upstairs, and he had begun to worry about her. “Do you know if the Lady Adriana will be down soon?”

Maud was clearly taken aback. “Why, I thought m’liedy was down ’ere enjoyin’ the ball.”

“She went upstairs to her bedchamber some moments ago after telling me that she was only going to refresh herself.”

“I wonder why she didn’t bid me ta come ’elp ’er . . . ,” Maud muttered, half to herself as she canted her head in sudden perplexity.

“Do you think she’s all right . . . ?” Colton asked anxiously, realizing he hadn’t actually seen Roger leave the house. Considering the apprentice’s propensity for physical intimidation, Colton wouldn’t put it past the man to take Adriana by force, for it was obvious now that he had absolutely no chance of having her any other way.

“I’ll be seein’ for meself where m’liedy is,” Maud declared, turning her bulky self promptly about.

“I’m coming with you,” Colton announced, bolting up the stairs. “She may be in danger if Roger is still in the house.”

“Roger? Why would—?”

“No time for explanations now,” Colton shot back, as he leapt past the servant. His right leg twitched beneath the strain of his rapid movements, but he refused to yield to the discomfort. After reaching the head of the stairs, he glanced up and down the hall as he questioned the woman. “Which way from here?

”

Winded from her climb, the portly Maud pointed in the appropriate direction to speed the man on his way. His running footsteps, muted to some degree by the carpet in the hall, drifted back to her before she managed to drag enough air into her lungs to speak. “Turn left an’ then two doors down ta the right o’

the corridor,” she called after him. Realizing he’d likely shock her mistress if he entered her bedchamber unannounced, she added, “Me mistress may not be decent.”

“I’ll apologize
after
I know she’s safe,” Colton flung back. All he could think of was Roger and his desire to have the girl for himself.

Colton grabbed the curved handle of Adriana’s door, but upon finding it locked, he laid an ear to the wooden plank in an effort to hear what was going on inside the room. The sounds emitting from the chambers were muffled, as if one straining under a great load. Jiggling the handle more insistently, he called through the wood, “Adriana, are you all right?”