Make Her Wish Come True Collection. Ann LethbridgeЧитать онлайн книгу.
penniless. A charity case according to old Sir Josiah’s ledgers.
A darker thought intruded, one that had a pulse beating at his temple. Perhaps Mrs Melford was not an innocent after all. Perhaps it was another sort of payment her previous landlord had accepted in lieu of rent. Perhaps that was why she had blushed and looked uncomfortable.
If so, it was a good thing old Josiah had gone to his maker. He glowered at the cottage, contemplating men who took advantage of poverty-stricken gentlewomen.
The front door opened and Mrs Melford and her daughters emerged. Once again his gaze feasted on her gorgeously generous figure. The elegant turn of her neck beneath her ugly bonnet had him longing to taste that sliver of creamy skin. To feel the beat of her pulse against his tongue.
The devil! Had it been so long since taking a woman to his bed that he had lost all sense of decency? The woman deserved better. He forced himself to turn away, fiddling with Soldier’s bridle as if making an adjustment.
The little girls ran out of the garden gate and stopped when they saw the horse and cart. They gazed in puzzlement. ‘Are we going in that?’ Diana said. ‘We usually walk.’
‘It occurred to me that we might need help transporting the log.’
‘That’s Sir Josiah’s dog cart,’ Lucy said.
‘What a pretty horse,’ Diana said. ‘Can I drive?’
The pretty horse was his own mount. Sir Josiah’s carriage horses, while nice beasts, were likely to consider such a lowly task beneath them.
‘Not this time,’ he said. ‘There is only enough room for two up front. You and your sister must ride in the back and give directions. You will find a cushion or two back there for your comfort.’
‘It seems you have thought of everything,’ Mrs Melford said, helping Lucy up while he lifted Diana in.
Was she pleased about his perspicacity? Or not? It wasn’t easy to tell with Mrs Melford. He helped her in and climbed up beside her, clicking his tongue for Soldier to walk.
‘I did not mean to disturb your work this morning,’ he said by way of a peace offering, both for disturbing her work and perhaps just a little bit for the kiss. Only a very little.
‘I was finished.’
Taking him literally. As she should. No lady would acknowledge his teasing not-quite kiss. Though she perhaps should have slapped his face. Which made him think of something troubling, both to him as a man and as a brother. ‘Do you have family nearby?’ Some male relative responsible for the welfare of the ladies of this household.
‘Not that I think it is your business, Mr Royston, but I have no family to speak of.’
Not speaking of family did not mean one did not have any, it simply meant one didn’t intend to admit to them. ‘I am sorry,’ he said and meant it, because the likelihood of the next owner of Thornton keeping a tenant who paid no rent was highly doubtful.
‘Perhaps there is a suitor among the local gentlemen?’ A man who might rightly call him out for his wicked behaviour.
‘Marriage is the last thing I want. Never again will I put myself beneath a man’s thumb.’
He winced at her vehemence. Her marriage must have been unpleasant indeed. Stifling the urge to press her further, he brought the horse to the stand and handed off the reins to her. Soldier being the perfect gentleman, unlike the only other male present, waited patiently for him to open the gate to the field that gave way to the woods beyond. Adam leaped up and set the horse in motion once more.
‘Is your employer of a mind to reside at Thornton?’ she asked, as if sensing the direction of his earlier thoughts. He liked that about her. The way she reasoned and contemplated, even if it did lead to uncomfortable questions.
Part of him, the landlord part, wished he had given her his real name yesterday and closed the door. The other part, the male-on-the-prowl part, was glad she had looked adorably flustered and deliciously feminine on his doorstep—so unlike his usual female company—and had tempted him to fall in with her mistaken impression.
‘He won’t,’ he said.
‘You are very certain,’ she said doubtfully. ‘Perhaps he might offer it for lease?’
A case of straw-clutching if ever he’d heard one. He could try to let the house and the land, but who would be fool enough to rent Josiah’s mess of an estate when it required a significant investment to put it right? It would be unkind to get her hopes up only to dash them again. ‘He won’t.’
‘You are in his confidence, then?’
He hated how disappointed she sounded. ‘As the Earl of Portmaine’s land steward I am party to all such decisions.’ An accurate description of his duties on behalf of his father these past five years, so not exactly a lie even if it felt like one.
‘Mr Royston,’ Miss Lucy called out.
He turned in his seat. ‘How may I be of service, Miss Melford?’
She giggled at his formality. ‘Can you put me and Diana down so we can show you the way to the lovely holly tree we found? And the ivy.’
Perhaps there would also be mistletoe. He decided not to ask.
He jumped down and walked around the back. ‘Out you come, ladies.’
Once on the ground the girls set off at a trot while Soldier flicked his ears back and forth as if trying to decide if he was displeased by this new turn of events.
‘This way, Mr Royston,’ Miss Lucy called over her shoulder.
Fortunately, the path she chose was wide enough and the snow hardened enough by the cold these past few days to accommodate the horse and cart.
‘In view of Lord Graystone’s intent to sell, it is kind of him to allow us to raid his woods,’ Mrs Melford said, sounding disappointed.
Kind was not the correct word. Lustful. Deceitful. All of those suited the case much better.
‘I should thank him,’ she said. ‘Don’t you think? I would not be amiss in my courtesy.’
And then she would know what a deceitful lustful fellow he was.
‘His lordship left for home first thing this morning.’ Or he should have.
A frown furrowed her brow. ‘And yet you remain?’
‘Not for long. I have one more task to finish up and then I, too, will go.’
‘And you are positive he plans to put Thornton up for sale in the New Year?’
For a moment he wished he could ignore his duty to his father and the estate and let her stay. To what end? To make her like him more? To take advantage of her sweet nature? Oh, he really didn’t deserve her to look on him as any kind of saviour.
‘I am sorry,’ he said and was surprised by the genuine regret in his voice.
Gazing at Mr Royston halfway up the tree, Cassie had trouble believing that a man who could kiss so tenderly beneath the mistletoe in her shed could hack down holly boughs with such ease and vigour. No doubt his thick leather gloves helped protect his hands from the worst of the prickles, but she was sure he had received more than a scratch or two.
‘Stand clear,’ he shouted from his perch.
She grabbed the girls by their hands and pulled them back. The branch hung on its neighbour for a second, then landed beside four other slender branches bearing clusters of vivid red berries amidst shiny dark green leaves.