He shrugged a shoulder, as if Amy were the least of his concerns. “The squirt’s been riding since she was two. I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Turning his attention from his sister to her, he tucked Mariah’s hand into the crook of his arm.
“I suppose you’re right.” She somehow managed a confident smile, assuring herself that nothing should distract her from her own goal this day.
“The air’s still filled with dust from so many people milling about.” Colin’s voice was low and promising. “Why don’t we leave all the hubbub behind and take a stroll in the woods behind the livery?”
“That sounds most refreshing.” Mariah smiled demurely up at him and allowed him to guide her along the side of the paddocks. But she couldn’t help fighting a giggle at his calling the cacophony of sounds here “hubbub.” Had he ever been to Bristol on market day, he’d know what real noise was.
He continued to lead her away, out of the sight of curious eyes as they meandered toward the seclusion of the trees. “Did you enjoy the race?”
“Oh, yes,” she teased, “particularly when you were willing to risk it just to acknowledge my presence.”
He chuckled. “Not only did I risk the race, it was that mind-stealing beauty of yours that cost me the victory. I now understand how the face of Helen of Troy could sink a thousand ships. I’m sure she had nothin’ on you.”
Truly flattered, it was Mariah’s turn to laugh lightly. “Are we women that dangerous, milord?”
“Indeed you are. I’m afraid I’m in jeopardy of losing not only my heart but my very soul to you.” The mirth in his face vanished as his demeanor turned serious.
Mariah’s heart skipped a beat. “Good sir, please don’t think me so terribly dangerous. All I ask of you is your heart. Your soul I must leave to God.”
He cocked a dark eyebrow as he continued to study her. “Are you quite sure of that? Because you’ve completely bewitched me.”
Reaching up a tentative hand, Mariah palmed his cheek, lightly stubbled with a dark afternoon shadow. “I do believe ’tis quite the other way round.” She tilted her chin and smiled into his compelling brown eyes. “You have been my greatest temptation from the moment I first caught sight of you.”
A chuckle rumbled from deep in his chest. “And you think you didn’t tempt me? As you must have deduced by now, my family had no need of a bond servant, yet I went so far as to part with my father’s good money to purchase you.”
“You did indeed.” She continued to drink in his handsome face. “And that makes you my hero.”
He didn’t respond immediately but let his gaze envelop her as his smile faded and his other hand covered her fingers on his arm. “I want to be more than just a hero to you, my dear Mariah. Much more.” Then, as if suddenly remembering where they were, he turned and checked over his shoulder.
Mariah did the same. She could see no one watching them. In a few more steps they reached the cloister of deep shade beneath boughs and tangled vines. She closed her eyes as a cool breeze ruffled the ferns and shade grasses, brushing gently across her face and neck. It was quiet in the woods, as if they’d entered another world, just the two of them.
Colin drew her to him and lowered his mouth to capture hers.
Stunned at first, she felt a thrill spiral through her being all the way down to her toes. His mouth was so seeking….
After an eternal moment wrapped in his powerful embrace, feeling his heart throbbing along with hers, she regained her senses. Easing out of his arms, she thrust him away and raised trembling hands to ward him off. “Mr. Barclay!” It had not been prudent to let him take her so far from the safety of other people. This definitely was not how their private interlude was supposed to play out.
“I…don’t understand.” Stricken, he just stared at her, uncertainty clouding his face.
Whether his frown signified confusion or anger at her rebuff, Mariah could not tell. She only knew she needed to proceed with care. “Kind sir, if I gave you the impression that I was someone with whom you could dally, I beg your forgiveness most ardently. My feelings for you are honest, sincere…and quite pure.” Spinning on her heel, she straightened the lace ruching on her bodice, hoping to dredge up a convincing tear or two.
“Mariah.” His quiet voice was very near. “Forgive me. It’s just that I…” He released a shuddering breath.
The sigh did it. Her eyes swam. She turned back to him and took his hands in hers, tears trembling on her lashes as she gazed up at him. “I know, Colin. Truly, I do. Pushing away from you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. My whole body is aquiver from your touch. But I cannot help but believe ’twould be best if you do as your mother wanted from the start.”
“What are you saying?”
“You must sell me off. Otherwise, I fear you’ll be the ruin of me. Rose, Lily, my Papa…I could never bring such awful shame to my family. I just couldn’t.”
Gazing deeply into her eyes as his hands tightened around hers, he hiked his chin. “And you shan’t.” With his thumb, he wiped the pearl of moisture that had finally started its journey down her cheek. “No more tears, my love. The very moment my father signs over the southwest section to me as he promised, I’ll announce our intention to marry.” He pulled her close again, ever so gently, and lifted her chin with the edge of his finger. “If that’s agreeable to you, of course.”
“You would marry me? Are you sure? You know I come with no dowry.” She gazed longingly into his eyes, vitally needing this binding commitment from him. “I’m certain that once my father has recouped his losses, he’ll take it upon himself to send me something. I fear ’twould only be money, however, nothing compared to the land your mother expects you to bring to your family when you marry.”
He grunted in disgust. “Mother. She’s much too ambitious for her own good. Your love and your sweetness are all the dowry I shall ever desire, Mariah. I just regret that we must keep our betrothal a secret until January, and that you must continue on under her thumb until then.”
Mariah gave an insignificant shrug. “She isn’t so bad, truly she isn’t. She merely wants the best for her family, as would any mother. I pray I will love my children as deeply as she does hers.”
“Children.” A slow smile spread across his lips. “I suspect you’ll be the most beautiful mother who ever lived, and I hope someday we’ll have daughters who look exactly like you.”
“And sons,” she said lightly, “who look just like you.” In a burst of enthusiasm, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh, Colin, dearest Colin, this is the happiest day of my life.”
Unable to contain his own happiness, Colin laughed as he caught Mariah’s luscious form to him and swung her around. He wanted to shout to the world that this beautiful creature had agreed to be his, his forever.
She laughed, too, throwing her head back in joy. “Yes, yes, I’ll marry you.”
“Let’s go tell everyone! I cannot keep this to myself.” Setting her down and tucking her against his side, he started back toward the clearing. Then he slowed and turned to her. “That is what I’d like to do. But we can’t, of course. I know that all too well.” He cupped her soft face in his hands and absorbed its stunning beauty. “January seems an eternity away. It will be difficult to keep my distance from you and act as if nothing has changed between us.”
“I know. We shall have to keep ourselves incredibly busy until then.” She offered him a saucy grin. “Have I told you what a wonderful talent Heather has for music? I do believe she’ll be playing duets with me in no time at all. Would it not be wonderful if she could play at our wedding?” Her violet eyes glowed as she spoke, adding even more to her allure. “Yes, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll spend my lonely hours working with Heather until she has mastered the violin. Have you a favorite piece you’d like me to teach her for the ceremony, perchance?”
Absorbed in her voice, Colin felt it was all the music he would ever need.
“Do you?” She stared up at him
questioningly.
He smiled, realizing she expected a response of some sort. “Anything that pleases you will please me.”
Mariah tilted her flirty face up to him, a teasing glint in her eyes. “I shall remind you of that years from now when you’re being obstinate.”
“Years from now. I like the sound of that.” Taking her hand in his, he began walking again, matching his stride to hers as he cast a glance around. “Why can’t it be spring? I would love to pick a huge bouquet of wildflowers for you as a remembrance of this day.”
She reached over with her free hand and gave his elbow a squeeze. “I need no token to remember this lovely day. Not as long as you keep looking at me the way you are right now.”
Colin raised her hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to it as he stared longingly at her tender lips.
“But I do think we ought to get back and check on Amy, don’t you?”
Realizing Mariah must have read the desire in his gaze, Colin began walking again. “Quite right. The squirt can get into trouble faster than a pair of barn kittens at milking time.”
Emerging into the slanting afternoon light behind the livery, Mariah opened her parasol against the sun’s bright rays and moved a few respectable steps away from him. “I do hope no one has missed us.”
He scoffed. “I can’t think of anyone who would.”
The words were scarcely out of his mouth when a high, shrill voice called out his name.
Mariah stiffened with fear. “Who could that be? I pray ’tis not your mother.”
“Of course it isn’t.” He’d spoken with more confidence than he actually felt. As he picked up the pace, growing apprehension pricked at him. “They’re visiting the Lawrences, remember? Dickering over the price of the filly.”
When they rounded the front of the barn, Colin spied Heather and Victoria searching the road into Alexandria and waved his arm at them. “We’re over here, girls!”
Both spun around and picked up their skirts as they ran to him.
“Where are Tuck and Edward?” Mariah asked, scanning the area and seeing neither young man.
Panting from the run, Heather flashed a sly grin. “Hiding out, no doubt.”
Colin, however, tensed, his rage rising. “Where are those bounders? They were supposed to stay with you.”
“I’d forget about them if I were you,” Victoria announced, looking from him to Mariah and back. “Mother’s not in high dudgeon over those two. She wants you. Now.”
Chapter 14
A my stood with her parents and the Widow Doolittle in front of the woman’s cottage on the far end of town. Frantic and on the verge of tears, the child wrenched free of Mother and ran toward Colin and Mariah as they approached. “Tell Mama it wasn’t me! Tell her it was Henry Jay and Walter that did it. Not me.”
Taking stock of the dour expressions on the faces of his parents and the widow as Amy flew toward him, Colin let out an exasperated huff. How long had the girl been on her own? Ten, fifteen minutes? More? This was not good.
The adults stood stock-still, glaring, their scowls aimed right at him.
He caught Amy by the shoulders as she barreled into him. “What’s going on?”
“Henry Jay and Walter,” Amy sputtered, out of breath. “They rode their horses straight through Mistress Doolittle’s vegetable garden. But I didn’t. I was careful and rode around it. Cross my heart and hope to die.” She turned her beseeching eyes up to Mariah. “You believe me, don’t you?”
Mariah reached out and brushed a strand of hair from Amy’s sweaty face and tucked it behind her ear. “Yes, sweetheart, I do. You must try to calm down while we see to the matter. Surely there’ll be some compensation that will satisfy the woman.”
Watching Mariah as she settled Amy down with such tenderness, Colin’s love for her doubled. She would be—
He glanced down the road and cringed at his parents’ heated glowers. Picking Amy up, he trudged toward them with dread, knowing that in all likelihood their anger would be directed entirely at him. They would never think of being short with their youngest child. He had, after all, been ordered to keep an eye on her.
His mother’s discerning gaze oscillated between him and Mariah.
Beside him, Mariah’s steps grew hesitant. Just as well. She shouldn’t be the one to catch the brunt of Mother’s rage. Pausing, Colin glanced down at her and saw that her face had lost all color. “My dear Mariah, you’d best go and stay with Tori and Heather. They’re under that old oak tree watching. From afar.” He pointed in their direction. “I shouldn’t be long.”
“Are you quite sure?” she whispered.
“Of course. And here.” He set Amy down. “Take her with you. I’ll handle this.”
Mariah clutched his hand. “Do be careful.” Her eyes were clouded with fright, making her appear so vulnerable it cinched his heart.
“Don’t worry.” Starting back toward his parents, he drew a steadying breath and let it all out in a whoosh. “Time I became a man and stood up for myself.” Though muttered to himself, the words bolstered him.
He barely reached the somber threesome before his mother opened her mouth in preparation for one of her tirades. Giving her no chance to lay into him, he spoke out from several steps away. “I understand there’s been quite a disturbance here.” He offered the tiny, birdlike widow his most sympathetic smile. “Having boys galloping roughshod through your garden, churning up your neat plants, must have been most frightening, to say nothing of the cost.”
The little lady’s thin lips gaped open. “Indeed. And—”
Colin cut in, overriding her. “Even though my sister did not happen to be one of the children who destroyed your vegetables, I was the one who gave her permission to ride with those boys, so I feel partly responsible for the destruction. More than partly, to be honest.” It never hurt to add a little something for effect. “That is why for the remainder of the growing season I shall personally see that you have fresh vegetables every week for your table. Enough for preserving for your winter stores, as well.”
During that pronouncement, he felt his parents’ stares of displeasure boring into him as he attempted to smooth the widow’s ruffled feathers. And the woman herself had yet to look mollified.
He reached into the pocket of his vest and withdrew several coins. “For all your trouble, Mistress Doolittle. Please allow me to put a smile on that handsome face of yours.” He placed the money in her palm. “I want you to stroll right down to Miss Raeford’s millinery this minute and buy yourself the fanciest bonnet she has in her shop.”
A wary smile did tremble on her lips as the taut lines in her weathered face softened. “Mercy, Mr. Barclay, I couldn’t be takin’ your money.”
“Nonsense.” He closed her bony fingers over the coins. “I’ll expect to see you sporting that new bonnet at church next Sabbath. By the by,” he added casually, “while you’re gone, would you mind if my parents and I step into your parlor for a moment? We have some private business to discuss.”
“I don’t mind a’tall.” Her smile remaining in place, she turned to his mother. “You an’ yer mister make yerselfs right to home, Mistress Barclay.”
It seemed no easy task, but Mother finally pulled her glare off Colin and pasted on an answering smile for the Widow Doolittle. Colin wondered if the little woman realized it was as starched as a Sunday collar. “Thank you.” With a significant look at his father, Mother turned and marched up the stone pathway to the older woman’s porch steps.
Pa elbowed Colin in the ribs as they followed her. “Try to make your mother happy,” he whispered. “If she’s not happy, I surely won’t be.”
What about my happiness? It took considerable restraint not to shout the question, but Colin knew better than to voice it aloud.
Once inside the cramped little home Widow Doolittle occupied, Colin noticed how worn the upholstery was on the settee, how dreary and faded the furnishings all appeared. “Before we start, do you think we could see
about having the poor woman’s furniture refurbished? This place is little more than a hovel. Surely someone of her age and all alone deserves better.”
Mother’s head snapped around. “What?” Then she glanced at her surroundings, her gaze falling on the frayed cushions. “Yes. That’s quite thoughtful of you, Colin.” Her soft tone turned hard. “However, it won’t lessen the fact that you broke our agreement.”
“I beg to differ.” He hiked his chin. “Not once did I actually say I’d stay with Amy while she went riding with the other children. I was afoot, if you recall. How could I be expected to keep up with a trotting pony?”
“Don’t play the fool with me. And don’t think for one moment that I’m unaware of things that go on behind my back.” Her slitted eyes flashed fire as she stepped closer. “I made the conditions for Mariah remaining in our service abundantly clear from the start. Yet the first chance you get, you choose to defy me and break our agreement.”
“Your agreement. Your dictate.” Colin hurled the words back at her with equal force.
She stiffened, arching a brow. “And my consequences. This very day I shall find some other fool willing to buy Miss Harwood’s papers. It shouldn’t be too difficult. I saw more than a few men ogling her today.”
Colin held his ground. “And just how do you intend to sell someone you do not own? It’s my signature on her papers, not yours. Legally I’m the person in charge of her fate.” He stepped within a foot of her, satisfied that he’d played his trump card.
To his dismay, she did not budge. “That may very well be. But I’m sure the wench is not worth the cost of your home and inheritance. For all we know, your oh-so-proper tutoress could be a common thief or even a—a prostitute.”
At the urge to push that vile accusation back down her throat, Colin stepped away and inhaled a calming breath. She was his mother, he reminded himself, and deserved his respect. He swallowed and took another tack. “Mother, you and Pa married for love. You told me that yourself more than once, and I know the two of you have been happy together all these years. How could you want less for me, your son? Or even poor, moonstruck Tori. She’s wildly infatuated with Tuck. But he’s from a mere plantation, and you will do your utmost to prevent her from marrying him because it won’t fit in with your own selfish plans. She’ll be kept from her happiness, too.”
Daughters of Harwood House Trilogy : Three Romances Tell the Saga of Sisters Sold into Indentured Service (9781630586140) Page 43
