The Reckless Love of an Heir

by Jane Lark

  His presence and proximity sent discomfort spinning out into her nerves. The awkwardness it engendered pressured her to continue talking. “It is not rebellious to walk away or leave a room, though I admit to having little patience with conversations that do not interest me or—”

  “People,” he inserted as he straightened up.

  She met his gaze, still wiping her brush although it must be clean. “People?”

  “Or people who do not interest you.” One eyebrow rose, and his implication said, people like me…

  Warmth touched her cheeks.

  She turned away to put her paint brush back into the paint box and tidy up her paints.

  He leant over once more. “This is actually rather good.”

  She glanced at him. “Thank you for such exuberant praise.”

  His lips split into a smile. “There, see, you are a secret hellion. You taunt me horrendously.”

  She made an intolerant, impatient face and shook her head at him. “I am painting orchids, not racing curricles. I am hardly a hellion. You are speaking of yourself.” She closed her paints.

  “I have never bothered hiding my nature. But you… You and I have more in common than you think. I would gamble high odds on the fact that Uncle Casper despairs of you as much as my father despairs of me. You do not behave in the ways expected of a woman. The only reason you do not race curricles is that a woman is not given one to be able to race, if you were a man you would race—”

  “I am not like you. I would not race. Because there is a vast chasm of difference between us, I think of others not just myself. I would not race because I would not wish to harm another traveller on the road.”

  He huffed at her, dismissing her argument. It riled her more. “And I do not behave in unacceptable ways—”

  “You are not sitting in the drawing room, sewing and talking with the others.”

  “I like doing different things to the others, that is all.”

  She turned to walk past him.

  “Rebellious.” He leant near her and taunted.

  She could not win the argument. Her hand lifted instinctively and swiped out at him as her frustration became anger. She struck his poorly arm. “Oh, Henry!” She regretted it immediately as he winced with pain.

  “Bloody hell!” He covered his arm and pulled away. Then said more calmly, “You damned hellion.” Even in pain he was mocking her.

  “I am sorry.”

  He smiled and shook his head. “I do not think I am.”

  She did not understand the jest. “Stop teasing me, Henry!”

  He laughed. “It is quite inspiring to see you in a temper.”

  Her hand lifted once more. He stepped back with his good hand still protecting his injured arm. “Did I say you might be a match to a man with verbal fencing? I might be persuaded to include physical fencing. Please, no more violence, Miss Forth. You will have people think my bruises were delivered by your hand, and God forbid my friends heard such a rumour.”

  He stepped forward again and looked down at her work and at the book to compare it. “You are certainly capturing it. It is a charming flower… Which is something I cannot say for the painter.”

  He straightened again then, and threw her another smile.

  She stuck her tongue out at him as she would have done as a child. He was infuriating, it was no wonder she’d lost her temper and struck him.

  His eyes opened wider and his smile lifted, expressing mocked shock, and then suddenly the smile seemed to illuminate the brown in his eyes.

  When her tongue slipped back into her mouth, the glint in his eyes became a glow with a greater depth, making his brown eyes as rich in colour as polished mahogany.

  Awkwardness pricked. She looked down at her painting. She could not walk away at this moment. “I hope you are feeling better.”

  “I am feeling better than I was the day you came to my room, thank you.” His voice held a dry note that sought to highlight again how inappropriate her behaviour had been in daring to go to his sitting room.

  Rebellious. She heard the word in his voice, as it had been said a moment ago when he’d leant to her ear. Perhaps she was a little.

  Susan looked up. He was very close, she could see every detail of his eyelashes and every shade within his brown eyes. “You could have said do not come in, you know?” The scent of his expensive London cologne enveloped her.

  “I thought it was the footman come to take away the tea-tray.”

  “You knew it was me when I entered.”

  “And perhaps then it was more amusing to not yell at you and make you go away.” His voice had lost its mocking edge and dropped into a low pitch. “…The lesson was better taught by leaving you to discover what your rebellious nature had led you into.”

  “Sayeth Lord Henry Marlow, the prodigal son, he who has just been thrown from his curricle in a race and nearly broken his neck and admitted he has probably learned no lessons at all.” Her voice had dropped in pitch too.

  His eyes seemed full of questions as he looked at her. Then his gaze travelled across her face, studying her as he’d studied her painting. When his gaze came back to hers, he said, “Quite.” Then he turned away and began walking back across the room, with Samson in his wake.

  “I truly am sorry that you were so badly hurt, Henry!” Susan called after him, her awkwardness and her empathy for his pain, pushing her into more words. “But I do not think that anything I do compares!” She had not known what to say, but she had needed to say something to turn whatever had just happened back into something tangible that she could understand.

  He turned and walked a couple of steps backwards, with his free hand cradling his poorly arm. “I am truly sorry…Your voice rings with guilt, Susan, as it did yesterday when you saw my bruises. Did you think I had been acting out my pain, and wearing a sling for my pleasure? You… The rescuer of every wounded thing, wild or tame…”

  “No.” Her instinctive denial cut through the air, and stopped him moving.

  He smiled in that hideous mocking way, that said, I know I am right.

  Oh be honest with him, he would be honest with her. “I thought you deserved to be injured. You are the reckless one. It is you who needed to be taught a lesson. But I would not have wished your life endangered. I came to your room yesterday as much to apologise for the meanness of my thoughts as to fetch Samson.”

  The rogue looked up at the ceiling and laughed for an instant before looking back at her. The amusement had brightened his eyes. “Think as meanly as you wish, Susan, it will not do me any greater harm than I have done myself. I dare say, on this occasion, I may have finally learned the lesson you wished me taught.” He turned away once more.

  “Where are we eating?” She called before he left the room.

  “In the formal dining room, Papa is home.”

  When they ate, she had intended to sit beside Sarah, but Alethea drew Susan’s attention, and so she could not then walk around the table to sit with Christine and Sarah. She ended up taking a seat on the opposite side of Henry to her sister.

  Alethea spoke to Aunt Jane as Henry silently fought to eat his food one handed.

  Susan swallowed, she wished to make conversation, to stop herself from suffering with the awkwardness that hung over her. “How are your bruises today, are they improving?” she said lamely.

  “Turning from almost black to a lighter purple, but perhaps I have a new one since you struck me.”

  She looked at him. “Sorry.”

  He smiled. “If we are on the grounds of apologies, then I owe you one too. I am sorry I did not tell you to go away the other day. I should have done. I did not mean my teasing to discompose you earlier, but I can see it has done because every time you look at me you turn a greater shade of pink.”

  Oh, she wished to smack him again.

  “You are forgiven for striking me, if I am forgiven,” he concluded.

  “You are forgiven only if you agree never to mention that
I went to your room again.”

  A half laugh rumbled from his chest.

  Alethea turned and said something to him. But before he turned to reply, he said to Susan, “Are we friends again then?”

  “Henry! Alethea asked for your opinion.” his father interrupted before Susan could answer. There must have been some greater conversation about the table they had lost track of. Henry turned away.

  Once they had finished eating, Susan rose to return to the library. Every one else stood at the same time. She would have walked on ahead but Henry touched her arm.

  “Wait a moment. I have not yet secured your agreement on our pact.”

  He had not forgotten his desire for a truce, then.

  Alethea walked on with Aunt Jane, and his father walked with Christine and Sarah.

  “May we call ourselves friends? I do not think we have really been friends for years. I would like to think of you as my friend, Susan.”

  She hated the way he said her name, his enunciation made her stomach twist about with a strange sensation.

  He held out his left, good, hand, which was gloveless. She accepted the gesture.

  She wore no glove either. The warmth and the softness of his skin surprised her as his hand surrounded hers. Yet he had not held her hand in the way he held Alethea’s hand, he held Susan’s in a firm gesture, his whole hand gripping her whole hand, not merely pressing her fingers.

  The queasy feeling in her stomach tumbled over. She had never held a man’s naked hand, except for her father’s.

  He shook her hand a single time, firmly, and then let her go. “May I escort you to the library? I wouldn’t mind another look at your painting, we might even persuade Alethea to stop by…” His good arm had lifted as he spoke. He was offering it to her…

  She looked at his forearm, before glancing up and then laying her fingers on his arm self-consciously.

  Her fingers closed about the sinuous muscle of his arm through his thin shirt. The cotton was so fine she could feel the hairs on his skin.

  The strange sensation in her tummy coiled up like an adder waiting to strike.

  “So how many flowers have you attempted so far?”

  Susan swallowed before answering. Her throat had dried. “I am only on my second.”

  “And how many are in the book? I seem to recall about fifty. You will be here for a year.”

  She smiled at him. “Or two.”

  This was Henry at his most persuasive, he could turn this side of himself on and off so easily. She had always found his charm annoying before, but then it had never been solely directed at her.

  Now it was directed at her…

  It felt complimentary, and he was surely doing it to make her feel at ease with him again, which was kind. Although it must be embarrassing for him if she was blushing at every moment.

  His charm was working, though, she did feel more at ease.

  For the second time in her life, she felt wholly in charity with him.

  Perhaps he would not make such a bad brother-in-law.

  Chapter Six

  An odd atmosphere arrived in the carriage with the Forths, Henry could sense it even as he looked down into the hall. Uncle Casper’s shoulders were stiff and Aunt Julie’s manner was much more restrained than normal; she far too calmly kissed his mother’s cheek.

  Henry walked down the last flight of stairs to the hall as Alethea entered.

  She was wearing a light bright blue again so that the material of her evening dress extenuated the colour of her eyes. Susan entered behind her sister, wrapped up in a large paisley shawl, but he could see the hem of her dress. It was a pale, dove grey.

  He’d dressed fully for dinner, as the Forths were officially invited guests rather than arriving simply as callers, and so he had his grey waistcoat and black evening coat on over his shirt. His arm was still strung up in a sling, though. Yet it had been less painful to dress, and it was not agony to be clothed now the swelling had declined to some extent.

  What remained of the pain, as long he did not make any sudden movements, was a dull constant ache in his shoulder, a soreness in his wrist and stiffness in both. The rest of him was healing quite nicely.

  Papa’s valet, who had been shaving Henry since he’d come home, was now urging Henry to exercise his bad arm, but Henry had refused to attempt it for another week at least; he did not wish to send it into agony again.

  “Uncle Casper.” Henry bowed in a swift informal movement. Even though there was no relationship via bloodlines he’d always felt as though Lord and Lady Froth were his uncle and aunt—and Alethea like another of his cousins—and truly that was the level of his affection for her.

  He swallowed trying to moisten his dry mouth suddenly, as Uncle Casper’s lips lifted in a stiff smile. Definitely there was an unusual atmosphere.

  Henry glanced at Alethea as his father came to welcome Uncle Casper more heartily.

  He liked her considerably. She was amusing company, funny and entertaining, and she was polite and genteel; she would make the perfect countess when he inherited his father’s title. She was good with people, confident and jolly. He knew full well she would manage a house admirably. She had all the qualities of a wife.

  But he was not ready to marry. He was too young. Yet he could feel the nets being set about him.

  Four times this week she had hinted at the fact she was not going to wait forever for him to ask and Uncle Casper’s gaze stated that nor did he wish Alethea to have to keep waiting. They were becoming impatient with him.

  Well let them. He would not be forced. His father may call such an attitude careless. Henry would call it wise.

  “Good evening, Henry. I trust you are feeling better?”

  Henry turned to face Aunt Julie. “I am, thank you.”

  She gave him a look which seemed anxious, before touching his shoulders and lifting to her toes to better reach to kiss his cheek. On a normal evening, in the past, her arms would have wrapped around his neck and her exclamation would have been, “my darling boy!” before she pressed a kiss on his cheek. She had no sons, so Aunt Julie had treated him as though he was her son since his birth. But perhaps her calmness was out of awareness for his injuries.

  “It is good to see you again,” he said, before kissing her cheek in return.

  A very abnormal half-hearted smile stirred her lips.

  They had hoped he would announce his and Alethea’s engagement tonight. That was it. They had received the invitation to dine and misconstrued its meaning.

  Damn it, Alethea must have been waiting for him to ask all bloody week and now she had told them he’d said nothing.

  “You are looking very well despite your accident.”

  “Thank you, Aunt.”

  She was definitely restrained—unhappy with him.

  He looked at Alethea. She smiled at him, but even her smile was not quite so full.

  There had been a conversation about him in the carriage, he’d lay a bet on it. One that had berated his lack of a proposal. But he would not be bloody pushed into it. He would propose when he was ready to be settled, not before.

  Yet he was not immune to a sense of guilt.

  He turned to face her, as she came to him, holding out her hands. He took hold of them, then kissed the back of them in turn, before leaning forward and kissing her cheek. “Hello, you look very beautiful,” he whispered towards her ear before he straightened.

  She blushed, and smiled more naturally. “Hello.”

  He smiled too, looking into her very blue eyes, then let her hands slip from his and turned to greet Susan.

  He did not normally greet her in anyway, they were too close for formal greetings, and they had no other reason to greet each other with any special welcome. But tonight… He had welcomed her parents having not seen them for months and it would seem odd after that not to say a particular good evening to Susan too.

  “Susan.” She blushed, not deeply, but there were very definite roses blooming in he
r cheeks. She had been blushing every time she saw him since their long conversation in the library, or rather since her visit to his room.

  She did not offer her hand. He took it from where it hovered by her waist anyway, and kissed the back of her fingers. Her hand trembled and her grey eyes looked directly into his for a moment before she looked at his fingers holding hers.

  She was a funny anomaly.

  He let her go, then turned his attention back to Alethea, and offered his arm.

  His family and the Forths turned towards the drawing room.

  “We shall have a glass of wine before we go through to dinner, Casper, Julie.”

  Henry wondered if his father had picked up upon the atmosphere and read it correctly too. If so then Henry would be in for a lecture after they had left.

  “You are fully dressed…” Alethea whispered.

  “I could hardly dine with your parents in my shirt.”

  “They would not have minded.”

  “I would have felt a fool, and I think I might have made them feel foolish too.” Sarah had taken charge of Susan and was walking with her. Christine walked beside Aunt Julie, with Henry’s mother, while his father spoke with Uncle Casper. “Were they expecting me to announce our engagement tonight?” He’d learned as young as his boarding school years that it was always better to be direct when dealing with an awkward situation, otherwise awkward situations festered.

  She blushed a deep crimson, much darker than the colour Susan had been turning for the last couple of days. Yes, then.

  “Yes. I am sorry—”

  “You have no need to be sorry. But I am not going to propose to you while I am home. I’m not ready to settle yet, I am young, Alethea, it is too soon, and I will not apologise for it.” He’d slowed his pace, so that the others walked on ahead, then he stopped and faced her. “I am sorry if that distresses you. I know you will make a good wife but I will not commit until I know I would make a good husband and I think that will be when I am older.”