Rhonda Woodward (21 page)

“Oh! It’s not the earl!” George called, disappointment plain in his tone.

“What?” her parents shouted.

Eyes wide with surprise and disappointment, Mariah watched George crane his neck as he strained to get a better look. “It’s Lord Mattonly, Mama’s beau!”

The youngster’s words had the effect of a gunshot on his astonished family.

“What?” Mr. Thorncroft crossed the room to his son.

“George! Stop prattling such nonsense,” Mrs. Thorncroft scolded, sending her husband a half-amused, half-alarmed look.

“He is too your beau. I heard Steven and Mariah say so at Heaton,” George said over his shoulder, seeming affronted that anyone should suggest he had gotten his information wrong.

“Mary, I demand to know what George is speaking of. Who is Lord Mattonly?” Mr. Thorncroft said, looking back at his wife.

Rising, Mariah cast a quick glance to Steven, who met her gaze with barely concealed laughter.

“Papa!” Mariah said as her mother sputtered incoherently. “It is nothing. George just took our teasing about Lord Mattonly literally.”

“Teasing about what? Who is this Lord Mattonly and what is he doing here?” her father demanded.

“He must be here to see Mama,” George offered helpfully.

“Stop that, George!” Mrs. Thorncroft said, finally recovering her voice. “Now, Edmund, Lord Mattonly is a young gentleman barely older than Steven. We danced together at Heaton, and the children—you know their dreadful senses of humor—teased me about having a young beau. It is the most ridiculous thing on earth.”

Mr. Thorncroft still frowned. “I do not like the sound of this. It does not explain why he is here.”

“Mr. Elbridge!” George shouted from his post at the window.

Whipping around to look at her little brother, Mariah could hardly believe she heard him correctly. “What of Mr. Elbridge?” she said with complete shock.

“He just stepped out of the coach after Lord Mattonly.”

Mariah exchanged surprised glances with Steven and Mama.

“Who is Mr. Elbridge?” Papa practically shouted.

“He was another of the earl’s guests. I waltzed with him at Heaton,” Mariah hastily supplied.

“Waltzed with him? Here now, what is going on?” Papa threw his hands up in an aggravated gesture.

“He is the heir to a baronetcy,” Mrs. Thorncroft offered.

“Humph,” Mr. Thorncroft snorted. “Looks as if we shall be entertaining enough noble blood to satisfy even you, my dear.”

Exchanging another befuddled glance with her mother, Mariah wondered what Lord Mattonly and Mr. Elbridge were doing in Chippenham.

Despite her bewildered disappointment, she tried to school her expression to politeness as the butler opened the door and announced the unexpected guests.

Two exquisitely garbed gentlemen, looking as if they should be stepping out of some fashionable London club, strolled into the salon.

As they both bowed, Mama rushed forward to greet them. After the introductions were made and everyone was seated, an awkward silence hung in the room for a moment.

“We were just about to have our tea, my lord, Mr.

Elbridge. You will join us, won’t you?” Mrs. Thorn-

croft asked in a nervous rush of words.

“Certainly, Mrs. Thorncroft,” Lord Mattonly said.

“Very kind,” Mr. Elbridge mumbled quickly, rubbing his hands together in a nervous manner.

Lord Mattonly, his fair hair styled a` la Caesar, turned his sky blue eyes to Mr. Thorncroft. “Elbridge and I are so glad to find you all at home. You see, we were just passing through the area and remembered that the charming Thorncroft family resided in Chippenham. We got your direction at the posting inn in the village.”

“You are most welcome to Thorncroft Manor, my lord, Mr. Elbridge. We certainly hope you intend to stay for supper,” Mr. Thorncroft offered.

Lord Mattonly’s smile showed his elation at the offer. “You are too kind, sir.”

“Indeed. Thank you,” Mr. Elbridge hastily added, sending Mariah a tentative smile.

Stepping forward, George said with childish eagerness, “Lord Stone, I mean Haverstone, was also in the area not long ago. It’s strange that so many of the people we met at Heaton are suddenly in Chippenham.”

At this Lord Mattonly and Mr. Elbridge exchanged odd looks.

“George, dear, why don’t you go look at his lordship’s horses?” Mama suggested in a sweet tone.

George was delighted to do so, and after he skipped out of the room, the stilted conversation struggled along in fits and starts.

Mariah gazed at Lord Mattonly, mystified at his sudden appearance on their doorstep. She did not believe the nonsense about just happening to be in the area. No, the way Lord Mattonly looked at Mama, with the pathetic expression of a moonling, made his purpose here very clear.

It really was shockingly funny, she thought, guiltily stifling a laugh. Even though she and Steven had teased Mama about Lord Mattonly, Mariah never would have guessed that the young man would be so foolish as to go haring off across the countryside to see her again.

Shooting her father a quick glance, she was relieved to see that amusement lurked beneath his polite expression.

While Mama poured tea for everyone, keeping the conversation on mundane matters, Mariah determinedly tamped down her abject disappointment. After all, if Stone had gone all the way back to Heaton instead of staying in the village near Kelbourne Keep, then he might not return to Chippenham for days yet.

This bit of logical deduction did nothing to curb her aching desire to see him.

“Shall you be staying in Chippenham for long? This Thursday will be the local assembly ball. We cannot boast such company as we had in Heaton, but the orchestra is quite fine,” Mama said as she handed Lord Mattonly his tea.

“If I may be honored again by leading you in a dance, then I have every intention of staying in this charming village,” Lord Mattonly said before turning to Papa. “I am sure I do not tell you what you do not know, Mr. Thorncroft, but Mrs. Thorncroft is an extremely accomplished dancer.”

Mariah caught Steven covering his laugh with a cough. Oh how she wished Stone were here to enjoy this little drama with her.

“I thank you on my wife’s behalf, Lord Mattonly,” Mr. Thorncroft said with a slight inclination of his head. “I believe over the near thirty years of our marriage she has only grown more accomplished.”

It was Mariah’s turn to choke back her laughter as Lord Mattonly looked completely lost for words.

“Er, how are your foxhounds, Mr. Elbridge?” Mariah asked hastily to fill the awkward silence.

His rather nondescript face broke into a wide smile. “Hale and hearty, Miss Thorncroft. I am readying them for the hunt in January.”

“Ah, you hunt, sir?” Papa asked politely, willing to let the subject change.

“Elbridge is famous in Leicestershire for his kennels,” Lord Mattonly offered.

Mr. Elbridge fairly beamed with pride at such praise. “Do you like foxhounds, Mr. Thorncroft?” he asked, leaning forward eagerly.

Considering the question, Mr. Thorncroft rubbed his chin. “I have not been around foxhounds much, but I do like dogs.”

“That’s wonderful! Miss Thorncroft has told me that she likes dogs, too,” he said, sending her a delighted smile.

Alarm warred with Mariah’s sense of the ridiculous as she returned Mr. Elbridge’s smile with a courteous one of her own.

She had the sudden suspicion that because she liked dogs and had a fat dowry, Mr. Elbridge had come all this way to ask her father for her hand! Fearing she might burst out in laughter, Mariah looked away from Mr. Elbridge’s grinning face.

Just then, a movement out the window caught her attention. In the distance, she saw a familiar figure on horseback riding up the drive at breakneck speed. Her heart pounded in her throat as she gripped the armrests.
Stone!

Glancing quickly around the room, she saw that no one else seemed to be looking out the window. Unbearable love and longing forced her from her chair, cutting off another compliment from Lord Mattonly to her mother. Ignoring the proprieties, she moved swiftly toward the door.

Conversation ceased as everyone turned to look at her in surprise, the gentlemen struggling to rise. “No, please do not get up! I—there is something I must attend to. I beg you to excuse me.” Dropping a curtsy, she left the room, uncaring of the astonished faces she left behind.

Chapter Twenty-two

After seeing his coach safe at the inn in Chippenham, Stone had jumped onto his fastest horse and headed for Thorncroft Manor.

With his jaw clenched and his heart pounding in his chest, Stone admitted to himself that this was one of the few times in his life when the outcome of one of his endeavors was unclear. And his hurried wooing of Mariah Thorncroft could certainly be called an endeavor, he thought with dry humor, thinking of the effort it took to get Misters Tracy, Harding, and Petersham to Kelbourne Keep.

When the Reverend Mr. Petersham, vicar of his parish church, had given him Mariah’s cryptic message that she was leaving Kelbourne Keep the next morning, he had been astounded.

“What the hell does that mean?” he had asked as he paced the floor of the room he had taken in Wenlock Downs. He had waited all day for the vicar to come to him, never once conceiving that this would be her reaction to the gentlemen he had sent to her.

Petersham had not been able to enlighten him, saying only that Miss Thorncroft had seemed pleased with the information he had shared with her. “Truth be told, my lord, after four and twenty years of marriage I still find the female mind a puzzle,” he had said.

Stone told himself that he would wait a week, that he would not go tearing after her again. But after a day and a half, the waiting had become intolerable, and so he directed his servants to return him to Chippenham.

Be it yes or no, he had to have her answer now or he felt he would go mad, he thought, urging his horse into a faster gallop.

In that second, around a curve in the drive, came Mariah.

Hauling back the reins, his horse came to a prancing stop. His gaze roved over her delicate features and the beauty of her eyes as they looked up into his with an unreadable expression. Hungrily, he took in the way the sun danced off the honeyed highlights in her hair and the way her exquisitely tailored gown flattered her slender figure. Resisting the urge to sweep her into his arms, he dismounted and tossed the reins to a stableboy who had come trotting up. Stone kept his gaze on her flushed face, trying to gauge her feelings.

Turning away, she directed the boy to attend to his lordship’s horse.

Taken aback by her sudden appearance, Stone momentarily forgot how he had planned to greet her. “Good afternoon, Mariah,” he said instead.

“Good afternoon, my lord,” she replied softly. “Would you care to take a stroll around the grounds? There is a pretty arbor by the pond.”

His brow rose at the obvious nervousness in her tone. “Certainly.”

As they walked together through the courtyard, he noticed the stable hands unhitching a team of horses from a familiar-looking coach.

“Lord Mattonly and Mr. Elbridge are visiting,” she supplied, evidently seeing him take notice of the coach.

He paused. “Matt and Elbridge? What are they doing here?” he asked, his usual politeness gone.

She sent him an impish smile. “Lord Mattonly is paying my mama the silliest compliments, for which my papa will tease her for the rest of their lives, and Mr. Elbridge is most likely going to ask my father’s permission to pay court to me.”

“The devil you say?” He frowned as they strolled past the house and down a pathway that led to a stone bench beneath a leafless arbor of trees. “I never would have thought that Elbridge had it in him.”

She laughed a little, gazing up at him with a look he found nearly irresistible. As she moved to the bench, the words he had been about to say fled his mind.

With growing frustration at his sudden and completely uncharacteristic inability to express himself, he watched her sit down and fold her hands in her lap. His gaze moved to her graceful, artistic fingers.

Removing his gloves, he looked at her, his heart pounding. “I was surprised that you left Kelbourne Keep so precipitously,” he finally said.

He watched surprise and confusion cloud her sparkling gaze. “You were?”

Long strides took him from one end of the windswept arbor to the other as he reflexively slapped his gloves against his leg. This was not turning out how he intended at all, he thought, his heart continuing to race at an annoying pace.

He turned to her, throwing his hands up. “Enough, Mariah. In our short acquaintance, we have been nothing if not candid with one another. If the gentlemen I sent did not convince you that you can trust me, then tell me what else I need to do, or send me on my way.”

He saw the confusion lift from her eyes, replaced by something he could not quite identify.

“How did Mr. Tracy come to be in possession of my sketches?” she asked softly, tilting her head to one side.

Gritting his teeth at her avoidance of his request, he turned his gaze from hers, looking into the distance across the pond to the rolling hills. “That day in the library, after you showed me what you had drawn, you left your sketchbook behind. Before returning it to

you, I took two of your drawings.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “Because I rather hoped you would notice them gone and ask me about it.”

For some reason this caused her to smile. “I have not looked in the case since. I wish I had.”

Tossing his gloves down, he moved to sit next to her, gazing deeply into her beautiful eyes. “Mariah, quite simply, I can no longer imagine my life without you. Everything about you has captured my heart— your intelligence, your humor, your beauty. I want nothing more than to be with you. To protect you, to learn with you, to grow old with you. Only time will show you the strength of the love and respect I have for you. You hold my heart, and I have no desire to have it back.”

He watched as she closed her eyes for a moment. He held his breath. When Mariah’s lashes fluttered up, all that he desired was plain to see in her beautiful eyes.

In accord, they rose from the bench. “Do you really have no idea why I left Kelbourne Keep?” she whispered, drawing close to him, tears shimmering on her lashes.

“No, tell me,” he said with tender solemnity.

“Because I wanted to be home, among my family, when you told me you loved me”—swiftly, his arms went around her in a fierce embrace—“and when I told you how terribly much I love you.”

***

A little while later, as they strolled back to the house hand in hand, with her hair ever so slightly mussed, Mariah looked up at her betrothed with joy-filled eyes. She gazed tenderly at his stern, handsome features, her heart swelling with pride that this man could love her and that he would go to such lengths to show her how much.

Never again would she doubt that she was wanted for herself, she thought as her heart soared with the

wonderful possibilities of their future.

A sudden thought stopped her steps.

“Stone,” she said, looking up at him with troubled eyes, “because of what you did, I know that you have no interest in my dowry. But there is no way, really, for me to prove that I care nothing for your title.”

The tender amusement in his arresting blue gaze sent a shiver of awareness down her spine. Slowly, he raised her hand to his warm lips. “Not to worry, my love. I knew being a countess held no interest for you when you refused to allow your delightful and charming mama to trap me into marriage when she found us embracing.”

Laughing, he took her lips again in a warm, lingering kiss that was full of promise, and then he said, “Let’s go in and give my future mama-in-law a fit of the vapors.”