The Inheritance (33 page)

If he were honest, he was forced to admit that Roanna might know more about the world at large than he did, and her interests were more widespread than his. He had always known who he was and what he wanted to do. Life had been simple
because his goals had been simple. He had spent hours on the range learning everything there was to know about horses and cattle. He had spent an equal number of hours learning the business end of the ranch.

His father had been gone so much he hadn’t been around to do a lot of the bookwork. It should have fallen on Simp. But Simp hated working with numbers, so Colin had taken over. From a very early age Colin had assumed responsibilities that would have staggered some men. He hadn’t minded. In fact, he had found a deep sense of satisfaction from knowing he was handling a man’s job.

But there was no role for him to play here in England except son of the scion. There was a bailiff to manage the land and a solicitor to manage the business. He wasn’t needed here. And the knowledge he had garnered over the years wasn’t valuable here, the way it was in Texas.

To Colin’s dismay, his friendly conversation with Roanna had only proven how ill-suited he was to court someone like her. She had been right to reject him. He had nothing to offer her in England. And he wasn’t sure what she could offer him in Texas—aside from beauty and stubbornness and an ability to laugh at herself. Good qualities in a woman, he conceded. But were they enough for a western wife?

When the men rejoined the ladies and moved to the ballroom, he still hadn’t made up his mind whether he was going to ask her to dance. The decision was made for him when Daisy said, “Colin, I hope you’ll see that Lady Roanna enjoys a dance or two.”

Since Roanna was standing right there, it would
have been churlish of him not to ask her. “Lady Roanna?”

“I would love to dance,” she said.

The problem with being friends with a woman, Colin quickly realized, was that you had to find a way to control the more than friendly feelings you might have for her. In his case, he was deluged with needs and wants and desires concerning Lady Roanna Warenne that had absolutely nothing to do with friendship.

“You’re very graceful on your feet,” Roanna said, hoping to encourage Colin to relax. Instead, his grasp tightened around her waist, and she was uncomfortably aware of the stern look on her father’s face as a consequence.

“Uh … Colin … I think I need a breath of fresh air. Could we please stop?”

Colin danced her toward the terrace doors and, since they were open, out onto the terrace itself.

Roanna realized that she wasn’t nearly so uncomfortable in Colin’s embrace without her father’s censorious gaze to make her feel self-conscious. She felt Colin’s reluctance as he released her, but since she was the one who had pleaded for air, she could hardly demand he continue the dance.

She walked over to the stone balustrade that looked over the rose garden. She took a deep breath and let it out. “The roses smell so lovely.”

Before she realized what he intended, Colin had leapt over the stone wall and landed in an aisle between two rows of rosebushes.

“What are you doing down there?” Roanna asked with a laugh.

He plucked a rose—yelping when a thorn caught him—and handed it up to her. “This is for you.”

She accepted the rose and said, “Come back up here, and let me see your hand.”

Roanna couldn’t help being impressed with his strength and grace as he placed his palms on the wall and heaved himself up and over it again. “Your hand,” she said, extending hers to receive it.

He had already stuck his thumb in his mouth to suck on it before he relinquished it to her. She cupped his hand in both of hers and lifted it toward her mouth. She put her lips against his thumb, where it was already damp from his mouth.

“Roanna.” His voice was raw. She was tasting him, as he wanted to taste her.

Roanna sucked lightly on the spot where the thorn had torn his skin. Then she lifted her eyes to meet Colin’s.

His eyes were stormy, his mouth thinned, his body taut.

“To hell with it,” he said.

His mouth found hers, and he tasted her as he had been dying to do since he had left her in the earl’s stable. To his surprise she met his desire and matched it with her own. Her hands slipped up around his neck and teased into his hair, causing a shiver to run down his spine.

The sound of a man clearing his throat had them leaping guiltily apart. They kept their backs to the ballroom and stared out over the garden.

“Lovely night tonight, isn’t it? Lady Roanna, your mother was looking for you. I believe she’s ready to leave.”

Colin breathed a sigh of relief. It was his father,
not hers. He turned to Roanna, wondering what he would see in her eyes in the golden streams of light from the ballroom.

He saw the same frustration he felt. At business left unfinished. Of desire left unrequited. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.” She left him without another look or another word.

Colin stayed on the terrace and waited for his father to join him at the balustrade. He heard footsteps on the stone, then felt his father’s presence.

“I thought you’d gotten her out of your system.”

“I thought I had, too.”

“Then what was that all about?”

Colin’s lips curled in a mocking smile. “We decided to be friends.”

“That kiss looked a lot more than friendly to me.”

Colin heard the concern in his father’s voice. “I know,” he said with a sigh.

“You’re going riding with her tomorrow?”

Now he heard disapproval. And balked at yielding to his father’s judgment of the situation. “I can handle this, Pa. Don’t interfere.”

“It’s hard not to, under the circumstances.”

“Don’t,” Colin warned.

He saw his father stiffen, saw that he had stepped over a boundary that had always been there in the past. He had been a boy, his father a man. His father had given orders, he had obeyed. Only now, somehow, that was all changing. It wasn’t comfortable for either of them, Colin thought. But he wasn’t able to slip back into the familiar role he had played in the past.

Colin waited to see how his father would react. He
was surprised when his father leaned over with his elbows on the stone balustrade and said, “I wondered when this day would come. How I would feel. What I would do.”

He turned and glanced at Colin, then looked out over the rose garden. “I suppose all I have to say is I’ve always been proud of you. You have a good head on your shoulders. I hope you’ll use it.”

He stood slowly and turned to Colin and put a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go inside, son. We need to say good night to our guests.”

His father had hugged him countless times. To comfort him, encourage him, applaud him. What made this gesture so different was the fact that, although he had called him son, his father had addressed him man to man. He had acknowledged Colin’s right to make his own decisions. And to deal with the consequences of his own mistakes.

Colin felt a lump of emotion in his throat that kept him from speaking. He nodded to his father and walked beside him back to the ballroom.

It was the first cutting of ties between father and son, but not the last. Colin fought back thoughts of what it would be like to part from his father in the spring. That was a long time from now. Anything could happen.

Lady Roanna arrived at Severn Manor promptly at nine o’clock. She had risen before the sky turned from black to gray and discovered a time of day with which she was unfamiliar—dawn. She had been to enough late parties during her comeout in London to learn about the dark hours after midnight, but mostly she had been tucked into bed by dawn. The morning rewarded her by being absolutely gorgeous. The sky was decorated with breathtaking streaks of pink and gold.

Roanna was feeling very wicked. Her parents had approved her morning ride with Mr. Calloway because the duke and duchess would also be in attendance. But the original plan had been changed. The duke had informed Colin late last night that he and the duchess would not be visiting the Hepplewhites after all. Colin had sent word to her early this morning that they would be riding alone.

She should have told her parents.

But she knew they would have forbidden her to go, or sent a groom along to keep an eye on her. She wanted a chance to talk with Colin when there wasn’t someone watching over her shoulder. All
right, she had ulterior motives. Yes, she hoped he would want to kiss her. And yes, she intended to let him do it.

She was feeling very wicked, indeed.

“Good morning, Mr. Calloway,” Roanna said with a smile that made her dimple show.

“Good morning to you, too, Roanna. I’m a little surprised to see you here. Your parents didn’t object?”

“No,” Roanna said.

Colin watch her horse dance beneath her, then found the white-knuckled hold on the reins that had caused her mount’s reaction. She had just lied to him. For a single second he considered confronting her. But she was a grown woman. She knew the risks and dangers of her behavior. If she chose to ride with him without her parents’ permission, he wasn’t going to deny himself the pleasure of her company.

“Let’s go,” he said. “I thought we could take a circuitous route and enjoy a little longer ride.”

Having survived the lie, Roanna’s second smile was more genuine. “I would love that.”

There was still a little dew left on the grass, so the green hills glistened. The smell of heather was in the air, and there was a gentle breeze that kept them from getting too warm as the sun rose higher in the sky.

“You’re very comfortable on a horse,” Colin noted after a particularly spirited run.

“I spent practically my entire childhood on one,” Roanna confessed. “There weren’t any other children around that I could play with, so I attached myself to my horse, Victory.”

Nicholas frowned. “I can’t believe there were no other children your age in the whole parish.”

“Of course there were,” she said with a laugh. “The tenants all have children I would very much have liked to know. But Father said it wouldn’t be fair to them because there would always be a distance between us that could never be erased.”

Colin snorted. “That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.”

“It isn’t stupid,” Roanna said. “The class structure in England has existed for generations. It isn’t something that can be ignored. Suppose I made friends with the daughter of one of my father’s tenants. The girl could never be invited to attend a dinner with people of a higher class. In the first place, she couldn’t afford the necessary dress. Second, she wouldn’t know how to act in that kind of company, and they wouldn’t tolerate her
faux pas
. And it would be cruel to share my own experiences with such a friend, who could never be a part of them, don’t you see?”

“I see a system of life I don’t much care for and can’t approve,” Colin said. “Life for the common man is a lot better in America. You might start out poor, working for somebody else. All that can change. A lot of hard work, a little luck, and plenty of determination can raise you above the circumstances of your birth.”

“Is that what you plan to do?” Roanna asked.

“It’s what I’ve already done. I’m not anyone’s bastard son in Texas. I’m Colin Calloway, rancher. I know the banker’s daughter and … and a few women who wouldn’t be welcome in polite company.”

For some strange reason Roanna hadn’t imagined Colin with other women. She wasn’t worried about the women of the demimonde he had mentioned. He might associate with them, but he was hardly likely to marry one of them. But the banker’s daughter concerned her. Did Colin have a sweetheart waiting for him in America? Had he been toying with her affections?

As
you’ve toyed with his?
her conscience demanded.

I’m not playing games. Anymore, she corrected.

Would you marry him if he asked?

How can I know? He hasn’t asked.

You’d better consider the possibility. It isn’t fair to lead him on if your intentions aren’t honest
.

What if he has someone else waiting for him in America?

Why not ask him and find out for sure?

When Roanna turned to Colin to ask her question, she found him staring at her. “Is something the matter?”

“I was just admiring your … dress. The color suits you.” Actually he had been admiring the figure inside her dress, but Colin couldn’t see himself telling her that. “You’ve been chewing on your lip for the past five minutes. Maybe I should be the one asking if something is the matter.”

“I was just wondering if … if you have a sweetheart in America.”

Colin laughed. “No, I don’t. But if you can ask, so can I. How many beaus have asked for your hand?”

“More than I can count,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

Colin sobered. “Are you serious?”

“Being the daughter of an earl brought more than a few fortune hunters around. Father turned most of them down before they even had a chance to court me. But there’s been no one I wanted to have ask me,” she added in a soft voice.

They had arrived at the Hepplewhites’ small stone cottage at a time when both would have preferred to continue the conversation.