Page 50 of His Betrothed
Chapter 14
He couldn’t have left the island, Roselyn told herself as she dressed; not when he couldn’t mount a horse alone or defend himself on a dangerous journey.
She descended the ladder and walked quickly out the door. Would he go to Wakesfield Manor, now that Charlotte had met him? He’d originally wanted no one to know where he was, but he’d allowed her to choose whether to tell thetruth to Charlotte.
Roselyn was so confused that she didn’t know what to believe anymore.
But Wakesfield didn’t seem like the right destination, so she swiftly headed through the meadows toward the ocean. The sun was just beginning to peer over the horizon, and by the time she neared the cliff, her face was bathed in warmth from running.
She finally saw Thornton, silhouetted against the dawnsky, the sun streaming brightlyaround him. Roselyn took a deep breath. She wasn’t certain why she felt relieved—or why she’d worried at all. Surely it was just fear for his safety.
She suddenly remembered that when he had mentioned the Heywoods last evening, something had not sounded right. He’d tried to cover it up, but she had not been fooled. For a moment she thought he’d felt inadequate,but she’d put such a ridiculous idea from her mind. With his arrogance, he would hardly feel inadequate about anything.
She calmed her breathing as she came up behind him.
“Did you think I’d gone for good?” he asked without turning around.
Startled, she came to a halt at his side. He looked down at her, and when his eyes widened and a slow smile lit his face, she knew immediately how she mustlook to him—flustered, unkempt, with her hair down as if she couldn’t take the time to dress properly in her haste to find him.
And it was all true.
She caught her lower lip between her teeth, and turned to look out over the ocean. It was low tide, and gulls swooped and darted amid the wet rocks at the base of the cliff, looking for food.
“No, I didn’t think you’d gone,” she said, “Ijust thoughtit might be too soon for you to walk very far with the cane. What if you fell and hurt yourself, and I had todragyou back to the cottage alone?”
By the saints, she was babbling like an idiot. Her dreams last night had been full of his face above hers, his mouth so near, his thigh between hers—it was a wonder she could even look at him.
Yet Thornton drew her eyes until she could no longer resist.He was gazing out over the ocean, his face bathed in warm sunlight, his expression pensive.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I was just remembering. It wasn’t too long ago that there were ships as far as one could see.”
Roselyn felt a little crackle of excitement at the perfect opening he’d given her. “Do you think the Spanish have tried to invade England by now? I heard thatbelow London, they’d felt the need to stretch chains across the Thames to keep ships out.”
He shook his head. “No, that kind of news travels quickly. Your reliable Francis Heywood would have heard by now. I’m sure the Spanish are limping toward their own ports. From the few days my ship trailed their fleet, I could tell they didn’t approach this invasion very intelligently.”
The tone of hisvoice when he talked about the enemy was particularly mocking. “But your mother is Spanish,” she said.
The smile he gave her was not pleasant, but he remained silent.
“Does it…bother you?”
“What? To have Spanish blood which everyone hates?”
She was surprised at his open bitterness. Wouldn’t a Spanish spy pretend to be happy as an Englishman? “Surely that is only due to the war,” she said.
“There was no war during my childhood, but it seemed the same to me.”
“Did people treat you so differently?”
“Always. Didn’t you?”
She wanted to defend herself, to say that his mother’s nationality had nothing to do with his poor behavior as a groom. But their betrothal was not what she wanted to explore right now.
“Did you ever see my mother before the eve of our wedding?” he asked coldly.
“I cannot say I did, but then again, I didn’t see you, either.”
