Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice Read Free

confused with Mr. Lloyd-Jones, my father.” He knew he ought to say more, but he hadn’t the least idea what that should be. His thoughts were divided upon the subjects of her admirable poise and how the flames reflected in her glossy black curls, all the while wholly aware that these were topics of conversation to be avoided at all costs.
    “I pray I do not in any way inconvenience Mrs. Lloyd-Jones,” Miss Armistead ventured as she peeled off her gloves and raised her hands to the fire. When he did not immediately answer, she turned to bestow on him a smile, one which ignited her entire countenance with an even greater beauty.
    As he replaced the candelabra and took up a seat across from her, he wondered yet again how such a diamond of the first water had not been spoken for during her London season or how he had failed to notice her at the time. Worse, he couldn’t begin to fathom what fearful occurrence prevented her from making a sparkling match long since. Her desperation was clearly evident in the way shehad pounded on his door in the dusk of evening in an overt attempt to scheme her way into marriage with him. Now she was asking, oh so delicately, if there were a Mrs. Lloyd-Jones. The whole of it was utterly mystifying.
    “Sir, I beg your pardon,” she murmured, her eyes wide with what looked to be apprehension. “I am persuaded I have misspoken. Pray, forgive my impudence.”
    The truth came to Colin’s tongue before he had time to consider. “No, not at all impudent,” he assured her, even as he wondered at her capacity to transform his doubt into full commiseration. He, however, failed to reveal his marital status, an omission that prompted her to turn her bewitching gaze upon him in a manner so divested of guile he knew not where to look. Mercifully, the discomfiture of the moment was put at an end by a knock on the door and the entrance of Mrs. Armistead, her eyes owl-like behind her spectacles. She was followed by whom he presumed to be Miss Hale, whose tear-streaked face and disordered locks denoted such genuine distress, he was instantly contrite.
    “Please be seated, Mrs. Armistead,” he insisted as he leapt to his feet and indicated that she should take up his own chair. Miss Armistead also rose in favor of her friend, but he persuaded her to stay put, collected another chair from the corner and placed it in front of the fire with the others.
    “Thank you,” Miss Hale said in a girlish voice that belied her full-blown looks. “I had thought we must surely freeze to death before help came!”
    Miss Armistead’s gaze flew up in dismay and Colin wondered if her agitation at Miss Hale’s bald admission was further evidence of Miss Armistead’s impeccable manners or merely the mark of her determination to gain his favor.
    “We are recently arrived from India and are not accustomed to the cold,” her mother hastened to remark.
    “Your rescue might have come sooner if you had sent the groom for help,” he observed shortly, “rather than send a young maiden out into the night.” He could not like Mrs. Armistead but feared that his manner bordered on an insolence that betrayed his refusal to be, once again, in the wrong.However, it was his instinctive desire to protect and defend Miss Armistead that troubled him most.
    “I must confess it is my abject fear of the city that is to blame. You see,” Mrs. Armistead continued with an unctuous smile, “I so feared being alone without male protection. I am ever so fortunate to have such an intrepid daughter as I do in Elizabeth. I knew she could not fail us.”
    Colin imagined a flash of understanding passed between the mother and her daughter, one which denoted their triumph at having landed themselves in such favorable circumstances, and he quickly turned to gage Miss Armistead’s expression. He was not fast enough, it seemed, for he found her looking demurely into her lap, her lips devoid of the air of victory he was persuaded would adorn