Sword to the Heart (Bantam Series No. 13) Read Free

of that! I am hard! I am ruthless! And I intend to stay that way. I do not wish to be beguiled and enticed up the aisle by any designing female, who covets my name.”
    “It would be easy for a woman to love you for yourself,” Sir James said quietly.
    “That is where you are wrong!” Lord Colwall contradicted. “No woman will ever love me again because I do not intend that she should do so. I will take her body if it amuses me, but I am not interested in her mind, in her feelings and certainly not in her affections!”
    There was a sneer on his lips as he finished.
    “Most women, after a few plaintive protestations, are content to take my money or whatever I am prepared to give them and leave me alone.”
    Sir James gave a deep sigh.
    “You were one of the most attractive boys I have ever known. You were a very charming young man. I am not being dramatic, Ranulf, when I say I would have given my right hand to save you from the tragedy which altered your whole character. It should never have happened.”
    “But it did happen!” Lord Colwall said quietly. “And, as you say, it altered my character and my outlook. There can be no going back. I have therefore made my life my own way! And I can say with complete honesty that it is the way I prefer.”
    “Perhaps one day ... ” Sir James began tentatively.
    “No, no, Sir James,” Lord Colwall interrupted. “You are a romantic! This is reality. A man may suffer once from being burnt by a raging fire, but a second time he is too wary to approach it. I have suffered, as you rightly said, but it has made me wise and I shall not make a fool of myself a second time.”
    “And what about this child that you intend to marry?” Sir James asked.
    “Doubtless her parents have explained to her the advantages of such a match,” Lord Colwall said loftily. “Incidentally I have paid quite a considerable sum over the years for her education.”
    “You wanted her educated then?”
    “Not for my own benefit,” Lord Colwall answered, “but because the mother of my children should be cultured and have a certain amount of learning. After all, a mother is the first teacher a child knows.”
    There was silence for a moment and then Sir James said:
    “It is a pity you did not know your mother. She was very beautiful and very understanding. I have always been convinced that, had she been alive, you would not have been deceived by Claris.”
    “She died when I was only a year old, and therefore I cannot remember her,” Lord Colwall replied. “On the other hand, I remember my father distinctly. I endured eighteen years of his severity and his unmistakable indifference.”
    “Your father was never the same after the death of your mother,” Sir James said. “It was his love for her which made him resent that you were alive, and he blamed you because she never recovered from the very difficult time she had when you were born . ”
    “I know that,” Lord Colwall remarked, “and it only proves my point, Sir James, that love, obsessive, possessive and demanding is something to be avoided at all costs.”
    “Perhaps you will be unable to avoid it,” Sir James suggested. “It conquers us all at some time in our lives.”
    “You are living in cloud-cuckoo land!” Lord Colwall sneered. “Now I must ask you if, having heard the truth about my impending wedding, you will still act as my best man?”
    “I will do anything you ask of me,” Sir James answered simply, “but I am no less worried and perturbed by what you have told me.”
    “Leave me to do the worrying,” Lord Colwall said. “The marriage will take place in the afternoon, and we shall sit down to what will be a Medieval Wedding Feast at about five o’clock.”
    “Medieval?” Sir James questioned.
    “I found some difficulty in discovering amongst the archives any precedent for a marriage feast of the owner or his son taking place in the Castle,” Lord Colwall replied. “Of course, the Reception was usually