“I see.”
Robert forced a lighthearted smile to his face. “Can you at least attempt to persuade her that I would make an ideal husband?”
Freddie raised his glass toward Robert. “That I have been doing and will continue to do so.”
“Thank you.”
The next few hours Robert had planned to visit with the Willowdale siblings passed with agonizing slowness. He dined with Freddie and worked hard to maintain a cheerful and friendly façade. While making light conversation, he seethed inside, wanting nothing but to smash tableware and pull the table cloth and all its contents onto the floor. Reminding himself that hewouldhave Thea as his wife did nothing at all to curb his temper or lighten his sour mood.
“Thea and I plan to ride out in the next day or so,” Freddie said, wiping his lips with his napkin. “We have not been out since before our parents were killed.”
Robert sipped his wine. “I suspect it would do you both good. Have you been hunting lately? We should do so, and soon. What good does it do us landlords with all this land at our disposal, and we never go out and kill anything?”
Freddie chuckled. “You make a very good point, sir. Perhaps on your next visit, we will make a point of going hunting.”
“I will look forward to it.”
* * *
Ensconced in his carriage for the two-hour return journey to his estates, Robert’s fury once more rose to the surface. Yet, confined as he was to the carriage, he had little means of a physical outlet for it, and his rage turned inward, impotent, boiling like a cauldron on a bonfire.
“Who is she to refuse me?” he growled, pounding the leather seat with his fists. “Who is she to dare choose her own husband? By God, there is no one better suited for her to marry than me. I have wealth, I have power. I am better looking than anyone in the kingdom. Why, I have women falling at my feet every day of the week, and Miss Thea thinks I am not a suitable husband?”
He slammed the heel of his hand against the door, garnering the attention of his coachman. “My Lord?”
“It is nothing,” Robert called back, biting hard on his knuckle and leaving a bruise. Lowering his voice, he muttered, “What the hell is Freddie thinking, letting her have a say in her marriage choice? I never thought you were a fool, Freddie, but I certainly do now. It is not a woman’s place to pick a man to marry.”
Trying to make himself relax, he pondered why Thea refused to marry him. While they had grown up together, as their families had always been close and their estates bordered one another, Robert thought back to those days. At the time, he and Freddie were best friends, and both of them were at the age where they hardly considered girls as human. It was not until he reached the age of about fifteen when he observed the beautiful creature Thea had grown into.
Robert never outgrew his infatuation.
“Did I offend her somehow back then?” he mused. “Perhaps I should simply ask her why she despises me so.”
Robert decided to court her anyway. “Perhaps she will eventually learn I am the wonderful man and excellent husband to be that I know I am. I simply must try harder to woo her.”
Envisioning her lovely eyes on him and him alone, her adoring smile just for him, Robert relaxed back into the leather seat. “Ah, my lovely little minx,” he sighed, his anger finally gone. “Soon you will see what a charming and perfect gentleman I am. Once you fully realize my feelings for you, you will fall into my arms and permit me to kiss your sweet, adorable lips.”
Gazing out the window, Robert saw his life stretch out ahead of him, waking to see her in the bed next to him, Thea bearing his children, standing beside him at parties and balls, walking into their old age hand in hand.
“You will learn to love me, Thea,” he murmured. “I swear you will. But should you make me drag you, screaming, to the altar, I will do it. You see, my dear, sweet Thea, I will have you. One way or another.”
Chapter 5
Practically bouncing from the bed, Thea hindered more than helped Felicity dress her in a gown of dark blue that was almost black with sleeves slashed in scarlet. After being confined to her bed for the previous day and night, her youthful energy levels had skyrocketed. The pain in her chest and throat had subsided considerably, and she had sorely chafed at her brother’s restriction.
Yet, she had another reason for her excitement – it meant she might see Liam Carter again. Of course, she could always order him to accompany her, but that would spoil the spontaneity of simply running into him. He had saved her life after all, and it seemed strange to order him about after that. Through her twenty four hour restriction to remain in bed, Thea read romance novels and pictured Liam as the green-eyed hero in every one of them.
“No,” she told Felicity, who brushed out her thick black locks. “I want my hair left down.”
“Miss Miller,” Felicity said, her tone slightly reproving. “It is not proper for a woman of your age to wear her hair unbound.”
Thea shrugged. “I prefer it down. I like the way it feels when the breeze runs through it. I do not understand why I should always conform to what society dictates.”
Felicity sighed dramatically. “As Miss Miller commands.”
As it turned out, Thea did not have to order Liam to accompany her. As she went down the stairs for breakfast, at a pace slightly slower than a gallop, she discovered him at their base. He stood almost at military attention, his almost beautiful face staring ahead of him, the perfect picture of a footman prepared to serve.
“Good morning, Mr. Carter,” she said, her heart beating faster as he turned his stunningly green eyes on her before he bowed low.
