An Infamous Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

peace. “You gave me everything.”
    “For a week.” He’d smiled a little. “But you’ll be happy with Jack. I can go to my rest in comfort, knowing you’ll be with him. You’ll suit, the two of you.”
    The selfish part of her had wanted to berate him for forcing such a commitment upon her and his friend, for expecting her to marry a stranger. But no, Giles must die in peace, and when he was gone, she and Colonel Armstrong would decide that so mad a promise didn’t bind them and then agree to go their separate ways. “He’s nothing like you,” was all she’d said.
    “No. But you’ll come to love him in time. You’ll see. Good man. More clever than he seems at first, and an adventurer, as you wish to be.”
    “I don’t want to be an adventurer,” she’d protested. “I want you to stay.”
    The smile had flickered over his ruined features again. “Look at your books. Adventures.”
    She glanced at the book on the table beside the bed, which she’d been reading to Giles before the disease had settled in his lungs—an account of James Cook’s voyages. She supposed she did collect books of travels. It had been a great comfort, during her years of ostracism and toil in York, to imagine herself away to the far side of the world. But she’d never expected to have adventures of her own, and she certainly didn’t want to think of Botany Bay or Batavia now.
    “I’ll miss you so.” Her voice had broken then.
    He’d squeezed her hand with a grip turned so weak compared to the strength she’d fallen in love with. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
    Those had been his last words.
    Now she heard a single horse trotting down the village lane. Looking out the window, she spotted Colonel Armstrong, impeccable in a well-fitted green coat and mounted on a glossy dapple gray. He rode straight to her gate, reined the hunter to a halt and swung down from the saddle.
    “Why, there’s little Jack Armstrong,” Miss Rafferty said. “I haven’t seen him in years.”
    “Hardly little anymore,” Mrs. Ilderton replied with open appreciation. “He and your Giles were great friends as boys.”
    “I know,” Elizabeth said. “He called yesterday. I believe he was sadly shocked to learn what was happening.” She gazed out the window again. Colonel Armstrong was securing his horse to the gatepost and murmuring into its silvery ear. There was something endearing about a man who talked to his animals, but she shut her heart to his appeal. It felt like a betrayal.
    “Perhaps your husband left a message for you to pass along to him?” Mrs. Ilderton guessed.
    “Indeed, ma’am.” Thank God she was sensitive enough to spare Elizabeth the trouble of inventing an excuse to push the ladies out her door so she could get on with spurning her unwanted suitor.
    “Then we must be going, hadn’t we, Augusta?” Mrs. Ilderton stood, smoothing her skirts.
    Miss Rafferty, still watching Colonel Armstrong from the window, started at her words. “Hm? Oh, yes. He’s turned into a fine specimen of a man, hasn’t he? I never would’ve dreamed it when he first went into the army, as short and spotty as he was. He was one of those who looked twelve when he was sixteen, and it seemed so absurd to think of him playing a man’s part and ordering great louts of soldiers about. Such a pity about his mother, don’t you think? And her not so very old.”
    She rose, too, and Elizabeth walked with them to the door, thanking them for their gifts and assuring them she would, indeed, not hesitate to call upon them if she had need.
    Colonel Armstrong stepped aside to let them pass, bowing and lifting his hat. Still clutching it in one hand, he waited opposite her. The sun had at last broken through the clouds, and its light glinted off his dark brown hair. What business had he, had anyone, looking so alive and full of color on a day like today?
    “Good morning, Mrs. Hamilton, and my condolences.”
    “Thank you, Colonel. Won’t you come in?”