Page 81 of A Misguided Devotion

“Why?” asked William, though he knew he shouldn’t. “Why did you try?”

“Because I didn’t want you to marry out of obligation rather than love.”

He searched her eyes for a warmth he had no right to seek. “Is that all?”

She turned away from him. “Is that not enough? As your friend, I had to make the attempt.”

“I ought not to ask, but I wondered…if I were free…if we could be more than friends.”

“How dare you pose such a question, Lord Droxford?”

The formality of her address bit, but it didn’t deter him. “I know it’s unfair, but—”

“Are you not satisfied with Laura’s affection? Do you need mine as well?”

The only woman whose love he wanted was Kitty. “Miss Barrington is not in love with me.”

“Oh, but she is. She told me herself, and you must learn to love her back. Forget any thought of loving anyone else. It is cruel to taunt me with impossible dreams.”

“Then you—”

“Go. She is waiting for you. She won’t refuse your offer. Make her happy. God bless you, William.”

She fled through the gate into the garden. He stood staring out to sea, not seeing. Why had he thought it would be satisfying to know that Kitty might have been his if he had not thrown any chance of a life with her away? He wished he hadn’t asked.

William walked along the cliff path toward the place where he’d first seen Miss Barrington. There she was, standing with her back to him, near the top of the path down to the beach.

She must have heard his footsteps. “You came,” she said as she turned to face him, her gaze alight with that glow he had painted. The look of love. He could see why she’d dazzled him the first time they’d met, but it stirred nothing within him now apart from regret.

The light in her eyes dimmed as he approached. Was she as uncertain about this as he was? Should he show her some token of affection to reassure her? Was she expecting him to kiss her before he proposed? Her initial expression had seemed to invite it. He leaned in, but she turned away at the sound of footsteps, so his lips landed on her cheek, not her mouth.

“Is this your idea of a joke, Laura?” Mr Jenkin said, marching along the path to where Miss Barrington stood. “Did you come to meet me—or to be with him?”

She stepped backward at the fierceness in his tone, eager to put more distance between herself and the riding officer. She almost crushed herself against William in her haste, and he instinctively wrapped his arm around her to protect her.

“Regretting your choice already? It is a little late to pursue the Viscount. I can’t believe you would be so fickle.”

“David, don’t talk like that. You’re scaring me. It’s not what you imagine.”

David? That sounded rather intimate for a colleague of her father’s. A flicker of hope coursed through him and then died. She was looking to him for protection—not Mr Jenkin.

“What am I supposed to think? He kissed you. I thought that was a privilege reserved for a husband.”

“It is—”

“Lord Droxford is not your husband.”

“That can be remedied,” said William. It was, after all, what he had come to do, however little he relished the prospect.

The riding officer took a menacing pace toward him, his lip curled in disdain. “Move away from her. Now. Or I’ll make you.”

Was the man insane? What did he hope to achieve by threatening him?

Miss Barrington pulled free from William’s hold and laid a hand on the other man’s arm. “David, don’t do this. Your position—”

He shook off her grip. “Keep out of this, Laura. I refuse to stand by and watch him embrace you—whatever the consequences.”

William recognised the desperation of a man in love. Bile rose in his stomach at the thought of Mr Barrington kissing Kitty. Such emotion could make a fellow reckless.