The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(302)

He said without preamble, "Charlotte is upset with me for even thinking of going to war. I can understand how she feels. I expect you too are upset. But Blake is a doctor. You have nothing serious to worry about. He is good at his job, and they keep the field hospitals out of trouble."



"Where there's war, there's always trouble," she sighed.



Thomas stumbled in his figure.



She looked up at him in alarm. "What is it?"



"Pray excuse me," he said, taking her hand and leading her from the set. "I have to speak with this gentleman."



There was a tall blond young man about Arabella's age standing on the stairs looking into the ballroom and he waved at Thomas excitedly, though he never smiled.



Arabella blinked and stared. Surely it wasn't-



The two men embraced warmly.



"Miss Arabella Neville, may I present Major Geoffrey Parks."



"Parky?" she said in surprise.



"Belle! You and Thomas know each other?" he said, giving her a big hug.



"You did Peter's miniature for me for Christmas, didn't you?"



"Oh, it was nothing," the handsome young man replied modestly. "How are you?"



"Very well."



"How is my sister, and everyone else?" Thomas asked sharply, his impatience for news of Elizabeth in Ireland getting the better of him.



"Just fine, I promise."



"Tell me first-hand all that has happened in their home since the invasion in December."



Arabella stared. "I can see you have much to discuss, so I shall not intrude any longer."



"No intrusion, Belle. But Thomas and I have business I fear you would find it dull." He bowed and kissed her hand. "I will speak with you tomorrow."



"You've heard the news?" Parks asked as he led Thomas away down the hall.



Warm hands gripped her shoulders intimately. She started when she realised that it was Adam.



Blake was across the room looking at her grimly, obviously wondering who on earth the tall, handsome soldier had been who had hugged and kissed her.



Adam and Oliver had decided the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba could be turned to their advantage. A declared intention to enlist from both of them and some importuning might be sufficient to get a firm undertaking from her to marry one or the other one of them before they supposedly shipped out.



"Would you do me the honour of standing up with me for the next dance?"



"Certainly."



She got through the waltz with perfect composure, but when he led her out into the hall instead of back to her friends waving at her, she knew something significant was about to happen in her life. That she had reached a turning point she could no longer avoid.



Adam's words surprised her, for they were in French. His accent was actually much better than she might have expected for someone she had assumed to have had only an indifferent academic career. "L'absence est a l'amour ce qu'et au feu le vent. Il etient le petit, il allume le grand."



She stared, translating the words to herself with growing surprise. "Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great."



"I will be leaving to enlist tomorrow, my darling Arabella, unless you give me some sign that you would like me to stay longer. That I can win your love for my own."



"You mustn't be hasty-"



"I can remain silent no longer," Adam declared. "My love for you is too vast. I long to marry you with every fibre of my being. But enough words. Let me show you how ardently I love you."



Before Arabella could utter another word of denial, his lips were upon hers, urging her for both a silent answer and an audible one to his proposal.



Blake came out of the ballroom in hot pursuit, and stood in the hall in an agony of indecision. He knew what had happened. The young cub had proposed. The news of the war had made everyone nervous, uncertain of the morrow. And he had beat him to it. He had been set to propose to Arabella himself, and the Devil with the consequences. Now….



The kiss seemed to go on forever, the image searing itself into his brain. Blake sighed and shook his head. He ought to break up the kiss, if only because he was her guardian. But part of him declared that it might be the last time they got to see each other… Also, he knew he had no right. He told himself he was a fraud, secretly wanting her all to himself.



He thought with sick dread of the prospect of Adam coming to him to ask permission to wed Arabella, and him having to look into their bright smiling faces. It would be more than he could bear, he was sure of it.



Clutching his now-heaving stomach, Blake fled before they saw him, taking refuge in the dark solitude of the empty library. There he took some deep cleansing breaths, telling himself it would be all right. He would have to endure a life without her. He had to let her go for the sake of her own happiness. He would probably be going off to the war himself soon… But he had never felt so cold or alone in his life.