Free Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice by Heidi Ashworth Page A

round her like a sudden thundercloud burst onto the scene of a pure blue sky.”
    “Somehow I do not believe you. She is a lovely girl, in every way. I wish I had a sister as kind and merry as she.”
    Mr. Lloyd-Jones bestowed on her a beatific smile, one that denoted his great affection for his sister. “Yes, I am most blessed in her. As such, I find I am particular as to whom she should marry.”
    “More so than your parents?” Elizabeth asked with great interest in spite of the pain in her neck and the ensuing faintness that, moment by moment, grew more imminent.
    “My mother is no longer with us,” he replied as a dark cloud passed over his face, “and while Analisa’s mother is all that she should be, I can hardly hope to stand against my father in this matter, let alone his wife. But that is neither here nor there. We were meant to speak of India, were we not?”
    Elizabeth managed a little nod but felt that if she were not allowed to ease the pressure to the back of her neck, she should surely swoon. “Mr. Lloyd-Jones, I do not believe I have ever experienced waltzing thus. I confess to feeling as light as a feather in your arms, however, if you were to loosen your hold just a trifle, I should find conversation more comfortable.”
    Immediately, he loosened his grip, a circumstance she instantly regretted as she knew she was safer in the tight circle of his arms. As matters stood, she was doomed to fall to the floor. The room began to swirl about her and her vision narrowed until all was utter darkness.

Chapter Five
    Colin stared at the white face that lolled against his black coat sleeve and knew he had never seen anything so beautiful in all his days. It was his last thought before the humiliation assailed his senses; the fault for her fainting could be laid entirely in his dish. Why he had gripped her so tightly in his arms was anyone’s guess. It wasn’t that she seemed in need of his strength; she did not seem the least bit frail—quite the opposite—and yet, in spite of her efforts to conceal it, he sensed in her an unaccountable vulnerability.
    More likely his rigidity on the dance floor was due to his anxiety with regard to his deflated confidence as a result of his broken engagement. The breaking of his pact with Tony, and at such a rapid rate, did nothing to improve Colin’s opinion of himself, either. It hardly mattered that he was thoroughly justified in the breaking of both promises, he still wanted nothing more than to curse, competently and at length. However, he did not; the girl in his arms was in need of a gentleman and he was the one at hand.
    Quickly, he scanned the room for an unoccupied piece of furniture, preferably a sofa of some length where she could be arranged in comfort. He spotted one on the far side of the room and instantly began to bark at the circle of onlookers. “This lady has fainted; do allow me to pass!” When the crowd did not immediately part, he cradled her more tightly in his arms, her head protected along the inside curve of his shoulder while he engaged the outer to butt against those in his path.
    Analisa ran to his side and he was only too grateful to order her about. “Find her mother and have her meet me at the sofa by the fireplace. No, wait!” Concerned that it would be too warm and stuffy by the fireplace, he changed direction and headed to a different sofa, this one beneath a window. “Here, Analisa, she shall be here,” he called in what amounted nearly to panic. Appalled at his heart-pounding apprehension, he forced himself to slow down and succeeded in placing his burden on the sofa without further mishap.
    The moment she was no longer in his arms, she began to stir. “Where am I?” she asked as her head swayed to and fro.
    He fell to his knees at her side and took her hand. “All is well,” he said, vastly relieved that his words were indeed true. “You shall be right as a trivet in a moment.”
    At his words, her head turned in his