Free Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice by Heidi Ashworth Page B

direction and she opened her eyes. For a moment, she seemed sadly bewildered but then her gaze fastened onto his face and she smiled at him with such sweetness that his heart seized up in a most peculiar fashion.
    Suddenly, she frowned and uttered an “oh” of alarm as her hand slid from his grasp. Pushing herself upright, she looked about. “I fear I have created a scene. Is my mother nearby?”
    Colin turned to look about the room and spotted the approach of Mrs. Armistead. “She is nearly upon us.” He rose to stand and stepped away to allow Miss Armistead’s mother to tend to her daughter. It occurred to him, then, that he was no longer strictly required, yet he had no wish to depart before she had entirely recovered. “Do you wish to go home? Shall I have your carriage brought round?” he asked for lack of any better reason to remain at Miss Armistead’s side.
    “Oh, please do,” Mrs. Armistead replied as she chafed her daughter’s hands and pinched her cheeks. “I shall take you straight home to Aunt Augusta’s and tuck you into bed, my sweet,” she cooed.
    Reluctantly, Colin turned away and went in search of a footman. After some thought, he realized that should he order his carriage be brought round with the Armistead’s, he could insist on his willingness to escort the ladies home in his own conveyance. Miss Armistead would be afforded the company of Analisa while those who saw them leave together would refrain from speaking ill of the girl who had the great fortune to be escorted from the party in the company of the Lloyd-Joneses.
    Satisfied with this arrangement, he found himself suddenly eager to host the ladies at a dinner in his home as Analisa had suggested. It would give him the opportunity to make amends to Miss Armistead and perhaps she should regale them all with the promised tales of India. He returned to the Armistead’s and informed them that once they had proffered their
adieus
and retrieved their wraps, hiscarriage would be at their disposal.
    “Oh, but we have our own carriage, Mr. Lloyd-Jones,” Mrs. Armistead blustered. “It is not as if we arrived in anything as pedestrian as a hackney cab. Elizabeth’s Aunt Augusta is very good ton, I shall have you know!”
    “Yes, of course she is, Mrs. Armistead,” he assured her, though he hadn’t the slightest idea who Aunt Augusta might be. “I hadn’t meant to imply anything untoward; I only thought to escort you home in my carriage. It would be a boon to me, as I am more than a little alarmed and shall feel better when she is safely home. My sister shall come along, as well, to lend us countenance, and your carriage may follow along behind. Does that suit you?” he asked with a little bow.
    “Oh, yes, indeed it does,” she cried as her spectacles slipped to the end of her nose. Hastily, she adjusted them, her hands, one full of a pointless lorgnette, shaking. “I do assure you that Elizabeth has not fabricated her condition so as to prevail upon you in any way. How I should scold her if she had!”
    Colin observed how Miss Armistead turned at her mother’s words so as to hide her blushes, but she was not quick enough to keep them from his observation. “The thought hadn’t occurred to me,” he hastened to assure them. “As proof of my good will I wish to renew my sister’s invitation to dine at my house; shall we say Thursday next? I intend on serving a great many delicacies for your enjoyment, ones that cannot be had in India.” He hadn’t any earthly idea what those foodstuffs might be, but he was determined to find them out. He also decided that alterations to the dining room would commence the moment he had breakfasted in the morning.
    “How very lovely, Mr. Lloyd-Jones! Elizabeth and I shall very much look forward to it, won’t we my dear?” Mrs. Armistead crooned. “And now it is time that you got to your feet.”
    Colin wasted no time in assisting Miss Armistead to a standing position and refused to let go