Free A Christmas Affair by Joan Overfield

sir,” Amanda continued briskly, aware of the silence that had fallen between them. “How are you feeling? You’re looking much better, I must say.
    “I’m feeling much better, thank you, ma’am,” he replied, feeling a sudden awkwardness. He had a faint memory of collapsing in the parlor room and was mortified by his lack of control. He shifted restlessly on the bed forcing himself to meet her velvet brown gaze.
    “I hope you will accept my apologies for causing you such inconvenience,” he said, his voice stiff with formality. “It was not my intention to land myself on you when I arrived, I promise you.”
    “I’m sure it was not.” Amanda had to hide a laugh at his rigid expression and the hard line of his mouth as he offered the oh-so-proper apology. Heavens, what a prig he was, she mused, although she was careful to keep such thoughts to herself. She remembered how unbearably prim Daniel had been after returning home from his first posting, and how she and the others had teased him out of what they called his starched collar period.
    “You have only yourself to blame for it,” she admonished in a rallying tone, waggling her finger at his recumbent form. “Williams told me the ship’s surgeon warned you against undertaking so arduous a journey.”
    Rather than responding to her teasing scold with a smile as Daniel would have done, Justin’s brows rose haughtily. “That was quite impossible, Miss Lawrence,” he informedher in his most superior tones. “I had given your brother my most solemn vow that I would deliver that packet to you, and a Stockton always keeps his word.”
    “That may as be, sir,” Amanda continued, still hopeful of jollying him out of his present mood, “but after so long a time, a delay of a few more days would not matter. Williams told me you were badly wounded at Vitoria and have only now recovered from those injuries.”
    “Williams seems to have told you a great deal,” Justin responded coldly, annoyed by his valet’s loquaciousness. “Which reminds me, where is he? ’Tis not like him to be so derelict in his duties.”
    Her willingness to tolerate his poor humor vanished at these words. “I sent him to bed, Colonel,” she replied, her tones every bit as crisp as his. “We were up half the night nursing you, and the poor man was quite fagged. If you require any assistance, you have only to ring for the footman.”
    Justin ignored her cool offer, his brows gathering at what he considered to be the most pertinent piece of information. “ ‘We were up,’” he repeated, his expression darkening as he glared at her. “Am I to understand that
you
helped care for me?”
    “Well, you needn’t look so outraged, sir!” Amanda snapped indignantly. “I am your hostess, and it was my duty to see that you received every care. One of the servants was always present, so there was nothing in the least bit untoward about the situation if that is what you are so concerned about.”
    “I wasn’t questioning the propriety of it all,” he gritted, feeling faintly harassed by her bellicose manners. “But I can not help but wonder at your lack of sensibility! Did it never occur to you that no man would wish his hostess to see him in such a state?”
    “Stuff!” Amanda retorted, tossing her head back defiantly.“For your information, Colonel, I have nursed my mother my brothers and sisters, and any number of neighbors and acquaintances through a variety of diseases, and I still hold each of them in the highest regard! Although,” she added, as her temper gave way to impishness, “you are the first of my patients to have attacked me.”
    Justin’s face paled with shock. “What the devil are you talking about?” he demanded, a feeling of horror washing over him as a particularly vivid memory flashed in his mind.
    “Nothing” she denied quickly, embarrassed that her teasing words caused him such distress. “I-I was only funning you.”
    “No.” He moved his dark head