Free A Christmas Affair by Joan Overfield Page B

recalling the heavy snows that had made his journey from Portsmouth so difficult.
    “Leave?” Amanda cried, staring at him as if he had taken leave of his senses. “Are you mad? You were all but at death’s door yesterday! Surely you can not be so foolhardy as to risk a relapse? I forbid it.”
    Now it was Justin’s turn to gape at her. “I beg your pardon?” he said weakly.
    “I forbid you to leave,” she said, her voice unconsciously taking on the same hectoring tone she used toward her brothers. “You are still in a weakened state, and I will not have you racketing about the countryside.”
    Justin’s first impulse was to tell her to go to the devil, but since he had never spoken to a lady in such blunt terms, he quickly restrained himself. Instead, he fixed her with aquelling look that had been known to make even the most battle-hardened troops quail in fear. “Your concern for my welfare does you proud, Miss Lawrence,” he said, his soft voice in direct contrast to the fury blazing inside him. “But you are far off the mark if you think I will tolerate such insolent familiarity. I am not one of your brothers to be bullied and ordered about, and I will do as I see fit. I trust I have made myself clear?”
    The sight of those perfectly shaped, dark eyebrows arching in haughty condescension made Amanda’s temper flare, and her eyes rested wistfully on the carafe of water sitting on the table. No, she decided unhappily, it would not be at all the thing. Instead she drew herself upright, folding her arms across her chest and bending her most intimidating scowl on him. “You may not be so young as Jeremey and Jocelyn,” she told him coolly, “but you are every bit as foolish! Why can you not accept the simple fact that you are ill? You can not go.”
    “And you can not make me stay.” As a retort, it left much to be desired, but it was all Justin could muster at the moment.
    Amanda’s eyes took on a dangerous glow. “Can I not?” she challenged softly. “I shouldn’t be so certain of that.”
    “You are a hell-cat without equal!” he fairly shouted, losing all semblance of control. “I don’t doubt that you are unmarried; what man with any wit would have you?”
    “And you are an arrogant poppinjay whose foolishness is only surpassed by his opinion of himself,” she returned heatedly. “Is your vanity really so important to you that you would rather court death than do as I am suggesting?”
    “You are not suggesting, ma’am,” he snarled, a lock of dark hair falling across his brow as he glared up at her. “You are
ordering!”
    “And of course as a colonel of the Regiment it would never do for you to follow another’s instructions!” she jibed,shooting him a look of acute dislike. “I suppose it would be another story had I wrapped my wishes in pretty linen, simpering and smiling at you like some foolish Bath miss!”
    He returned her look tenfold. “Perhaps it would be,” he drawled, his tone both mocking and challenging. “But we’ll never know . . . will we?”
    Amanda swallowed her ire, knowing he was right. Much as it galled her, she knew that if she wished him to stay, it was up to her to apologize. Pride warred briefly with her innate sense of right and wrong, and pride lost. Drawing a deep breath, she raised her chin and said, “It would please both my family and me if you would do us the honor of spending the holidays with us,” she began, meeting his gaze with a quiet dignity. “Please say you will stay.”
    Justin stared at her in surprise. He had been expecting her to ask him to remain a week, perhaps even a sennight, but until Christmas . . . he should have known to expect the unexpected from her.
    “If . . . if you have other plans, I will understand,” she said quickly, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment as he remained silent. “You mentioned something about going to your ancestral home for Christmas. . . .”
    “Stonebridge,” he provided,