Free Coming Home by Vonnie Hughes Page A

sidetracked.
    But no. ‘What did your father say?’
    â€˜He yelled at me that I must marry Amelia at once. I didn’t know what the devil he was talking about. So Sir Archie, all red and angry, explained that Amelia admitted I was the father of her unborn child. I was flabbergasted. I mean, we’d all been friends forever. But …’ His voice died away. He tried to bury that awful niggling guilt which had whispered to him sometimes: You knew Amelia Blevin’s reputation. Don’t deny it. Didn’t you think once or twice of joining the queue to try your luck ?
    â€˜Do you think her father believed her?’ Juliana asked.
    â€˜I don’t know,’ Colly said slowly. ‘Things were in such a tumult that I never got a chance to find out anything.’
    â€˜Was she a truthful girl?’ Juliana asked, wrinkling her brow.
    Colly couldn’t help grinning. Truthful and sedate Amelia was not. ‘Definitely not. She was a handful. I don’t think her parents knew what to do with her.’
    â€˜Well, I know it’s not my business, but it sounds odd to me. You are friends forever, and yet suddenly one day you take it into your head to – no. It sounds as though this Sir Archie grabbed an opportunity to marry her off, but you didn’t fall in with their scheme.’ She shook her head.
    Colly slowly exhaled. That was similar to what his grandmother had said. Why hadn’t he challenged Amelia and her father? And his own
father, come to think of it. Tripped up by his stupid pride, had he lost the opportunity to find out the truth?
    â€˜Perhaps she had a lover she covered up for,’ Juliana said cynically.
    â€˜Uh … I don’t know. I was thrown out of the house and had no time to talk to anyone, not even to say goodbye. I felt utterly betrayed. At the time I did not care why she had said those things.’
    No. On that awful day he’d been so shattered he couldn’t think clearly. Later, he’d begun to wonder what was behind the whole fracas, and by then it had been too late. He was an idiot not to have protested at the time, but truly, he could not have defied his father in front of Sir Archie Blevin. Even though there was something unusual in his father’s tone – something he should have investigated – at the time he’d been rocked to the depths of his soul when he’d realized that if his own father didn’t believe him, then nobody else would either. So he’d left as he had been ordered to do, and had never returned.
    â€˜My father forbade them all to talk to me. My little sister tried. She slipped into my room that day and gave me a locket to remember her by. I lost it when I was injured at Douro,’ he explained. ‘That was why I was making such a fuss when we met. I wanted to go back and look for it.’
    Juliana nodded. ‘I remember. You kept saying, “Who took it?” I thought you were delirious.’
    He smiled sadly. ‘I hope one day I’ll see Felicia again.’ Then he grinned. ‘But my father could not silence my grandmother. She’s an indomitable old lady and she has no need of family money. She purchased my commission for me and I was sent to Ireland for training. At first she wrote to me, but I haven’t heard from her for many months. I hope my father did not prevail after all.’ He sobered. ‘Or else she … might have died.’ Please God, no.
    Juliana eyed him for a moment then offered, ‘It’s possible that this Amelia was in a corner and used you to get out of it. You felt so betrayed by this Miss – what was it again?’
    â€˜Blevin.’
    â€˜â€¦ Blevin and your father that you decided to show them you could live without them. You joined the army and eschewed all female company.’
    â€˜Not all,’ Colly put in, grinning in spite of himself.
    â€˜Well, all so-called respectable women then,’ Juliana