“No.”
God, she was like a brick wall. “Miss Oxley, you’re in a strange land. I apologize for the way things were between us yesterday, but that’s no reason to be stubborn about—”
“I’m not beingstubborn.I only wish to make my own way here.”
Hell, he’d insulted her. “Let me start again. Your plans have been hampered, and it’s partly my fault that you’re here.”
She blinked a few times. “Partly your fault? Yesterday, this was allmyfault for not having a mind of my own.”
He deserved that, he knew, so he raised his hands in mock surrender. “You have a point, and I’m sorry.”
He suddenly felt inarticulate and flustered talking to her—this child who used to follow him and Diana around like a little lost puppy. Lord, how things had changed. He didn’t feel as though he was talking to a lost puppy now.
“Why don’t you want to stay?” he asked, hoping to steer the conversation into gentler waters. “If you want to earn your way, I could always hire you as a governess myself.”
“I don’t want a charity position.”
“It wouldn’t be charity. Penelope and Charlie both need more than what Mrs. Dalton can give them. I’ve been considering hiring someone for quite a while, in fact…” He was rambling now. Lord Almighty, he’dreallylost his touch.
Madeline shook her head. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”
“Care to tell me why not?”
After a long pause, she gave a frustrated sigh as if he was forcing her to reveal more than she wanted to. “Because if Diana accepts your proposal and comes here to marry you, I’d rather be elsewhere.”
Adam gazed at her drawn expression and the way she was pursing her full lips. He hadn’t expectedDianato be the reason Madeline would not want to stay. “Are there problems between you two?”
“No, I just don’t want to be dependent upon her.”
He rested his hands on his hips. “I can understand that you don’t want to be in the position of servant to your sister, but it wouldn’t be that way. You would be a member of the family.”
Their conversation stopped dead while they stood in the barn doorway, staring at each other. She seemed unable to think of a rebuttal.
For a second or two, he thought he had managed to persuade her, then she pressed her shoulders back and spoke firmly. “Thank you for the kind offer, but I would prefer to be on my own. I’d like to go to the fort tomorrow.”
He said yes—only because he knew there was no point in arguing, for she was not going to give in—then watched her turn away from him and walk back to the house, her gait swift and true.
Once again he saw the young Yorkshire lass who had never let anyone tell her what she could and could not do. Back in those days, that willfulness had frustrated him when he’d wanted to be alone with Diana, just as it frustrated him now, when he wanted to keep Madeline here, safe in his home.
Something was different today, however. Adam could feel his blood warming to her, for she was no longer the child she once was. She had become a woman, and he found himself admiring her for, of all things, knowing her own mind and settling for nothing less than what she wanted.
Chapter Five
After dinner, Madeline sat by the fire in the parlor, mending one of Penelope’s caps, while the children played cards at the table. She had just threaded her needle, when two shiny black boots and a pair of muscular legs in tawny brown breeches appeared in her line of vision. She glanced up at Adam, who was gazing uneasily down at her.
He gestured at the chair opposite hers. “May I?”
“Of course.”
He sat down and crossed one long leg over the other. The fire snapped and crackled, and the children burst into laughter about something.
“I must apologize again,” he said quietly, “for the way I treated you yesterday at the fort, and for the way things have turned out.”
Madeline poked her needle through the white lace cap on her knees. Oh, she didn’t want to have this conversation. She didn’t want to experience Adam Coates trying to beniceto her. She’d gotten along fine the way things were—first being accused of deceiving him, then enduring his silences and cool reticence. She’d been perfectly happy telling herself that she was lucky to have been spared a marriage to him. She didn’t want to go back to feeling otherwise.
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, but I do feel responsible. If I had never sent the proposal, you would not be here among strangers.”
