The Beast I Wished For: Sweet Regency Romance (A Maypole in Mayfair Book 9) by Katherine Ann Madison & Maggie Dallen

Author:Katherine Ann Madison & Maggie Dallen [Madison, Katherine Ann & Dallen, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Swift Romance Publishing Corp
Published: 2023-09-13T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Isabelle sat in the carriage, mired in the mud, and cursed herself seven times the fool. She’d done this to Matilda. The driver had gone to the village to collect some men to help unstick the vehicle but in the meantime, here they sat.

It was a brisk day, the sunshine bringing with it cold autumn air.

Matilda sat with a brick warming her seat but the older woman had been curling into herself as the air in the carriage grew colder still.

Isabelle scooted closer, wrapping her arms about her aunt. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, thinking of how she’d insisted they leave this morning.

She’d been so angry.

Matilda shook her head. “We planned to leave today. You didn’t do a thing.”

Oh, but she had. Adam had told her to wait for him to assess the roads and she’d not. Because he’d also said a great many more things, several of those words really hurting her feelings.

“Matilda,” her voice was hoarse, rough from the emotion clogging it as she hugged the woman tighter. “I should have waited to leave. I just…”

“You’re confused about how you feel about the baron.”

She looked at her aunt then, her brow furrowing. “What?”

“He likes you too,” her aunt continued as though Isabelle hadn’t spoken. Isabelle supposed that was one of the advantages of going deaf. Matilda could just carry on talking. “A great deal.”

“You wouldn’t think that if you’d heard him last night,” Isabelle answered loudly. “He told me I was naïve and that I didn’t understand the world. He calls me a do-gooder and—”

“Isabelle,” her aunt cut her off, clearing hearing her this time but interrupting anyway. “Don’t you feel the energy between the two of you? He needles you because he likes you.”

Isabelle shook her head. “That isn’t true.”

“Don’t you remember the boys when you were young? How’d they tease and taunt?”

She did. They’d been ridiculously annoying. “What of it?”

“It’s exactly like that. Adam teases you because he wants to push you away. He doesn’t wish to be close to you. It confuses him.”

“He’s not a boy, auntie. He’s a grown man. A large and powerful one at that. If he liked me, he’d just say so.”

Matilda chuckled. “Oh to be young again.”

“Auntie!”

Matilda only laughed the more. “Try to understand, Isabelle, his wounds are fresh and raw, and he doesn’t know if he can risk being hurt by you.”

Isabelle blinked at her aunt, the words ringing with a truth that was difficult to deny. Still, she tried. “Maybe he just doesn’t like me.”

“Pish.” Matilda swiped a hand through the air. “I know a smitten man when I see one. And he is.”

But her aunt’s assertion didn’t completely settle the matter for Isabelle. She sat holding her aunt, lost in thought until she heard the sound of horse hooves on the road. “I hear someone!” she said to Matilda, letting go of her aunt and scooting toward the window to peek out. “We’re saved.”

Matilda grabbed her umbrella, handing it to Isabelle. “In case it’s thieves.”

Isabelle’s heart jumped in her throat.

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