When Two Hearts Meet (Brightmore #2)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter 22

"Oriana!" Cole shouted, trotting after her. What the devil she was about now was beyond him but the way her eyes had deadened and the scowl of utter loathing suddenly contorting her face made him worry.

She marched stiffly out the gate and down the lane, blindly, leadenly. Her back was rigid, her nose thrust in the air, her hair bouncing with the agitated movements of her body. He did not want to dwell on the cause of her mood, it was unbearable to think that his family had fluffed her righteous feathers the wrong way after every sweet confession of the last hours they'd spent together.

She was a stubborn mule, ignoring him as if her existence depended on it. "Oriana!" He began to sprint until the space separating them shortened and ended altogether, and he stopped her adamant little march by holding her arm. She stumbled but didn't turn to regard him.

"Oriana, what is the matter?" he urged in a placating tone, hoping she'd be stirred by that.

"Release me. I wish to be alone." Flat, cold... his heart twisted.

"No."

That earned him a glare so full of reproach he wondered briefly if he should step back. "Something has happened," he pushed. "A moment ago... a moment ago you were fine, we were fine. Caroline-"

"Do not say her name to me!" she snarled. With a fierce jerk, she pulled her arm free.

"You do not approve of the... conditions of my family?" he asked slowly, the realisation uncoiling and stabbing him bitterly in his chest. It had been a small concern of his that Oriana would not approve of Caroline and her child, her unmarried condition... But he had been convinced through Ori's sweet convictions, her noble but charmingly emphatic nature, that his sister wouldn't pose an affront to her blue-blooded sensibilities. Clearly, he had been mistaken.

The truth had an aching, bitter tang against his palate.

"Family." The word was hissed through her front teeth. Woodenly, she turned to him. "Did you expect me to approve of this, captain? Am I such a besotted fool that I could turn a blind eye to everything else?"

He ignored the verbal attack and held up his hands placatingly. "Oriana, they are my family. Good people. What would you have me do?"

Her face blanched and some of the anger diffused from her expression. She jerked her chin to the side and glared at the ground, her shoulders moving with the force of her breaths. She was agitated, hurting, but he was confounded and desolate by her reactions. Suddenly, he was not sure he knew her very well at all.

"Would you have me abandon them? Is that it?"

She flinched. "No." Her arms folded under her breasts confined in a fern green dress. "I was not prepared... I did not expect... " The long column of her throat bobbed and then her chin notched up again, some hint at anger returning. "I wish you had informed me. This is... is unkind to subject me to such affrontery."

"Unkind?" Cole repeated incredulously. "Do you hold yourself so highly in esteem that you are unable to extend courtesy to those below your rank, Miss Brightmore?"

She gasped, outraged.

"No, do not answer, for I have a well-formed opinion that answers the question well enough."

"You are insufferable!" she snarled. "Oh, leave me alone, please. I wish to be alone!"

A wall shifted within him, barricading and confining any roaring pain that he now harboured. Oriana Brightmore, he vowed, would never touch his heart again. "As you like." He turned on his heel, and left her on that path, glowering at him for all her worth. "Don't venture far," he clipped, not turning back. "Rhys will arrive soon and I have no desire to search for you."