"Yes, we are," Lady Loftus agreed, faintly sounding anything but enthusiastic or welcoming.

And then Colin understood her quandary. He looked past his hosts to inside the room.

There, rising from a chair in front of a tray of biscuits and cakes where she and Lady Loftus had

apparently been having a cozy chat, was Lady Rosalyn, her expression pinched and guarded.

She was no happier to see Colin than he was to see her.

Chapter Three.

Rosalyn rose slowly to her feet, uncertain if she was ready to confront her new nemesis, Colonel Mandland.

She'd placed the deed in a leather folder and hadn't let it go from the moment she'd entered Downham Manor. The colonel's sharp gaze went immediately to the folder. She wrapped her arms protectively around it, and the air between them crackled with the same energy that heralded a storm.

His eyes met hers. She knew he would stop at nothing to get what was his. He was that sort of man.

Well, he wasn't going to get Maiden Hill.

Lord and Lady Loftus were going through the niceties of introductions. They were such dear friends.

Lord Loftus was saying in his endearing, abrupt manner, "Lady Rosalyn, you know Reverend Mandland? Course you do. This is his brother. Colonel Mandland. War hero! Made us all proud in the Valley. Colonel, Lady Rosalyn tells us when to sit down and when to stand up. Can't plan anything without her. Isn't that right, Reverend?"

Not waiting for a response, Lord Loftus then did something he always did when introducing Rosalyn to eligible bachelors; knowing his tactlessly loveable character, she had not let it bother her-until now, when he leaned toward Colonel Mandland and said, "She is a catch. A prime filly. If I was single, I'd throw a rope around her. Put her in my stable!"

Rosalyn could have died from the embarrassment, and it wasn't anything she hadn't heard him say fifty times before. This time was different.

Colonel Mandland's expression may have appeared pleasantly composed to the others, but she caught the curl in his lips. He was laughing-at her. She could read his mind as clearly as her own, and she didn' t like it one bit.

"Lady Rosalyn," the colonel murmured with a small bow.

If he thought he could toy with her, he was wrong. She had rank in this room.

Tightening her hold on the leather folder, she dared to speak up. "My lord, I beg a moment of your time alone to speak to you about business of the most urgent nature."

"Eh? Urgent?" Lord Loftus turned anxious. He glanced at his wife, who already knew some of the story and hovered worriedly nearby. "Why my dear child, you are upset. It wasn't my little comment there? My wife has always warned me to not take advantage of your good humor. You know I admire you."

"Yes, my lord, I do. And, no, I'm not upset about anything you could say-" Which was not true. His forward comments grated her nerves to no end. Her most reassuring smile plastered on her face, she started for the door. "But please, a moment alone-"

Colonel Mandland stepped right in front of her, blocking her path.

Rosalyn pulled up short, a beat away from running into his chest. She attempted to sidestep him. He followed, either because he was unafraid of challenging her in public or because he possessed the manners of a bull. She didn't know which-although she did have an opinion.

"My lord," he said in his deep, resonant voice, his hard eyes on the leather folder. "With all due respect, I, too, must beg a moment of your time. Alone."

Rosalyn's smile grew tight as she met his challenge with a steely look of her own. "But I made the request first."

"Yes, but your business involves me," Colonel Mandland answered.

"You have no idea what I'm going to talk about," she responded.

"On the contrary, I know exactly what you want to say," the colonel said. "If I were attempting to stealthe deed to a man's house, I'd not want him present to refute my story either."Rosalyn ached to punch him in his arrogant nose. She gripped the leather folder with both hands. "I have not stolen anything from you. You are attempting to steal my house from me."

"I purchased the house. Can't you understand that? I bought the house in good faith from your cousin,who owned it."They stood toe-to-toe. She had to look up to challenge him. "And how do we know that? How do we know this deed is not a forgery?"

Her charge struck home. For a second, his brow darkened, and his mouth opened and shut as if words

failed him.

His brother cautioned. "Colin, your temper."

"What the devil is going on here?" Lord Loftus asked his wife.

"It's very complicated," she whispered.

"Well, tell me!" her lord answered, but before she could speak, Colonel Mandland found his voice.

"I do not steal." He took a step forward, forcing Rosalyn to move back. "I do not forge." Another step.

"And I do not lie."

Rosalyn dug in her heels. "Forge?" she queried. "Is that even a word? Or at least, in the way you mean

it?"

"I just used it."

"Well, I'm not accepting it. Any more than I am accepting your taking my house."

"It is not your house."

"It is!"

"It isn't!"

She turned to the others in frustration. "Listen to him. He sounds like a schoolchild."

"I? A child?" Colonel Mandland repeated incredulously.

"Yes, you." With just the right haughty lift of her chin, she sneered, "A gentleman would not be so ungracious as to publicly argue with a lady."His eyes narrowed. "A lady would not pick such an argument when she knows she is wrong."Rosalyn delivered her coup de grace. "What would a cobbler's son know about what a lady would or would not do?"

Her barb struck home with more force than she could have imagined. She realized too late, after her proud words had been flung out into the air, that she'd not only insulted the colonel but also his brother, and she really did respect and like the Reverend Mandland.

But instead of bluster and outrage, a deadly calm enveloped Colonel Mandland, his expression so grim, his manner so tense, that her knees began to tremble.

Perhaps she had gone too far.

"Colin-," his brother cautioned.

The colonel raised a hand, effectively cutting off any other words that might be said. His gaze never left Rosalyn's. "Lord Loftus, both Lady Rosalyn and I are here to ask you to settle an important matter. She has in her possession a deed proving her cousin, Lord Woodford, sold Maiden Hill and all of its furnishings to me."

"Is that true, Lady Rosalyn?" Lord Loftus asked, sounding himself a bit cowed.

Rosalyn didn't answer immediately. Anger and humiliation made speech difficult. She wanted to deny the accusation, to counter with even worse charges aimed at Colonel Mandland's upstart character. But she couldn't. The same code of honor that had guided her father now led her. She would not lie.

"Yes, I have the deed. My cousin George sold the house."

She gathered her courage and faced Lord and Lady Loftus, aware that her back was now turned to the most dangerous man of her acquaintance. "George wants Covey and I to remove ourselves to my aunt in Cornwall. I don't want to go. I'm happy here... and Covey has never been out of Lancashire. Maiden Hill has been her home since her marriage."

"Of course you don't want to go," Lady Loftus said, coming to Rosalyn's side. "And none of us wants you to leave. Why, I can't imagine what the Spring Cotillion would be like without you. Or the Ladies' Social Circle. You've brought so much life and joy to the Valley. We need you!"

And Rosalyn needed them, too. After years of being alone, the people in the Valley had become her family. She took the hand Lady Loftus offered and said to his lordship, "Please, help me fight my cousin for Maiden Hill. He can't sell it. He mustn't."

"He already has sold it," Colonel Mandland practically growled. He said to his lordship, "I am sympathetic to Lady Rosalyn's plight, but I purchased the house. I want to live there."

Lord Loftus's shoulders slumped, as if he were overwhelmed at the thought of being forced to make a decision, and Rosalyn felt a measure of hope. Certainly, he would champion her.

Then the colonel prodded, "Perhaps you should review the deed yourself, my lord."

"Yes," Loftus agreed eagerly, apparently relieved to have some direction. "Let me see it."

Rosalyn didn't want to give up her hold on the folder, but she had no choice. His lordship walked over to the window, where the light was better, and took the deed out.

"You can have it reviewed by a solicitor," the colonel suggested with such a helpful attitude that Rosalyn wanted to throttle him. "All is in order."

"Harkness, send for Shellsworth," Lord Loftus ordered the hapless butler, who was just walking in with a tray of hot toddies. The butler set the tray down on a table and hurried to do his lordship's bidding. Lord Loftus explained to Colonel Mandland, "He's a solicitor. Lives just beyond the way. Should be here in a thrice." He squinted to read the cramped handwriting on the deed.

Lady Loftus gave Rosalyn's hand a reassuring pat. "Mr. Shellsworth will know what to do."

Rosalyn attempted to smile back. She wasn't very successful. Her stomach had suddenly tied up in knots. Mr. Shellsworth's wife would be pleased to see Rosalyn gone. She had made it quite clear she envied Rosalyn's role in society.

However, Lady Loftus didn't appear to care whether or not her words brought comfort, because her gaze had gone past Rosalyn to the colonel and then back again. Her eyes widened as if she had been struck by a sudden, enlightening thought.

"What?" Rosalyn whispered, wanting to know what her ladyship was thinking and hoping it was something that would save her home.

Lady Loftus ignored her. Instead, she asked, "Colonel Mandland, when will your wife and children arrive? Maiden Hill is such a lovely estate for a family."

What sort of question was that? Rosalyn wondered if her dear friend was abandoning her to Cornwall.

The colonel frowned at having his attention diverted from Lord Loftus, who now moved his lips as he attempted to read over sections of the deed. "I'm not married, my lady."

His brother was more gracious. "My wife is looking forward to helping my brother find a wife. You know what a matchmaker Val is, my lady."

"I do indeed," her ladyship answered, with a suspicious note of triumph in her voice.

Rosalyn felt a headache forming behind her eyes. Any woman who would consider marrying such a boorish brute as Colonel Mandland had to be either desperate or so old and haggard no one else would want her...

Her evil thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of Mr. Shellsworth's arrival in the front hall.

"At last!" Lord Loftus said with relief. "Shellsworth, get in here and read this devil of a thing!"

Mr. Shellsworth minced his way into the room. He was a thin, petite man with fastidious manners. Rosalyn could easily picture him in the powdered wig, lace, and heeled shoes of days of yore. Since that was not the fashion, he doted on wearing bright colors, as seen in his bright yellow waistcoat and spruce green jacket and trousers. He liked the starched points of his shirt collar to brush his cheeks.

When Rosalyn first moved to Maiden Hill, Mr. Shellsworth had presented himself as a suitor for her hand until he had discovered she'd had no dowry. Then he had done what every male had done before him- he'd disappeared. Last year he'd married a wealthy landowner's oldest daughter.

Rosalyn had been relieved. She could barely abide his pretentiousness, and she was not alone. He was not well liked in the Valley.