A Winter's Knight: A Regency Romance by Elizabeth Cole Read Free Book Online

doorway. “Will you forgive me if I let you go here?”
    “You will not come in? My father would love to hear…” Phoebe asked hopefully.
    “Next time, I promise. I wish I could stay, but I have to return to London. A few last items with the solicitors. But I will write to you.”
    “I’ll be here,” Phoebe said, delighted by the promise in his voice.
    She watched him disappear down the drive, waving when he looked back.
    * * * *
    Back in London, Tony moved with a new energy, determined to settle his most pressing affairs as quickly as possible so that he could return to Banstoke Hall and to Phoebe. Having made the momentous decision to keep the hall, he found that thousands of small decisions followed. He visited his own solicitor, which took the better part of the first day, but held good news for his future plans with Phoebe.
    A letter from Phoebe arrived with the morning post, brightening his day further. He wrote several letters of his own, scrawling them in his haste.
    Then he made his way to a jeweler, with very specific instructions for what he wanted. Having secured the jeweler’s guarantee that the item would be ready in a matter of days, Tony stepped back out onto the street, where neither the hazy sunshine nor the biting wind could dampen the Londoners’ year-end festivity. He grinned to himself, heading back to his own rooms. He had barely gone fifty steps, however, when he heard a voice call his name.
    “Sterling!”
    He turned and saw one of his oldest friends hailing him. Robert Greentree was a fellow officer who had served with Tony at Trafalgar. The blond man hurried up to him, grinning widely.
    “Tony! Haven’t seen you in months, old friend! Best of the season to you. You’re looking well, I have to say,” he added, glancing professionally at Tony’s false leg. “We’ll have to have dinner soon, catch up on things. Oh, and congratulations!”
    “What for?” he asked, startled. He hadn’t mentioned his inheritance, or Phoebe, to any of his cronies. He’d been relishing the secret, actually. Was it possible Robert had seen him coming out of the jewelers?
    “Your engagement, of course.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Angela Donahue has been telling all and sundry that it was just a misunderstanding between you, and that the marriage will be early in the new year.” Robert frowned, aware that Tony’s dark reaction was hardly typical.
    “I haven’t even spoken with Angela since she broke off our engagement,” Tony said shortly.
    “Well, she seems to think it’s unbroken, so perhaps you better speak with her, old boy.” Robert paused. “The way my wife put it, it sounded like the deed was all but done.”
    “There’s a misunderstanding somewhere,” Tony said, guessing the source. “Forgive me, Rob, but I must go. I think I have to clear a few things up.”
    With a sense of foreboding, Tony returned to his boarding house. The landlady met him at the door, telling him that a visitor was waiting in the parlor. Inwardly scowling, he stepped inside.
    The door stood open, allowing the housekeeper to keep her shrewd eyes on them, guarding against any hint of scandal in her domain. He took a breath. “Miss Donahue.” Warned by Greentree, Tony was not surprised to see her there. He also sensed that she had been counting on his surprise to spring her attack. Why did he suddenly feel like he was back in the middle of the war?
    “Tony, dear.” Angela stood up, dressed to dazzle in a vivid blue gown, her dark locks curled artfully around her face. A large sapphire hung about her neck, the final touch to a picture that would have stunned him only a few weeks ago, yet now seemed calculated, rehearsed.
    Tony looked at her without speaking for a moment. “I have heard some news about our engagement,” he said finally. “Were you planning on telling me at any point?”
    “Oh, Tony, I meant to of course, but I didn’t know how to start.”
    She did not look him in the eye, he noticed. In