Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice by Heidi Ashworth Page B

have married Miss Ponsonby. As matters stood, I was not at liberty to make such a choice this season of all seasons. I wish Analisa to make the best match possible for her happiness and having Miss Ponsonby for a sister should have reduced her opportunities to literal ashes.”
    “But of course, you did just as you ought,” Mrs. Armistead declared. “It is my fervent opinion that you have acted with honor, sir!”
    “Such is the world, Ma’am, that I could not treat both young ladies with honor despite my wish to do so.”
    “I hesitate to speak to the subject, Mr. Lloyd-Jones,” Miss Armistead said, “on the chance you are still in love with Miss Ponsonby, but I can only assume your own honor should prevent you fromcrying off if she, indeed, had been worthy of you.”
    Colin felt his heart fill again with gratitude at the generosity of Miss Armistead’s words. “You are correct in that she misled me, took advantage of me, and passed herself off as someone she is not. However, I did not wish to see her so publicly disgraced. I did believe myself to be in love with her, I must confess, but the depth of her betrayal put an end to such finer feelings. I hope that I might have found a way to overlook her offense if she had but confessed the truth to me at the outset of our association. The fact that she did not was that which I found so intolerable. Sadly, due to the manner in which her circumstances were made known, I had no hope of keeping it a private matter between the two of us. In the end I did the only thing possible, no matter the personal cost.”
    “Truly, Colin,” Analisa said, “I do believe you are well rid of her, the airing of her dirty linen, regardless. I am persuaded you only believed yourself to be in love while it is certain she did not love you nearly as well as you deserved.”
    “But, surely, there is more to marriage than romantic love,” Miss Armistead interjected. “What of regard, admiration, compatibility, friendship and objectives in common?”
    “I have been all of my life a single man, Miss Armistead, but I have observed many marriages. What you say is true, yet, you have left off one of the most important aspects, one that serves as the foundation for any successful relationship; that of trust. Without trust, there can be no faith in future happiness.”
    “I should happily applaud you, Colin,” Analisa said a bit smugly, “if you hadn’t allowed your disappointment in one woman to destroy your trust in all of her kind.”
    “Whatever can you mean? Do I not trust you?” In spite of his protestations, Colin knew his sister had a valid point. Had he not instantly mistrusted the motives of Miss Armistead and her mother from the moment they had met?
    “I am not at all the same thing and you know it. This silly pact you have with Sir Anthony to avoid all entertainments this season in order to keep your heart fortified against further injury is that towhich I refer.”
    “We only hope to support one another in our mutual heartbreak,” Colin said as he put his arm around his sister and squeezed her shoulder as warning to mind her words.
    “Heartbreak! Heartbreak? Rebecca broke Sir Anthony’s heart. . what? Two seasons ago? It should have mended long since. Pray tell, you shan’t be so willing to eschew the company of women as long as he and over a woman who has proven to be even less deserving of your love than Rebecca was of his?”
    “I do not believe our cases to be in the least similar,” he replied with yet another warning squeeze for Analisa. “Sir Anthony’s proposal of marriage was rejected at the outset whilst Cecily and I spent months planning our lives together. If I were to mourn over the loss for twice as long as he has mourned Rebecca, it should not be in the least indecorous.” However, he was astonished to note that he no longer felt the least grief over Cecily or her betrayal. Indeed, to his further astonishment, at the moment the only burden his heart