Regency Romp - Happy Christmas Mr Jones (Regency Romps) by Linda Sole Page A

Milliband standing in the opening of the pretty folly, looking at her, she was overcome with humiliation.
                  ‘Please go away, sir,’ she said in a small voice.  ‘I would not have you see me like this…’
                  ‘You are in distress,’ he said and his voice was like a caress.  ‘Will you not tell me what troubles you, Lydia?’
                  ‘I am so wicked.  If you knew what I had done you would not wish to know me.’
                  ‘I do not think you could be so very wicked that I should not wish to know you,’ he said and sat down close to her.  ‘Why do you not tell me why you are crying?’
                  Lydia stared at him, and then it all came tumbling out.  She told him how she had hoped to save her sister from an unhappy marriage, realising too late that she might hurt a man’s feelings.
                  ‘Last night he was so considerate…but I think he heard Jane and I talking  - and he was angry.  Just now…he grabbed me and kissed me as a punishment, then he told me Jane was presumptuous and accused me of having that mistletoe in order to entice a man…’
                  ‘The devil he did!  He will hear from me for that…’
                  ‘No, please, you must not.  I deserve it for being so wicked…’
                  ‘My sweet, darling girl,’ Tomas said, tipping her chin up towards him with one finger.  ‘You were perhaps a little reckless and thoughtless, for his feelings might have been aroused and he might have tried to do more than kiss you…but no one could call you wicked.  Indeed, you always try to make others happy.  Mr Jones told me what you did for him and his Amabel…’
                  Lydia looked at him in wonder.  She had a strange feeling in her stomach and was a little breathless.  ‘Did you call me your darling girl?’ she croaked.
                  ‘I called you my sweet darling girl,’ he said, smiling down at her, ‘and that is exactly what you are.  I knew from the first moment I saw you that I loved you, but it took me a while to realise you were the only girl for me.  I thought I had a duty to someone else, but then I understood that I should only make us all unhappy if I did not follow my heart.  When Mr Jones told me that you always tried to protect others and make them happy I understood what happened last night – or thought I did.  I imagined that you were prepared to sacrifice yourself for Jane’s sake – so that she could marry Michael.’
                  ‘Well, I dare say I might if I found someone I could bear to marry,’ Lydia said and then tripped over her tongue as she said, ‘Apart from you, of course, which is different, because I would like to marry you – only you haven’t asked and I shouldn’t say.  But I do so want to make Jane happy.  If I married a rich man I should ask him to give her ten thousand pounds so that she and Michael…oh, that is terrible of me.  I didn’t mean that you should…but I do not see how they can ever be happy unless…’
                  Lydia finished in confusion, looking at him with apprehension.  To her amazement he seemed helpless with laughter.  She frowned and said, ‘I did not think it was funny.  Jane is so very unhappy…’
                  ‘Well, she need not be, for Michael has made up his mind that he cannot live without her and intends to ask her today.  However, I think we might give Jane an independence of her own – and ten thousand pounds seems a very fair sum to me, if she will accept it.’
                  ‘Oh yes, she will from me…’ Lydia said and then faltered.  ‘How can you love me when I am so impossible?  I should never have asked…at least until we were married.’
                  ‘Oh, I imagine I can afford