Page 44

Chapter

TWENTY-TWO

Lottie waited a full ten minutes before she ventured back out into the yard.

By then, it was a hive of noisy activity as Bill, Tom, and Guy tried to match horses to the overexcited hordes wanting one.

There were more than the planned seven debutantes too, as not to be outdone, three others had decided to join the fray, and so the men were fetching and saddling additional ponies.

Guy did little to disguise that he was losing his patience.

Lottie waded in to help, seeing as this ghastly group ride was all her fault, and decided that the best way to do that was by sending all the ladies already assigned mounts to the opposite side of the yard to wait rather than get under the obviously increasingly frustrated Guy’s feet.

Keen to show off her superior seat on a horse, Lady Lynette decided to mount Blodwyn to assist, snapping out loud orders for show while she tried to use Lottie like a sheepdog to herd them all together.

The irony being that if Lottie had listened to her stupid instructions, then chaos would have ensued, but she allowed Lady Lynette to think that she was in charge because it was easier than challenging her.

As her father always said, you couldn’t argue with stupid, and that arrogant irritant was about as stupid as they came.

Miss Maybury, who had hung back on purpose to spend more time in the yard pestering Guy with inanities, was the last lady to join the rest. When he stalked off to fetch Zeus, Lottie helped Tom and Bill get everyone else mounted and hoped that went some way to giving him more of an excuse to forgive her.

She was ready to wave them off when he returned with not one, but two Arabians.

He was already seated astride Zeus but had a saddle draped over his shoulder.

“Put this on Juno.” He tossed the saddle to Bill. “One of the chaperones needs her.”

Lottie glanced back to where Lady Connaughlty and Mrs. Maybury sat perched on mares, ignoring their charges while trying to out-brag each other. “But the chaperones already have horses.”

“Those are the young ladies’ chaperones. You, Miss Travers, are going to be mine .”

Bill chuckled as he slapped the saddle on Juno’s back. “They do say the punishment should fit the crime, but I think I’d rather prison.” He shifted position to tie one of the straps and that was when Lottie noticed the lopsided leather and hooked pommel.

“But that’s a sidesaddle!” She glared at Guy in outrage. “I loathe sidesaddles! Why can’t I have a proper one?”

“Because you are a young lady in the company of other young ladies and it wouldn’t be proper.

” He shrugged with a devilish smile, enjoying her protest more than was gentlemanly.

“And if I have to suffer throughout this awful ride, it strikes me as only fair that you suffer too. Consider it penance.”

“Penance! Penance is making amends. This isn’t penance—it’s torture.

” She flicked the hard pommel in disgust. “Worse than torture, in fact. Sidesaddles are incredibly uncomfortable. Unbelievably impractical. They throw your balance off and give you a crick in the neck. If you’d ever ridden on a sidesaddle you would know that they are an abomination that should be banned. ”

“But why would I know that when you are, technically at least, the one currently in the skirt?” He nudged Zeus forward to join the others and she swore she heard the scoundrel laughing.

They set off across the pasture at a sedate pace and remained that way for the next fifteen minutes because all the young ladies bunched their horses around his.

That didn’t please Zeus at all, and poor Guy had to work hard to control him while he made uncomfortable small talk with the debutantes.

To her credit, Miss Yates was the only one who did not join the melee and instead chose to ride on ahead.

Something she did with great aplomb too, the clever thing, as it meant that while all her rivals were scrambling to be noticed, she became the only one impossible to miss.

The swan amongst the gaggle of hissing geese.

It was a sensible ploy, even though it piqued Lottie’s jealousy some.

It was obvious Miss Yates was her main rival—not that Lottie was in any position to compete.

Unable to even dare attempt to compete, she hung back so that she could quickly intervene if things—or debutantes—got out of hand, but she needn’t have worried. Guy veered off the pasture and took the group down a tree-lined path that naturally tapered until they all had to go in single file.

From the rear, she was rather left out of things and as a mere companion, nobody tried to include her, so with nothing else to do, she was forced to watch them all court his favor from afar. As, she supposed, a proper lady’s companion should.

She would leave here with Lady Frinton in just four days.

The morning after Guy’s final unwanted birthday dinner.

And then she might never see him again. Or only see him very occasionally if she remained in Lady Frinton’s employ.

Neither were conducive to fostering an unconventional romance—not that he had given her any cause to hope for one.

In the heat of the moment, he had told her with his body that he wanted her, but that had been a purely carnal confession.

She and he were never meant to be more than ships passing in the night, but she wanted to leave on the same good terms with him as they had enjoyed days ago.

The thought of him still angry at her duplicity and still calling her Miss Travers upset her almost as much as accepting that he could never be hers.

As she stared longingly his way, she realized that at some point during her wool gathering, the path had widened again and the hordes were once more huddling around him.

Worse, Zeus was playing up. She could tell by the way the muscles in Guy’s arms bunched that the difficult stallion was fighting the reins.

Lottie kicked Juno into a trot and steered her up the verge to get as close as possible and was alarmed to see both Miss Maybury and Lady Lynette flanking him like sentries.

So close to him that they would both be in danger if Zeus decided to flip.

Then either they, or heaven forbid Guy, could be trampled.

“You absolutely must be my bridge partner tonight, my lord. I absolutely insist.” Lady Lynette was too busy fluttering her eyelashes to see where she and Blodwyn were going.

Lottie knew from experience that Blodwyn, as lovely and gentle a mare as she was, wasn’t the brightest of horses and needed direction.

“We will win, for sure, if we team up. If I say so myself, I am quite the card sharp. Bridge, whist, piquet—pick your poison, my dear Lord Wennington, for I am equally formidable at all three.” Her practiced tinkling laugh was rapidly becoming as grating as Miss Maybury’s braying one.

“In fact, and I shouldn’t brag…” She shouldn’t, but she would.

In perpetuity, if she went unchecked, so that nobody else could get a word in edgewise.

“I have not lost a game in over a year. The trick with bridge is—” Good grief, did she ever pause for breath?

Lottie couldn’t intervene unless she did! “—to always check that—”

When Zeus snorted his displeasure, Lottie had no choice but to interrupt. “Have a care, Lady Lynette. His lordship’s Arabian doesn’t like to be too close to other horses.”

Lady Lynette’s head snapped around, her expression an ugly snarl. “How dare you give me instruction! Know your place, Miss Travers, and have more respect for your betters!”

“Now see here—” Guy, bless him, was about to take issue with the horrid snob, but had to turn his focus back to Zeus, who was now thrashing his head about as he sensed the fresh tension.

“I spent an hour admiring your lovely roses all alone again yesterday, my lord.” With an astounding lack of awareness, Miss Maybury decided that now was the optimum moment to attempt to seduce him again.

“I shall be doing the same again today.” She reached across to caress Guy’s arm and because he jumped at the contact, Zeus did too.

It took him a few moments to bring the horse into line, but the Arabian was far too agitated to be properly placated.

Hardly a surprise, when he had been bred to run unhindered and not to be caged in a prison of slower horses.

Which gave Lottie an idea…

“So shall we be partners at the bridge tournament tonight—”

Guy was about to scream his frustration at the hideous Lady Lynette when somebody else screamed instead.

A proper, full-bodied, bloodcurdling scream that brought everyone up short.

“Help me! I can’t control her!” Lottie’s eyes were wide with fear as Juno reared beneath her. Instinctively, he tried to turn Zeus to assist, but there were too many horses to do it quickly. “Oh! Oh! OH! ”

Juno reared again and Lottie struggled to hold on. In a thunder of hooves, the usually placid Arabian then set off at speed straight past him.

Lottie pulled on the reins and did her best to calm her, but something had spooked the horse and she wasn’t having it. She reared again, changed direction, and plunged into the trees, taking Lottie with her.

Guy kicked Zeus to follow, his heart in his mouth. This was all his fault! He’d put her on a sidesaddle for his own amusement and now she was in danger!

If she got hurt…

If he couldn’t save her…

Bile stung his throat while tentacles of fear wrapped themselves around his ribs, the guilt so heavy it settled like lead in his gut. He had to save her. Had to! There really was no other option. A world without Lottie didn’t bear thinking about.

As he broke through the other side of the trees, he was just in time to see her disappear over a small hill.

He gave chase, pushing Zeus as fast as he could, as Lottie flew across the pasture at a terrifying speed.

Her trim body bent low over Juno to keep herself from being thrown.

Runaway horse and rider disappeared again over the top of a bigger hill and by the time he reached it, there was no sign of them on the path.

He slowed Zeus slightly to look left and right, then, in desperation, checked the ground for any sign of hoofprints in the dirt to know which way to head.

He heard a whinny and as his head whipped toward the pond beyond, saw Juno. Riderless and munching on the long grass at the water’s edge as if she suddenly didn’t have a care in the world. He dismounted and ran toward her, scanning the area for any signs of Lottie’s broken body on the ground.

But there was nothing.