The Earl of Beaconswood left his cousins, Frederick and Lesley, when they decided to return to the house after a ride of a mere hour. He had not had enough exercise.Besides, he always enjoyed riding alone. Normally his lifewas a busy one. Solitary rides were a luxury and gave hima chance to think or merely to relax.
He was doing both on this particular morning. He was riding slowly along the bank of the lake—the trees made any faster pace unwise—enjoying the sight of the clouds reflectedon its surface. He hoped that he would not see a swimmer.But surely even Julia would not swim this late in the day. Besides it would be a chilly pleasure on this particular morning.
He turned his thoughts resolutely away from her. By unspoken consent they had avoided each other quite successfully in the days since the walk out to the hill. And she had been behaving with something like decorum despite thefact that his mother had reproved her the evening before forgrowing rather noisy during a game of charades when theywere all supposed to be in mourning for the late earl. Buteven he had been able to see that his mother had beenrather unfair to her. After all, none of them were wearingmourning and almost all of them had been involved in thegame. They were merely doing what his uncle had directedthem to do in his will—enjoying the month together.
Julia had left both the game and the room without another word and a dampener had fallen on all their spirits. The game had gone only one more round. He had toadmit—grudgingly—that Julia did add life to a party.
No, he did not want to think of her. He had had a letter that morning from a friend in London. Blanche was goingto Brighton for the summer. Horrocks was laying determined siege to her heart, his friend had written, and to herhand, and she was not discouraging him. But she had sent amessage. Oh, no, that was not strictly accurate, of course.She was far too well bred to send him messages. But shehad hinted in the way well-bred young ladies could excel atdoing that she would wait to see if the new Earl of Beaconswood would put in an appearance at Brighton beforemaking her decision. He was the favorite, it would appear.
In less than three weeks he would be free to leave Primrose Park. Perhaps she would still be in London. If not, he would know where she was and would be able to remove toBrighton himself without delay. If he wanted to. FollowingBlanche to Brighton would be tantamount to declaring himself.
Did he want to take such an irrevocable step?
He frowned and turned his horse’s head into the grove of trees so that he would come out in the open meadows northof the house. He had had few doubts just a couple of weeksbefore. Was he having doubts now? Because he had notseen her exquisite beauty for a few weeks perhaps? Because now that the time was close he was realizing fullywhat a very irreversible step in life marriage would be?
He was not having doubts. He was longing to see Blanche again. He was longing to get away from this suspended life and back to his normal life. He was ready tomove on to the next stage of it.
Another horse was cantering toward him across the meadow as he emerged from the trees. He might havethought that the rider was one of his male cousins, but hedid not. He might have thought that it was one of thegrooms. Certainly she looked enough like a boy with herboy’s clothes and her manner of riding. But in fact he wasnot deceived for a moment. He had seen her riding thusmany years before. And he was learning to expect the indecorous from Julia. Even at this time of the day when anyone might have seen her—his other cousins or his motheror his aunts. Or his uncles.
And he was learning to expect the tightening of muscles and the tensing of nerves. And the furious anger. And theurge to throttle. How dared she continue over and overagain to fly in the face of convention? Good Lord, shelooked—voluptuous. Her legs were long and slim. Not atall masculine. Never in a thousand years could he havemistaken her for a boy.
She saw him almost immediately and eased back on the reins so that her mare reduced its pace to a walk. Her ownexpression tightened for a moment and then unexpectedlyshe grinned—or perhaps not so unexpectedly for Julia.
“Where have you been for the last three mornings, Daniel?” she called as she drew closer. “It is amazing youwere not there waiting to pounce the very first time—youor one of your five identical brothers. Less than an hour agoI was strolling in the parterre gardens just as a lady oughtwith Aunt Millie. And whom did I see? Freddie and Les,that’s who. Now I have stolen away from being the perfectlady for a little time to myself, and whom do I see? You. Ofcourse. Who else?” She laughed gaily.
Her flippant manner fanned his anger. “Julia,” he said, “look at yourself. You are a disgrace to your family andyour sex.”
“I don’t have to look at myself,” she said. “There is no looking glass out here. And you do not have to look either,Daniel. You are returning to the house? I am not. Goodbye. I shall see you later if I cannot avoid doing so.”
She was sitting very upright, looking quite relaxed and self-assured. Her thighs, spread wide across the saddle,controlled her mount with practiced skill. The earl swallowed and grew hot when he realized the direction his eyesand his mind had taken.
“You are going back to the house with me,” he said. “Now, Julia. If we are fortunate we will be able to get youin through a side door and up the servants’ stairs to yourroom before you are seen. I will have your word that youwill not appear in these disgraceful clothes again while myfamily is in residence here.”
His words were like a red flag to a bull, of course. He realized that even as he was still speaking. She raised her eyebrows and looked directly back into his eyes.
“You forget one thing, Daniel,” she said, her voice cool and controlled. “I am not your property. Not even to the extent of being a member of the family of which you are thehead. And I am notonyour property either. If you wish meto go back to the house with you, you will have to take methere by force. I do not doubt that you will be successful ifyou choose to try, but you will not be unscarred. I canpromise you that. As for the clothes, they are rather similarto yours though Weston did not make mine, of course. Arethey really disgraceful? Are yours disgraceful?”
“A man's clothes are disgraceful on a woman’s form,” he said through his teeth. “Just as a woman’s would be on aman. They are an open invitation, Julia.”
“Are they?” She smiled and leaned slightly toward him from her saddle. “An invitation to what, Daniel? Are youhaving naughty thoughts—again? Your very proper ladylove would be very shocked. Here is an invitation of another kind. A race. Race me to the stream?”
She did not wait for his answer or look back to see if he had accepted her challenge. She laughed, spurred her horse,and bent low over its neck as it bounded quickly into a gallop.
The stream circled around in a huge horseshoe northward from the hill east of the house and then southward to flowinto the lake. There were two long meadows betweenwhere the earl was standing his horse and the stream. Twomeadows full of potential dangers to the unwary and reckless rider. And two thick hedges bordering them. Shewould kill herself. It would be a fitting ending for Julia.She would break her neck when her horse stepped in a rabbit hole or when it failed to clear one of the hedges.
And he would carry the guilt of feeling responsible to his grave. Lord, this time he would wring her neck if he couldget his hands about it before she broke it. He gave his horsethe signal and went racing after her.
He was following her, she realized suddenly as she responded to the exhilaration of pounding hooves beneath her and wind rushing at her face. She was surprised. Or perhapsnot. He would feel obliged to follow her just so that hemight give her a thundering scold when the race ended. Shedid not turn her head though she wanted to laugh back athim again. She would need all her concentration if she wasto maintain and even increase the pace she had set.
She did not usually gallop so fast over these meadows. Her grandfather’s head groom had warned her not to but toreserve her more energetic rides for the park south of thehouse, which he could guarantee to be free of dangers. Andshe had never jumped these particular hedges, but only thelower, cultivated ones in the park. She did consider easingher pace, coming to a halt before the first hedge and grinning at him as if she had never intended to go farther. Butthe challenge had been issued quite unmistakably. Pridewas at stake.
She would aim for the lowest part of the hedge without swerving too far off course. But there was no lowest part. Itwas all uniformly and alarmingly high and thick. She set hereyes on a part of the hedge directly in front of her, spurredher horse toward it, and concentrated on showing no sign atall that might convey nervousness to Flossie. She heard hermare’s hooves brush twigs and leaves as they soared over.
And then she began to enjoy the race. She risked one quick glance back and laughed with excitement. He wasclearing the hedge with perhaps a foot to spare. He wascloser than she had expected. She would be fortunate indeed if she did not lose the race quite ignominiously.
He caught up with her when they were a little more than halfway across the second meadow. He rode dangerouslyclose. She thought for one moment that he was going to tryleaning across and grabbing her reins.
“Stop, Julia,” he yelled. “Enough!”
