“Oh! Well you-” Selina stopped suddenly because Barbara had just swung off the branch of the tree.
“Oh goodness!” Selina exclaimed as she hurried to catch her and break her fall. She had not expected the girl to throw herself off the branch. Together, the two fell to the ground with Selina landing on her derriere with a thud.
“I am so sorry. Oh dear, are you all right?” Barbara asked her with a worried expression as she looked at Selina who had not yet recovered from the surprise of what had just happened.
Selina did not realize when she began to laugh wildly. It had happened so suddenly that it had shocked her into silence.
“That is not how you get off a tree, Barbara. That is how you break your leg,” Selina said, still laughing.
Barbara looked at her for a moment, but then she joined her, giggling as the two of them remained on the floor.
“I hope I have not hurt you,” Barbara asked her, quieting down a little.
“I assure you I am fine. It’s just a bit of mud,” Selina said. She closed her eyes, the smile still locked on her lips as she ran her hands across the grass surrounding the tree.
She might not have climbed the tree but she had had fun almost as if she had done so with the girl.
“Well, we have ruined our dresses. I suppose we will just have to sneak into the house before we are caught by anyone who could see us being ever so unladylike.” She winked at Barbara conspiratorially, happy to have been able to offer her a bit of fun. She looked like she needed it after following the rules for so long.
Selina sighed. She wished it did not have to be so but very soon, Barbara would be ready to be presented to society and her life would not remain the same after that. She had to enjoy her freedom while she had it.
“I will show you the back way,” Barbara snickered. Together, they made their way towards the back entrance but just as they inched closer to the entrance, Selina heard footsteps heading in their direction.
“Oh dear, it seems there is someone coming this way,” she said, looking around as though searching for a place to hide.
“Come,” Barbara whispered in a panic. She wrapped her hand around Selina’s arm and pulled her in the direction she wanted her to go but she had moved too fast for Selina who was not paying attention.
The mud on her dress weighed it down and made it impossible to move as fast, causing Selina to step on her dress. Her arms failed as she began to fall over, her mouth open in a silent scream as someone grabbed her.
Grateful to her savior for breaking her fall, Selina reached out with her muddy hands and grabbed the person by the shoulder, between the collarbone and neck, to stabilize herself.
She grimaced as her hands grazed their face. It was a wonder her savior had not dropped her by now to avoid being as dirty as she currently was.
Selina’s hands moved over broad shoulders and she felt a sinking feeling begin to develop in her gut as she guessed who she was currently latched on to.
Selina looked up to confirm and to her horror, she found the duke’s dark blue eyes staring back at her and he looked pissed. This was not one of those moments the dowager explained to her about misunderstanding him. He was definitely pissed off.
She took in the mud across his face, on his shoulders where she had grabbed onto him, his arm, and on his clothes where her muddied ones had pressed against his.
Oh, no, she was in trouble!
CHAPTER5
Morgan was livid. He could feel the cold sloppiness of the mud caking on his face and clothes as he held Selina to him.
His fingers twitched as he held on to her, wishing he could clear off the sliding mud from his face but that would mean letting go and allowing her to fall.
‘How on earth was such a grown woman covered in mud?’That was all Morgan could think of as he held on to her. What exactly had she been doing that had led to her ending up in this state?
Morgan noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye that he had not taken note of earlier because he had been so preoccupied with trying to make sure that Selina did not slip and end up on the floor, hurt.
He turned his head and saw his sister hiding just around the corner of a hedge. Selina seemed to have been more affected by whatever they had been doing, but, just like her, his sister was also covered in mud. His brows furrowed in anger.
“What, pray tell, are you doing?” Morgan managed to squeeze the words through his gritted teeth, now even more upset as he observed his sister at the side, her expression that of guilt as she stood with her hands laced together in front of her.
His eyes left her for a minute and returned to the woman he still held in his arms. Selina unwrapped her arms around him and stepped back out of his grasp.
Morgan dropped his hands to the side, clenching them into fists as they suddenly felt empty and ached to have her in them again. What was going on with him? Why were his thoughts so scattered around her?
