“Who do you take orders from then? Because from what I’ve seen, there does not seem to be anyone you listen to.” He was angry. Fear did that to him. Fear that she could have been hurt. Fear that Warwick could have been hurt.
He’d been worried about them, and Ash never worried about people other than Baron these days.
Christ.
He backed away from her.
“Ash.” She closed the gap between them, and all he could think about was touching her. Placing his lips on hers and kissing her.
“We are not like other families. We do not behave like those of noble birth.”
“Which means nothing to me. What you did was reckless. A stray punch would have seriously injured you.” Frustrated, angry, and yes, aroused, he glared at her. “You, Miss Sinclair, need to grow up!”
Surprise had those lovely lips opening, but Ash had had enough. Grabbing her arm, he walked her back to her family. Once she was there, he was leaving.
It was time for him to return to London and find Radcliff.
Reaching her family, he nudged her toward her brothers.
“Problem?” Dev said.
“Your sister is entirely too reckless.”
The eldest Sinclair rolled his eyes. “What did she do now?”
CHAPTERTWELVE
“So three men entered the stables and took you to task because you are riding in the last race and of noble birth?” Dev asked Warwick, who had just arrived, and her. They were standing before, him, Cam, and James; the rest of their party was listening. All looked fierce.
Ash, she knew, was sitting with his brother after dragging her back to where her family stood. He and Gus were talking, and Dorrie thought that was a very good thing. His jaw had a bruise forming, and anger still smoldered in his eyes. She’d put some of that there, but not all. He’d been angry since his talk with Gus before they’d left for the races.
Angry and hurt, Dorrie thought. And maybe she did occasionally walk into things she shouldn’t, but she would never stand back when a member of her family needed help or support. There were three men against two in that stable; she’d done what she thought was necessary. Her family were all like that. They took action when they felt action was needed.
“And Ash now is bruised. You two, however, are unscathed,” Dev said. “I wonder why we did not feel you were in danger?”
“We were never in danger, Dev.” Dorrie sighed.
“Maybe they are unhurt because they ducked faster,” Cam said, winking at Dorrie.
“Who are these men?” Wolf demanded. “Point them out to me.”
“It is dealt with,” Warwick said. “Now I need to calm down, and prepare for my race. This is not helping,” he muttered, walking off.
“I’ll go with him,” Harry said. “Give him a few tips to annoy him back into a good mood.”
“Tell me again exactly what happened, now your brother has gone. He tends to get annoyed—”
“When you are being your usual overprotective self and forgetting we can look after ourselves?” Dorrie said sweetly to Dev.
“Ash is right. You should have walked away when Warwick asked you to. You should have come and got us.” Dev’s eyes were locked on hers.
“Stop that,” she hissed.
“What?”
“My color is fine; no one laid a finger on me.”
“I wasn’t checking your color,” he whispered back.
