Alice gathered her in a hug. “You came to no harm,” she said, running her hands soothingly down the girl’s back. “Just a nasty fright is all, but when Lord Diamond returns with your horse, you shall mount up, and we’ll go home.”
“No!” It was the firmest Alice could recall Susanne ever speaking. “Not today. There was a bee. I believe it stung Rowan. I won’t get on him again.”
An open-air barouche drew up beside the hedge. A lady and a gentleman were in it.
“Lady Susanne,” greeted the woman. “We saw what happened. Are you injured?”
“No, I don’t think so,” she said meekly.
“May we give you a ride back to your residence?”
Susanne leaned away from Alice and blinked at her. “May I please go home with Lord and Lady Eldridge?”
“Of course,” she said. “I shall bring Rowan back.”
“There’s a break in the hedge on the other side of the tree,” the gentleman said, then directed his driver to move the carriage forward.
Holding her arm, Alice led Susanne around the tree and through the yews and let the Eldridges take her away. She hoped that was the correct thing for a chaperone to do, but she had little choice. She couldn’t abandon the mare, nor had Lord and Lady Eldridge invited her along.
Even as the two carriage horses pulled away at a trot, Lord Diamond returned, leading Rowan.
“Lady Susanne has abandoned us,” he said.
Thus, Alice tried to ignore him. “Luckily, some of her acquaintances came by.”
“Hm,”he said, looking in the direction they went before glancing down at her. “She ought to have got back on her mount.”
Alice nodded. “That’s what I told her, but she adamantly refused.”
“You know a lot about horses and riding.”
Ignoring his questioning tone, she looked at Rowan’s head. Sure enough, he had a swelling on his velvety nose.
“Lady Susanne was correct. He was stung.”
Lord Diamond dismounted. “If you hold his head, I will see if a stinger remains.”
“Very well.”
And thus, Alice found herself in close proximity to the best smelling, most handsome man she’d ever met.
With a hand tucked around each of the lower cheek straps of Rowan’s bridle, she did her best to hold the horse’s head motionless.
Beside her, Lord Diamond looked at the small swollen bump.
“There is a stinger. Hold on.” Yanking off his gloves, he pressed a finger to either side of the pink area to tighten it, and with his other hand, he ran his thumb’s fingernail over it. “Got it.”
“Well done,” she said. In that instant, she was looking up, and he was looking down. Her insides fluttered. They were the perfect distance from each other for a kiss if he but bent a little lower.
His blue eyes locked with her own, and she caught her breath. Then his gaze dropped to her mouth.
Alice moved quickly, releasing the horse and stepping away.
“And now I am left as a horse’s chaperone,” she quipped to lighten the moment.
“Indeed.” His raspy tone weakened her knees.
When he said nothing more, merely taking her measure in a way that made her skin feel too tight, she asked, “Shall we head back to the Beasleys’ home?”
