Henrietta looked up from where she’d been lost in a brown study, straight into the smiling eyes of Mr. Hartley. He sat atop a tall chestnut, dressed in a navy-blue coat, fawn breeches, and gleaming black boots.
“Mr. Hartley,” she said faintly. She seemed to have lost her backbone, and no longer felt up to dealing with him.
“Surely you don’t ride alone?” He replaced his hat and gazed about, but her father and Mademoiselle Verity walked their horses a fair way behind her.
“Papa rides with Mademoiselle Garnier.”
“May I accompany you?”
“It appears my horse might object,” Henrietta said, as Charlotte tried to nip Mr. Hartley’s horse.
“She is not very friendly.”
“She is extremely friendly, but quite choosy.”
“Surely she can find nothing wrong with Titan. His pedigree is as long as my arm.”
“Lineage does not always vouch for good behavior.”
A smile danced on his lips. “Does it not?”
“On the contrary, there are those that are very poorly behaved right here today.”
“There are?”
She flicked her crop. “Look at that man over there for example. He is a gentleman, is he not?”
“That’s the Marquis of Tavenstock.”
“Have you seen how he whips his horse?”
“Can’t say I have. But I do not approve of such cruelty.”
Henrietta flicked her crop again. “And another, there.”
“Lord Crompton?” He raised an eyebrow. “He holds no whip.”
“He rode on ahead of his companion. She is a trifle unsure of herself on a horse, I grant you. And the animal is also rather fat, but he should wait for her, don’t you agree?”
“That’s his new wife,” Mr. Hartley said, in a strangled voice. “She is the daughter of a wealthy nabob.”
Henrietta glanced back at the woman dressed in a clash of crimson and puce. “I don’t see how that matters. But these were merely examples, of course.”
Mr. Hartley chuckled. “Lady Henrietta, you are outrageous.”
Henrietta cocked her head at him. “I am?”
He steadied his mount, which disliked coming too close to Charlotte’s bared teeth. “But delightfully so.”
“Henrietta!”
Henrietta turned to see her father approach as Mademoiselle Verity rode away.
“Good day to you, Hartley.”
“Beaumont.”
“You must excuse us. We return home immediately.”
