She took off like a shot, and Caspian braced himself to fly to the rescue. He tensed, preparing to dive and save the reckless woman, hopefully before she hit the ground and broke her spine.
But Elizabeth did not falter.
Her seat was firm in the saddle, and she didn’t bounce about, like ladies often did. She rode like a man, sure-seated. Draugr thundered down the plain with Elizabeth leaning forwards, holding the reins in one hand. She reminded him of a legend he had learned as a child, of the goddess of the hunt who rode the very current of the wind and whose heart was wildness incarnate. He didn’t even blink; his gaze was riveted to her.
She murmured something, and Draugr slowed, obediently. He was flabbergasted to see his half-wild stallion treating the girl with something akin to reverence.
They walked around to where they started on the plain and took the field at a run again.
Elizabeth grinned widely, a big smile he had never seen grace her features before. She held the reins with one hand and flung out the other above her, savoring in the wildness of the moment.
She took the plain at a run six times until she was grinning wickedly. With a gentle hand, she slowed to a walk and guided her horse home.
“Where on earth did you find a woman like that?” Asmodeus asked him as they both stared at the woman who raced wild horses for the sheer thrill of it.
Truthfully, he didn’t know.
This creature with barely contained glee and wildness was so at odds with the quiet, demure thing he had come to know. The woman he knew was lovely to look at, but boring. And more than a little cold and conceited. Her blood and pedigree were so blue that he often thought of her as thinking herself too good for her surroundings.
The image of her grinning and flinging her arm out was burned into his brain.
Women tended to ride sidesaddle, and awkwardly at that, bouncing and almost unseating themselves from simply walking. She rode astride like a man, and instead of being alarmed by this, he found it unbelievably sexy and deliciously rebellious behaviour for a proper, well-bred lady.
Where had she even learned to ride like that?
Caspian followed her, hovering just out of sight. He watched her return her horse to the stables and venture inside to change.
Later, he looked for her in the library but couldn’t find her. She wasn’t in the gardens either. Eventually, he found her perched on a sofa in the sitting room with a book in her hands.
She looked more like the woman he had come to know now, sitting primly on the sofa with her hair pulled back into a slick knot, and a book resting open in her hands.
Up until now, he had considered her to be like a piece of art. A beautiful woman that he, a man of power and prestige, was deserving of having about his home.
A prize to be won, land to be conquered.
Now, he wasn’t so sure that Elizabeth’s heart would be easy to conquer at all.
Elizabeth felt his gaze, and her sapphire eyes flicked up, piercing. Waiting for him to state his purpose in disturbing her reading.
“Good evening, Elizabeth,” he asserted with a shadow of a smile.
“Hello, Caspian,” she said coolly and returned to her reading. Utterly unfazed by him. Didn’t she know how fast he could end her if he wanted to?
“Will you be joining us for dinner tonight?” he said, his voice gravelly and deep.
She took the time to finish the paragraph she was reading before closing her book and smiling at him. “Certainly. I look forward to it.”
Polite, empty words.
He gave her a curt nod and turned to leave.
At dinner, Mammond, Asmodeus, and Finnigan were discussing issues in the Underworld.
Raziel, the bastard, had amassed forces that had been raiding demon cities to stir up trouble. So far, they had only killed low-level demons, but if their powers and influence grew, they might become an actual threat to mid-level demons and higher. They were all in agreement that they must cut off the threat before that happened, or figure out who was financing Raziel and cut him off.
Elizabeth looked either at her food or the wall. Polite, bored.
“And what do you think of all of this, Elizabeth?” he inquired. “Surely you have an opinion of the inner workings of the Underworld and of the enemy who is threatening to destabilize everything we stand for.”
