Page 9 of The Gentlewoman Companion

True. But she was unbalanced, and that posed a risk to her safety. He would not ride with her until her form improved. “Keep your…er…limb tight around the pommel. Very good.” She leaned to the right, and he put his hands in the air as if to straighten her, his pulse hitching. He could not have her falling while he was responsible. “Hold yourself upright.”

“Riding is not so easy when legs are all to one side,” she said.

Legs? Limbs? The improper reference to her physique seemed to distress Miss Thorpe not at all.

“It looked as though you could not quite tune yourself to the horse’s step,” he said.

“Oh. That will come.” She waved as if his concern were nothing.

He did not trust her confidence. “Keep your spine in line with Daisy’s mane and tighten…everything. Ride around once more.”

She closed her eyes for a beat and exhaled, like a child told to put a toy away before tea. She urged Daisy on and trotted away, her posture much improved, but he continued shouting instructions as she took a wide circle around him. She pulled Daisy in front of him.

“Very good.” Halverton mounted Goliath. “Are you ready, then?”

As if not hearing, she gazed into the distance, her jaw tightening beneath soft pink cheeks. Blonde curls stirred in the gentle breeze. “I can do tha’,” she whispered so quietly that he understood only because he was staring at her lips.

“What can you do?” he asked.

She pointed with her chin. “Take tha’ fence.”

A low barrier separated the paddock from the forrest.

“You jumped your pony?”

“No, but Daisy is a great horse. I am sure we can do it together.”

She was absolutely not ready for jumps, but something about her bearing and expression reverberated against his own resolve. Though her assurance was unfounded, he could see she would move forward, ready or no. Her determination suddenly reminded him of his own step into obscurity as he joined Parliament, hoping he could become what his father had wanted for him. His leap into the unknown, of course, was necessary due to his position as his father’s heir; Miss Thorpe surely had nothing constraining her to advance so hastily.

“Will you tell me how to jump?” she asked as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“You are not ready.”

She raised her brow. Clearly, being “ready” did not matter.

He sighed. “I don’t ride aside,” he said, “so I don’t know how to instruct a lady’s jump, but in theory—after warming up the horse for twenty minutes or so—practice your jumping stance at a walk, a trot, then a canter.” He stood in his stirrups, demonstrating his position. “Bend your knees and hover over the saddle, keeping your heels under your hips. I am not leaning forward much, just squatting above the saddle. However, riding aside, you are unable to hover. Perhaps tomorrow, you may ask the groom for better instruction.” He sat down, pleased to have laid the charge elsewhere.

“But your instructions were thorough, my lord.”

He knew he often overexplained and had been shouting instructions at her for twenty minutes. “You are funning me.”

“Yer the earl. It is not my place to tease.” Her eyes danced.

“Let’s ride, then. No faster than a trot.”

Over the next half-hour, they made little conversation, but Halverton watched Miss Thorpe make steady progress. By the time they approached the stable, she and Daisy moved as one.

A short distance from the riding yard, Miss Thorpe drew Daisy to a stop and squinted ahead. At the fence.

“No,” he said. “Wait! No, no…” She was gone. “Don’t lean. Pull up!” Miss Thorpe wavered to one side then overcorrected. “Tighten your middle!” he shouted, knowing she could not hear. He held his breath.

Her posture straightened. She bobbed in perfect tempo with the horse. Daisy approached the fence. A visceral cry tore from him. He could not turn away any more than he could prevent the tragedy that was certain to happen. Daisy’s front legs lifted. Miss Thorpe leaned forward. Thud. Daisy trotted into the paddock.

Miss Thorpe remained seated. She’d done it.

Her laughter rang like a faerie spell, dangerous and irresistible. “Well, I’m blowed!” Her delight echoed across the yard.

He tore after her, taking the fence as she had. “What were you thinking? You could have fallen!”