A Winter's Knight: A Regency Romance by Elizabeth Cole Page B

his head to glance back at her. Perhaps unconsciously, he kept his scarred side hidden from her.
    “Yes, thank you.” She noticed his hair, cut rather short, was pure chestnut. “Just a bit shaky from the fright.” She was also shivering from the cold, and he sensed it.
    “They were animals,” he growled.
    “They wanted money,” Phoebe continued to explain. “And they were going to…” She could not finish the statement, frightened and embarrassed by the memory.
    “Should I have shot them?” the man asked with terrifying casualness.
    “No! Nothing happened! You arrived just in time.”
You saved me
, Phoebe thought.
Like a knight in shining armor
.
    “Where am I taking you, madam?” he asked, changing the subject. The idea of two men setting upon a lady in the English countryside infuriated him beyond reason. Especially one that looked as lovely and as fragile as this one. He remembered the look on her face when she first turned toward him, the wide brown eyes filled with fear and anger. Who could take advantage of her? These were the countrymen he had fought for?
    “I live in Chipping Norton. It’s just a few miles up the road.”
    “Were you planning on walking that whole way?” he asked, puzzled. He had noted her dark green riding habit as she approached him in the clearing, though he had noticed her tumbled, rich dark blond hair far more.
    “I had an accident. My horse threw me when I misjudged a turn and hit a patch of ice. I fell and hit my head. The horse must have bolted, since it was gone when I came to.” Phoebe rushed her words, fearing the censure that must surely be coming. “It was stupid of me. I should not have tried to take a shortcut through the woods.”
    “I am glad nothing worse happened,” the man said quietly. He paused. “Captain Anthony Sterling, at your service.”
    “I am Miss Phoebe Hartridge,” she replied, rather shyly.
    “Miss Hartridge.” Tony inclined his head, the proper, distant tone in his voice again.
    They rode in silence for a few minutes, Phoebe rather intensely aware of the masculinity of the man in front of her. She wondered if he had lost his leg in battle, and if so, which battle. She wondered if he ever smiled.
    Then he asked unexpectedly, “Did you hurt yourself in the fall? You seemed to have some trouble walking.”
    Phoebe swallowed. “No. It is always like that. My leg, I mean.”
    “Forgive my intrusion,” Tony said instantly. He cursed himself silently. He of all people knew how sensitive one could be about a physical defect. It had been a bitter lesson for him.
    “How could you have known? You don’t live around here, do you?” Phoebe asked simply. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before.” As if he were a person one could forget!
    “No, Miss Hartridge. I am in the area on some personal business.” His inheritance, in fact, but he wasn’t supposed to say anything until everything had cleared the courts. “I shall be returning to London in a few days.”
    “Oh, I see,” Phoebe was unaccountably saddened by that notion. How odd, considering their acquaintance was only minutes old.
    Tony held his tongue after that, thinking instead about the lovely woman sitting so close. She had wrapped her arms tightly around him for balance, but remembering her deep brown eyes, he wished it were for another reason. He could smell her fragrance in the winter air, a combination of flowers and honey. It was undeniably feminine, just like her face and figure, and the hair that was charmingly, improperly loose. He wondered what it would be like to kiss her. Perhaps she would also taste like honey. Tony tried to stop that line of thought, since it would only lead to pain. He was done with courting. His fiancée—his former fiancée—made that very clear.
    Phoebe, relaxing as the cold and fear receded, sighed and laid her head on Tony’s broad back, gazing into the woods beyond, now growing dusky in the fading light. Strange how minutes ago she was