ladies. Are you trying to choose between them? Because here’s an option—choose flight! Forget this gentlemanly gesture and ride this ill-tempered nag north as fast as it can gallop!
Except that it wasn’t a gesture.Somehow, somewhere along his journey to prove to his grandfather that he was a worthy man, he’d stopped thinking about how things looked and begun to care about how they truly were.
And in his heart, he could not turn his back on two vulnerable women.He could not ride away without knowing she—they—were safely in their family’s embrace once more.
Having a conscience was bloody damned annoying.
* * *
Aaron’s mount, a bay gelding of particularly stupid and lazy nature that Hastings had immediately dubbed Lard-Arse—which had unfortunately stuck, since Aaron honestly couldn’t think of any moniker more fitting—had taken a liking to Miss Bliss Worthington’s perfect little pony mare.The mare, well aware that she was a pedigreed beauty and that Lard-Arse was an inferior oaf with suspicious intentions, had loathed him on sight.
Aaron had no differing opinion to offer in defense of Lard-Arse, so he tried to keep the gelding an inoffensive distance from Bliss’s dainty pony.
However, with pounding head and indecisive stomach not improving from the ride and Lard-Arse’s jolting trot, Aaron became distracted in his mission of hauling the stupid beast’s head in a more suitable direction and let the reins slacken.
Before he could catch the idiot, Lard-Arse had lowered his brick-shaped head to the level of the pony mare’s silken tail and offered her an unseemly compliment.
The mare, who up till now had posed as a creature of extraordinarily good nature and training, bestowed upon Lard-Arse three lightning kicks directly in his lewd and unbearable nose, screeched abuse upon his lack-witted head, and took off down the dusty road as if demon-possessed.
“Bianca!Bianca, stop!”Bliss stood up in the seat and sawed at the dainty ribbon reins with admirable skill and some unexpected muscle, while Elektra leaned her full weight on the decoratively cast brake while clinging to her cousin’s skirts with her other hand.
Unfortunately, the cart and ladies were quite light for a sturdy pony’s strength, and Bianca pulled them along, rocketing wildly from one side of the lane to the other.
Aaron and Lard-Arse were so surprised by Bianca’s insane flight that they stopped short with unfortunately identical expressions of witless astonishment on their faces.
Aaron came to first, and leaning forward, lashed Lard-Arse with the reins, digging his boot heels into the horse’s sides.“Hah!”
Lard-Arse took off like a shot.He might not be smart, or well mannered, or particularly reliable, but his pretty pony darling was disappearing over yon hillside—and he had longer legs and he meant to use them.
* * *
There was no screaming, Aaron would recall at a later point.
Not a girlish squeal.Not a feminine screech.The two young women held their tongues and held on tight.Bliss didn’t look to be sawing on the reins, either—a beginning driver’s last resort, and one not inclined to soothe an irate equine.
Though small, ponies, like this sturdy Welsh pony, were bred for backbreaking work that would kill a proper horse.This one had speed and the endurance of generations of mining beasts.The pony would simply have to run her fit of temper out.
Aaron encouraged more speed from the gelding anyway, for although the pony would not mean to run into danger, she was hardly the best judge of that at the moment.
And sure enough, danger loomed.The road dipped once over that last hill, and without the drag of the cart, the pony gained speed.The decreased elevation of the road could mean a simple valley between hills, but that valley could hold—
Yes.Aaron’s gut flipped sideways as he spotted the river ahead.He’d recalled it correctly.At the base of this particular stretch of road he’d
Except that it wasn’t a gesture.Somehow, somewhere along his journey to prove to his grandfather that he was a worthy man, he’d stopped thinking about how things looked and begun to care about how they truly were.
And in his heart, he could not turn his back on two vulnerable women.He could not ride away without knowing she—they—were safely in their family’s embrace once more.
Having a conscience was bloody damned annoying.
* * *
Aaron’s mount, a bay gelding of particularly stupid and lazy nature that Hastings had immediately dubbed Lard-Arse—which had unfortunately stuck, since Aaron honestly couldn’t think of any moniker more fitting—had taken a liking to Miss Bliss Worthington’s perfect little pony mare.The mare, well aware that she was a pedigreed beauty and that Lard-Arse was an inferior oaf with suspicious intentions, had loathed him on sight.
Aaron had no differing opinion to offer in defense of Lard-Arse, so he tried to keep the gelding an inoffensive distance from Bliss’s dainty pony.
However, with pounding head and indecisive stomach not improving from the ride and Lard-Arse’s jolting trot, Aaron became distracted in his mission of hauling the stupid beast’s head in a more suitable direction and let the reins slacken.
Before he could catch the idiot, Lard-Arse had lowered his brick-shaped head to the level of the pony mare’s silken tail and offered her an unseemly compliment.
The mare, who up till now had posed as a creature of extraordinarily good nature and training, bestowed upon Lard-Arse three lightning kicks directly in his lewd and unbearable nose, screeched abuse upon his lack-witted head, and took off down the dusty road as if demon-possessed.
“Bianca!Bianca, stop!”Bliss stood up in the seat and sawed at the dainty ribbon reins with admirable skill and some unexpected muscle, while Elektra leaned her full weight on the decoratively cast brake while clinging to her cousin’s skirts with her other hand.
Unfortunately, the cart and ladies were quite light for a sturdy pony’s strength, and Bianca pulled them along, rocketing wildly from one side of the lane to the other.
Aaron and Lard-Arse were so surprised by Bianca’s insane flight that they stopped short with unfortunately identical expressions of witless astonishment on their faces.
Aaron came to first, and leaning forward, lashed Lard-Arse with the reins, digging his boot heels into the horse’s sides.“Hah!”
Lard-Arse took off like a shot.He might not be smart, or well mannered, or particularly reliable, but his pretty pony darling was disappearing over yon hillside—and he had longer legs and he meant to use them.
* * *
There was no screaming, Aaron would recall at a later point.
Not a girlish squeal.Not a feminine screech.The two young women held their tongues and held on tight.Bliss didn’t look to be sawing on the reins, either—a beginning driver’s last resort, and one not inclined to soothe an irate equine.
Though small, ponies, like this sturdy Welsh pony, were bred for backbreaking work that would kill a proper horse.This one had speed and the endurance of generations of mining beasts.The pony would simply have to run her fit of temper out.
Aaron encouraged more speed from the gelding anyway, for although the pony would not mean to run into danger, she was hardly the best judge of that at the moment.
And sure enough, danger loomed.The road dipped once over that last hill, and without the drag of the cart, the pony gained speed.The decreased elevation of the road could mean a simple valley between hills, but that valley could hold—
Yes.Aaron’s gut flipped sideways as he spotted the river ahead.He’d recalled it correctly.At the base of this particular stretch of road he’d
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