The Formidable Earl (Diamonds in the Rough #6) - Sophie Barnes Page 0,86
taken as a child when her father had wanted to teach her how to ride came back to her with a jolt. Her arms and legs stiffened. “I hope you’re not planning to get me onto a horse.”
Without answering, Simon climbed down from the carriage and offered his hand to help her alight. She took a deep breath and slowly expelled it while letting him guide her onto solid ground.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured. “So impressively brave.”
A squeaky sound left her throat. She didn’t feel the least bit brave at the moment. Indeed, she wanted nothing more than to turn and run. Compared with the idea of riding, everything else she’d recently been through - falling down a flight of stairs, facing Carlton Guthrie, helping Simon ward off a man who wanted her dead, and taking on a peer of the realm - were all simple tasks with little cause for concern.
But this…
She shuddered and fought the urge to dig in her heels while Simon led her toward the first stall. “Could we not have gone rowing instead? Or maybe visited Kew Gardens? I’ve heard such wonderful things about it, and there could still be time for us to—”
“Ida.” Simon had turned and planted both hands on her shoulders. Head bowed, he gazed into her upturned face. “I realize you had a bad experience once, but you don’t strike me as the sort of woman who would let one bad ride prevent her from all the good ones lying ahead.”
She broke eye contact with him and looked toward one of the stalls. A horse hung its head over the gate and was glancing in their direction. “I was thrown, my arm dislocated and my hip severely bruised, Simon. I don’t want to go through that again.”
“I promise to make sure nothing bad happens to you.” She’d never seen him look quite so serious. There was something almost desperate about it, a powerful emotion she couldn’t quite place, though it did make her heart beat faster. And then he said the one thing that was sure to gain her cooperation. “Please trust me.”
She nodded, because this was Simon and even if things would never again be as they’d once been between them, he was her friend. She wanted to push aside all her fears for his sake and prove herself able. At this moment, she wanted his happiness more than she wanted her own, the love she felt for him so overwhelming she’d get on the blasted animal and do her best to look as though she enjoyed it.
His smile and the grin that followed was all the reward she needed, and knowing he was there, determined to protect her, made the endeavor easier. In fact, once they’d selected a horse Simon claimed to be older and calmer than the rest and he’d helped her mount, she had to admit that it wasn’t as bad as she recalled.
For one thing, she was a grown woman now, which made the horse seem smaller and less threatening. And then there was the fact that someone concerned for her safety was holding onto the reins while the young, careless boy who’d taken her out for her first ride all those years ago had thought to quicken the horse’s pace with a whip. It hadn’t mattered that he’d been holding a tether. He hadn’t had the strength to restrain the animal once it bolted, and Ida had only been able to scream while holding onto dear life. Until she finally fell.
“How does it feel?” Simon asked while walking her in a wide circle around the ring.
“It’s not terrible.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it.”
He smiled up at her and in that moment she wished she could give him what he wanted. She wished she could put aside her own dreams, be his mistress, and damn the consequences. She wished she were strong enough not to care whom he married or how many children he had with his wife. And she wished she could be content with simply knowing he wanted her in his life – that she could be happy in that cottage he’d mentioned and that her heart wouldn’t break every time he left her.
Averting her gaze, she blinked back the threatening tears, took a deep breath, and brought her emotions under control. She rode around the ring a few more times before Simon showed her how to steer the horse left and right and finally how to bring it to a halt.