Lady Rosabella's Ruse - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,25
ladyship heard she was ill,’ Lil said, tossing her head. ‘She sent Mrs Travenor with some of her powders. She came by with them and that nasty little dog. You can ask her when she comes back from the village.’
Could he now? Something inside him smiled at the thought of asking Rose anything. It was the oddest sensation. He flipped the coin into the outstretched palm. ‘Let me know when your mistress feels better.’
‘Hopefully by this afternoon, my lord.’ The maid bobbed a curtsy and scurried off.
Did he believe her? Lil had been with Lady Smythe for years. He did not discount female loyalty as some men did, even if it was often misguided or plain wrong, but he knew lies when he heard them. Lil had been speaking the truth.
A smile pulled at his lips as he realised he had a morning to do as he pleased. And a fine morning it was, too. The sun was shining for once. The sky clear. And Mrs Travenor had walked to the village. Alone.
He kept remembering the little flashes of ankle beneath her skirts as she had vaulted on and off the chair. Pretty well-turned ankles and glimpses of elegant calf. Not to mention the way the echo of her kiss had left him tossing and turning for what had remained of last night. No doubt her intention. He looked forward to their next meeting alone.
Energised in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time, he ran lightly down the stairs and out of the front door. A whistle came to his lips and a sense of well-being buoyed his spirits. The woman delighted him enough, he didn’t care that she was a liar and possibly a thief.
After an easy half-hour stroll along a winding lane with high hedgerows full of cheerful birds, the first of a cluster of cottages heralded his arrival at the village. Still no sign of Mrs Travenor. Had he missed her?
He narrowed his eyes against the glare of the sun. If he remembered correctly, the post office lay at the centre of the small hamlet, and since there was only one road through it, she could not have returned without him seeing her. Unless she had taken a short cut across the fields.
Damn.
He had seen a stile leading to a footpath a short way back. And she did seem to know her way around the surrounding woods and fields. Perhaps that part of her story was true and she had lived near here as a child. He huffed out an impatient breath. Meeting her on the road was one thing, following her along a little-travelled path was so obvious as to be pathetic.
Yet the chance to tease her was simply just too tempting. And besides, he needed to keep an eye on her, find out what she was really up to.
He increased the length of his stride and soon leapt the stile he’d passed earlier. A barely discernible path led around the edge of a golden hayfield, which a few days before would have been ready for the scythe, but was now flattened here and there by last night’s rain.
The sweet scent reminded him of boyhood jaunts in Sussex with Christopher. Those times with his brother had been good. And there would have been more, if Christopher hadn’t been so sickly as a boy and Garth hadn’t been such a devil. In those days, he’d accepted their differences. Only later had he realised the truth. The truth of what he was and what that meant for his brother.
He shrugged off the unwelcome intrusion, instead focusing ahead for sounds of his quarry. He paused at the sound of excited yapping and then a yelp. He grinned. It seemed the dog was on his side.
The next stile led him into a field of young bullocks all crowded in a corner on the far side. Above their brown bovine heads he saw a wildly waving parasol.
Sweet Hades, it just got better and better. He broke into a run.
The young bullocks turned at the sound of his yell. Ruminative brown eyes took him in. As one they turned in his direction. He knew what they wanted. Food. ‘Off. Be gone, you stupid beasts.’ He slapped the closest one on the rump and it kicked out and took off. The rest followed blindly at a lumbering run, leaving a dishevelled Mrs Travenor, her bonnet askew, clutching the grinning pug to her chest.