Winning the Gentleman (Hearts on the Heath #2) - Kristi Ann Hunter Page 0,63

weren’t the things he knew about her fitting together?

“Was she leading the horse away?” he asked, turning and stepping over to the low wall to better block any chance of Miss Fitzroy being noticed.

“No.” Lord Gliddon looked a bit abashed for a moment. “She was sleeping.”

“You put her in the stable?” Oliver asked his fiancée.

“Of course not. I gave her a maid’s room,” Lady Rebecca said.

“In my house!” Lord Gliddon turned his accusatory finger to Oliver. “I haven’t written your father before now because, while I too thought Mr. Whitworth was making a point, I assumed it was a different one entirely. He could have made it so she’d lose, you know, thus establishing the way things should be. A rather strange way to go about it, but what else can you expect from someone like him?”

Someone like him. Aaron’s blood ran cold. The hairs on his arm pricked up and rubbed against his shirt, leaving his skin feeling raw. So much for all the time and care he’d spent building a reputation in this town. He expected such comments in London, knew the scandal had followed him here, but until Miss Fitzroy came into his life, it had all seemed carefully contained.

“You can leave now.”

Aaron blinked. He’d never heard Oliver so firm, and he’d been witness to most of Oliver’s serious life choices. More often than not, his passionate feelings left him sounding somewhat manic, but in this moment he was as hard and firm as a forged horseshoe.

“What?” Lord Gliddon asked.

“Get. Out. Insults to Mr. Whitworth are not welcome here or on any of my other properties.”

“They aren’t your properties, boy.”

“They are more mine than they are yours.”

“I’ll be writing to your father about this. And I’ll be going to the magistrate. If you won’t investigate why that girl was in my stable, I’m sure he will!” Lord Gliddon spun around on his heel. “Come along, Rebecca.”

“Oliver can see me home later,” she said in a sweet voice. Her ever-present half smile was back in place as she looped her arm calmly through Oliver’s.

No one moved until the echoes of Lord Gliddon’s boots faded from the stable.

“Well,” Oliver said, sounding more like himself, “the stable boys have to be around here somewhere. How long do we think it will take for word of that little tiff to get around town?”

“It will be in the alehouses tonight and the drawing rooms tomorrow,” Lady Rebecca said. “But I can head it off. Take me home, Oliver. If Mother and I make the rounds today, I can present a different version.”

Oliver looked at Aaron, as if making sure he hadn’t taken any of Lord Gliddon’s insults to heart. Though they’d stung, they were nothing he hadn’t heard before. He gave Oliver a nod, and the couple headed out.

Now to see what Miss Fitzroy had to say about the whole business.

When he turned back to the horse, though, she was gone. When had she slipped away? How had she done it without him—or anyone else—noticing?

He ran from the grooming area and walked speedily through the stable, checking the stalls as he went.

Nothing.

He stepped outside as a flash of color whipped around the side of another stable. While he didn’t blame her for running, where was she going to go?

He set off after her. Maybe now he would find the final piece to make the rest of the puzzle make sense.

Twenty

Sophia nearly tripped over her own feet as she hastened away from the training yards, constantly checking over her shoulder to see if anyone noticed her.

Mr. Whitworth had said she was trouble and things would be bad if she rode. She’d thought it was more the type of trouble that made someone uncomfortable or doubled their workload for a day. Instead, she was the sort of trouble that crushed a man’s life, if Lord Gliddon’s claims had been anything to go by.

She couldn’t do that to Mr. Whitworth. He was a good man. Yes, it would be nice if he talked more, but any man who risked such derision just to keep his word and keep her from being out on the streets was a good man. She refused to be responsible for the demise of a good man. She didn’t want to be the demise of any man, but particularly not a good one.

So, she would go.

She started to head straight for the cottage but took a turn toward town at the last minute in case someone had seen her leave the