Valentine Page 6

  Sylvester blinked, realizing that she was wearing a most unusual riding habit—it seemed to have a divided skirt. Surely she wasn’t riding astride?

  “Make sure both accounts come to me at the manor, Greg,” he commanded. “I have an arrangement with Lady Belmont.”

  “Ah,” Greg said, nodding wisely. “One that Lady Theo doesn’t know about, I daresay.”

  Sylvester agreed. It was an outright lie, but he had it in mind to present Lady Belmont with a housewarming gift—a tactful, graceful gesture, but one he suspected would be lost on his fiery young cousin, who, if he’d confided in her, would probably have contrived to insult him in front of the innkeeper. He strode out of the inn and round to the stables, where he assumed Theo’s horse was waiting for her.

  She emerged from the kitchen, slipping the parcel of apple tartlets carefully into the deep pocket of her jacket. She saw the earl leaning against the stable wall, idly chewing a straw, and ignored him.

  “Ted, my horse, please.”

  The lad brought the neat dapple-gray mare, and Theo swung astride her without assistance.

  “An unusual choice of saddle,” Sylvester commented, crossing the cobbles. “But perhaps not for a gypsy.”

  “It’s convenient,” she said shortly, gathering up the reins. “I have always ridden astride round here. No one remarks it. Good day, Lord Stoneridge.”

  Something else that would have to be discouraged in his countess. Shaking his head, he mounted his own horse and rode out after her. It was just his luck that the only possible Belmont daughter had to be this intransigent romp who clearly detested him…. Perhaps he could persuade Lady Belmont to reconsider an offer for Clarissa.

  But no … the pursuit might be harder with Theo, but winning over such a passionate nature would be worth the effort. Besides, Theo’s knowledge and expertise in estate management made her an invaluable resource.

  He urged his horse into a gallop, coming up with her as she turned out of the village toward the cliff top above Lulworth Cove.

  “A word with you, cousin.”

  “Why can’t you leave me alone!” she exclaimed in a low voice.

  His lips tightened. “It would be so much easier for everyone if you’d accept the inevitable with good grace,” he said with calculated severity. “We are going to be neighbors whether you like it or not. You are behaving like a spoiled hoyden who should have had some manners whipped into her years ago.”

  “I do accept the inevitable,” she said, flushing. “But I don’t have to cultivate you. You seem to be deliberately trying to annoy me, following me around, pestering me, making me sound horrible … and I’m not.”

  She sounded so desperately aggrieved that he couldn’t help being amused. Leaning over, he placed a hand over hers and said, smilingly persuasive, “I believe you, Theo, and I don’t intend to make you sound horrible. But I do wish to get to know you, and you’re making it very difficult for me.”

  Shark! Theo snatched her hand away and nudged Dulcie’s flanks, turning her aside onto a ribbon track descending the cliff to the cove. The mare stepped surefooted down the steep path, clearly familiar with the terrain. Sylvester set his black to follow, holding him on a tight rein as he picked his way cautiously through the loose sand and scree.

  Theo heard the horse behind her and began to feel as if she were truly hunted quarry. It was time that odious Gilbraith tasted her mettle. It was time to stand and fight.

  The mare reached the smooth, flat sand of the beach, and Theo dismounted, knotting the reins on the horse’s neck, waiting until the black had touched solid ground.

  She tossed her hat aside and unbuttoned her jacket with slow deliberation. “Very well, my lord. Since you won’t leave me alone for the asking, then I challenge you to combat. The best of three falls.” She slipped out of her jacket and regarded him steadily.

  Sylvester’s eyes were unreadable as he met her gaze for a long minute. Then in silence he swung off his mount.

  Theo placed her jacket on the sand and stood facing him, a lithe, slender figure in her white shirt, her feet braced, her legs unhampered by the divided skirt. She raised her arms and tightened the pins that held her plaits in a knot at the nape of her neck. Her breasts lifted with the movement, their crowns dark for an instant against the fine cambric shirt.

  “The best of three falls, my lord. And if I win, you keep your distance from now on. Is it agreed?”

  Sylvester shrugged out of his own coat and rolled up his sleeves. “Certainly,” he said calmly. “And if I win, gypsy, I’ll have some courtesies from you that might make you redefine the meaning of the word.”

  He could mean only one thing. Theo stared at him; her lips tingled abruptly with the memory of his kisses, and there were strange vibrations deep in her belly as her body of its own accord responded to the memory of his hardness pressed against her.

  She swallowed, unconsciously absorbing his physique properly for the first time—the wide belt outlining the slender waist, slim hips, powerful thighs straining against the soft; buckskin of his riding britches. He was so large! The power in those broad shoulders, the muscles rippling in his bared arms, were downright intimidating. Only a fool would be convinced she could win a combat with such a figure…. She might … but it was no certainty.

  And if she lost …? If she lost, he’d put his hands on her again in the way that set her body on fire; he’d put his mouth to hers…. Dear God, how could her body not know what her mind knew—that she loathed the man and everything he represented?

  “Damn you to hell, Stoneridge!” She turned and leaped into the mare’s saddle.

  Sylvester watched as she rode the animal straight into the waves lapping the curving shoreline. He shook his head, half in amusement, half in annoyance. What kind of marriage was he letting himself in for, with a wife who chose unarmed combat to settle a disagreement?

  He bent to pick up her jacket and his own coat, shaking the sand off them and laying them on a flat rock. Then he sat down on another rocky outcrop, stretching his legs along the sand, squinting into the sun as he watched his combative young cousin ride her mare in a mad gallop through the waves breaking gently on the shoreline.

  When she turned the horse out toward the curious horseshoe-shaped rock formation at the entrance to the cove, he drew breath sharply. Surely she wasn’t going to swim the animal out to sea. He half rose from his rock about to yell at her and then saw that she’d reached a sandbar about twenty feet from the shore and was cantering along it in a fine mist of spray from Dulcie’s hooves.

  Hotheaded gypsy! He sat back on his rock, lifting his face to the sun, closing his eyes, waiting for her to return.

  Theo rode until some of her frustration had dissipated, become a part of the sea air and the salt spray. Dulcie moved beneath her with obvious enjoyment, kicking up her heels as the little waves slurped over the hard-packed ridged sand. Waves crashed with monotonous rhythm against the rocks protecting the entrance to the cove, but within their shelter the water was smooth as glass, and the sun was hot on her head and the back of her neck.

  She glanced toward the beach. Sylvester Gilbraith was still there, and there was something about his posture that told her he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry. She couldn’t stay in the middle of the cove indefinitely.

  Turning Dulcie, she rode back to shore. Her habit was soaked to her knees, her boots sodden, her shirt sticking sweatily to her back. Her hairpins had loosened, and the two thick braids now looped on her shoulders.

  She rode up the beach to where the Earl of Stoneridge in his shirtsleeves leaned back on his rock, hands linked behind his head.

  “You are detestable,” she stated. “I loathe you.”

  “Do you?” He opened his eyes and squinted indolently up at her through narrowed lids.

  “Perhaps you’d be good enough to pass me my jacket,” she said with icy restraint.

  He shook his head. “Come and get it, gypsy.”

  “Damn you!” she thr
ew at him, swung Dulcie round, and cantered off along the beach.

  “This damning is becoming repetitious,” Sylvester murmured, mounting his horse and setting off after her. The black ate up the distance between them, even when Theo leaned low over Dulcie’s neck, urging her to increase her pace. The dapple stretched her neck in a gallant effort, but she hadn’t the chest of her pursuer, and Theo drew back on the reins, allowing her to find her own pace.

  The black drew up alongside. Theo cast a sidelong glance at the earl. To her infuriated astonishment she saw that he was laughing. And then she saw the gleam in his eye, the purposeful set of his mouth, and with a desperate kick at her flanks, urged Dulcie to renewed effort.

  Sylvester caught his own reins between his teeth, leaned over, and lifted Theo bodily off the mare. Interestingly, it was much easier to do with someone riding astride than sidesaddle, he thought with a flicker of amusement, snatching the mare’s reins and hauling her to a halt as he adjusted the rigid figure of his captive on the saddle in front of him.

  “Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west, Through all the wide Border his steed was the best,”

  he quoted, eyes alight with laughter at her stunned expression. “And don’t damn me again, cousin, or I’ll be obliged to take reprisals.”

  Shifting his hold, he drew her tight against his chest, the black coming to a panting halt beneath them as the riderless mare snorted and kicked up sand.

  Theo was still so astonished that for the moment she was dumbstruck. His fingers were on her face, tracing the curve of her cheek, the line of her jaw, the shape of her mouth.

  “You have such an appealing countenance, gypsy. But I can’t appreciate it when you’re forever hissing and spitting at me and wanting to throw me all over the beach.” Smiling, he cupped her chin and slowly lowered his head.

  She tried to resist, to fight off this insidiously sweet assault, but it was a lost cause. Her body was no longer under the sway of her mind. She lay against him, feeling his supporting hand flattened and warm, pressing her damp shirt to her back, his breath on her face, the honeyed mingling of tongues. Her blood flew through her veins, her pulse beating fast in her throat, and the sun was hot and red against her closed eyelids.

  His hand slid round her body, feeling for the swell of her breasts beneath the thin shirt. She was wearing nothing beneath the cambric, and her nipples pressed small and hard into his palm. His fingers slid between the buttons, tracing the satin curve, and she shuddered against him with a soft moan, one arm lifting to come round his neck, pulling him closer to her, her mouth opening hungrily beneath his, her tongue now urgently pursuing its own exploration.

  He raised his head, leaving her mouth slowly, reluctantly, and looked down into her face, lying against his chest. His hand was still against her right breast, and the sweat-dampened material of her shirt clung translucently to the other, outlining the swelling curve as clearly as if it were uncovered.

  Her eyes opened and passion swirled in the midnight depths … passion and confusion.

  “You really should wear a chemise,” he observed, still smiling. “You invite the most scandalous attentions, gypsy.” He cupped her breast beneath the shirt, flicking at the nipple with his forefinger in example.

  Theo drew a deep breath and struggled to sit up. His hold tightened while the caress continued, and she yielded with a tiny sigh of defeat.

  “Now, isn’t this pleasanter than threatening me with combat?” he murmured, his voice lightly teasing.

  “It was a challenge, not a threat,” Theo said, finally roused from her sensual trance by his tone and the frustrating reflection that the damnable Gilbraith had simply taken his so-called courtesies anyway.

  It had happened again, and she’d had no more strength to resist it than a baby. She thrust his hand aside and pushed herself up against his chest, blinking in the dazzling sunlight. She felt most peculiar. The black shifted restlessly at the sudden change of weight on his back, and she would have slipped to the ground if Sylvester hadn’t grabbed her waist.

  He chuckled but said seriously, “I might be willing to accept a friendly challenge, but I’ll not settle real problems in that way. Best you remember that, little cousin … particularly as we’re going to be under the same roof for a time.”

  “I wouldn’t count on that,” Theo said, as much for something to say as anything else. With a neat wriggle she slid out of his hold and onto the sand.

  “Oh, and why shouldn’t I?” One eyebrow lifted in quizzical inquiry as he looked down at her.

  Why shouldn’t he? Not a reason in the world! Her mother seemed to have fallen for his charm without so much as a whimper.

  Why couldn’t she learn to keep her mouth shut? Or keep her unruly body under control? She was tingling from top to toe, every inch of her skin sensitized. As if aware of this, the detestable Gilbraith was gazing at her chest with fixed attention, and she could feel her nipples lifting under his eyes.

  “A word of advice: Wear a chemise in future,” he said coolly. “Or don’t take your jacket off … unless you’re prepared to follow through on the invitation you’re issuing.”

  “You behaved like a cur the first time we met,” she said, trembling now with renewed outrage. “Maybe there was the smidgeon of an excuse then … you didn’t know who I was. But I tell you Stoneridge, you are an unmitigated cad and a coxcomb!”

  She sprang onto Dulcie’s back and rode off along the beach to the broad path at the far end that led up to the cliff. Sylvester grimaced ruefully. One step forward, two steps back. There was something about the wretched girl that brought out the worst in him. She was so damned combative, she made him want to shake her into submission half the time, but despite the occasional brattishness, there was something about her spirit that sparked an answer in his own, and he’d lay any odds that she’d prove to be a wonderfully tempestuous partner in lust—with the right education.

  He watched her disappearing up the path, and his loins stirred at the memory of her breasts against his hands and the eagerness of her mouth beneath his. Come hell or high water, he intended to have the schooling of his recalcitrant cousin.

  He rode back along the beach to where their coats still lay over the rock. It occurred to him that her feelings were as confused as his own. Her responses were always passionate—even when she was damning him up hill and down dale. Indifference would be much harder to overcome, so perhaps the key to victory lay in keeping up the pressure and confusion.

  He dismounted and collected their coats. Theo’s had something in the pocket—a packet of succulent apple tartlets. Well, she’d abandoned them, he reflected, consuming them with leisurely pleasure before remounting.

  As he rode up the manor’s driveway, Elinor appeared from the rose garden, a pair of pruning shears in her hand, a basket of yellow and white roses over her arm.

  “Lord Stoneridge.” She greeted him pleasantly. “How good of you to call.”

  He doffed his hat and dismounted to walk beside her. “I have Lady Theo’s coat and hat to return, ma’am.”

  Elinor’s eyebrows disappeared into her scalp. “I think you’d better explain, sir.”

  He gave her a disarming smile. “I’m afraid we had a slight … a slight altercation on the beach. My cousin rode off in some haste.”

  “And what was she doing without her coat and hat in the first place?” Lady Belmont’s eyes were sharp, although her tone seemed only mildly curious.

  “My cousin challenged me to a bout of unarmed combat, ma’am,” he said. This time his smile was rueful.

  Elinor sighed. “A challenge you refrained from accepting, I trust.”

  “In a manner of speaking, ma’am,” he said. “My cousin was induced to withdraw the challenge. She’s not in charity with me, as a result.”

  “Oh, it’s Edward’s fault,” Elinor said, shaking her head. “He taught Theo all that nonsense when they were little more than children, and whenever he’s here, they practice throwing each othe
r all over the long gallery.”

  “Edward?”

  “Emily’s betrothed, Edward Fairfax. His family are neighbors, and the children have known each other from the nursery. For a long time I believed he and Theo would make a match of it, but for some reason they all put their heads together, and the next thing I knew, Edward and Emily were betrothed.” She smiled slightly. “I’m convinced it’s the right match, but I still don’t know what led the three of them to come to that conclusion with such amicable suddenness.”

  “And where is Mr. Fairfax?”

  “Lieutenant Fairfax. He’s with Wellington in the Peninsula,” she said, casting him a sideways glance. “You were also in the war, sir?”

  “Yes … and a prisoner of the French for a twelvemonth,” he replied shortly.

  She merely nodded. “So you dissuaded Theo from this combat, and she’s annoyed with you as a result.”

  “Actually, ma’am, she holds me in acute dislike.” He kicked a loose stone out of Lady Belmont’s path. “I’m at a loss to understand exactly what I could have done to cause it.”

  “Evidently you and Theo had met before you called yesterday.”

  “Yes … an unfortunate encounter,” he admitted. A deep frown corrugated his brow.

  Elinor glanced up at him as he walked beside her, adapting his natural impatient stride to her own strolling pace. It wasn’t easy for him, she reflected, sensing again that pent-up tension in the lean, powerful frame, the depths of pain within him. She couldn’t decide whether she liked him or not, but thought that she probably did … or at least would, on further acquaintance. She was very aware of his attraction, however, and wondered how Theo was managing to ignore it.

  “You should understand something about Theo,” she said matter-of-factly. “This house, the estate, the people are a part of her. It was the same for her father, and her grandfather. They mean everything to her, in a way that her sisters … and indeed, myself … can’t begin to identify with. She was her grandfather’s favorite. And she feels betrayed by him. You, sir, are an interloper. You’re taking from her something as important as the blood that flows in her veins.”