More would gather as the sun rose higher; she intended to be gone before too many gentlemen rode out to view the runners for the race meet tomorrow.
The string she’d been observing from a safe distance wasn’t Irish. Straining her ears, she could just pick up the orders and comments tossed back and forth. This group was English, definitely not Lord Cromarty’s string.
Suppressing her disappointment, doing her best to ignore her mounting anxiety, she set the mare cantering on to the next string.
It was the second morning she’d ridden out. Yesterday, Adelaide had accompanied her, but Adelaide wasn’t a confident rider; Pris had spent as much time watching over her as she had scanning the sward. This morning, she’d risen earlier, donned her emerald velvet riding habit, and slipped out of the house in the dark, leaving Adelaide dreaming.
Of Rus, no doubt. In their unwavering devotion, Adelaide and she were alike, albeit for different reasons.
Two nights before, she’d truthfully told Caxton her brothers were in Ireland. Rus wasn’t her brother-he was her twin. He all but shared her soul. Not knowing where he was, simultaneously knowing he was facing some as-yet-nebulous danger, set fear like a net about her heart.
With every day that passed, the net drew tighter.
She had to find Rus, had to help him break free of what ever it was that threatened him. Nothing else mattered, not until that was done.
Catching sight of another string, she turned the mare in that direction. The horse was still fresh; Pris let her stretch out in an easy gallop, but given that she was riding sidesaddle over unfamiliar ground, she kept the reins taut.
The sting of cold air burned her cheeks. Exhilarated, she pulled up on a slight rise and looked down on the exercising string.
Settling the mare, she squinted at the distant horse men. She couldn’t get too close; she might not recognize Harkness, but given he’d been working with Rus, he would almost certainly recognize her.
She needed to locate Lord Cromarty’s string, but until she knew more, she didn’t want anyone from his lordship’s stables other than Rus knowing she was in Newmarket.
Straining her ears, she listened, but was too far away. Twitching the mare’s reins, she trotted around to a knoll closer to the string but more directly downwind.
Again she sat and listened. This time, she heard. Closing her eyes, she concentrated.
Familiar lilting accents, a gently burred brogue, rolled across her senses.
Breath catching, she opened her eyes and eagerly scanned the men before her. She fixed on the large man directing the exercises. Harkness. Big, dark, and fearsome. Her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her-she’d found Lord Cromarty’s string!
Her heart lifting, she studied the two men beside Harkness; neither was Rus. She was about to shift her focus to the circling riders-so much harder to study as they rose and fell with their horses’ gaits-when a shifting shadow in the clump of trees to her right drew her eye.
A horse man sat on a powerful black standing in the lee of the trees. He wasn’t watching the exercising horses; his attention was fixed on her.
Pris cursed. Even before she took in the lean build and broad shoulders, and the dramatically dark, wind-ruffled hair, she knew who he was.
Abruptly, she wheeled the mare, tapped her heel to the glossy flank and took off. She raced down the knoll, gave the mare her head, and flew, hooves pounding, away across the Heath.
He would follow, she felt sure. The damn man had doubtless been following her all morning, perhaps even all yesterday morning. By now he would know she was searching for one particular string. Thank the saints she’d noticed him before she’d done anything to distinguish Cromarty’s string from all the others she’d observed.
A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed the big black was thundering in her wake.
The mare was fleet of foot, and she rode a great deal lighter than he, but the black was like its rider-relentless. It came on, heavy hooves steadily eating up her lead.
Leaning low over the mare’s neck, she urged the horse on, streaking across the lush green. The wind tugged at her curls, sent them rippling over her shoulders. Shifting her weight as she swung around a stand of trees, she tried to think of what she should say when he caught up with her.
Would he wonder why she’d fled? Would he guess her real reason-that she wanted him far from the string she’d been watching? But no-their last clash, especially those moments behind the wood, were reason enough for her to flee him. And he knew that, damn him! She recalled all too well that instant before his friend had arrived when he’d decided to try a certain method of persuasion that, to her immense shock, had had her heart standing still.
With a peculiar, never-before-felt fear, and an unholy anticipation.
No. She had a good reason not to want to fall into his hands again.
But she didn’t want him thinking about that last string. Remembering it enough to go back later and check. She had to convince him it was just another string like all the others she’d viewed, not the one she was searching for.
She glanced behind her. He was even closer than she’d guessed. Stifling a curse, she looked ahead-she was rapidly running out of Heath. The stands of trees were getting larger; she was heading into more wooded terrain.
He was going to catch up with her soon, but she would rather any catching was done on her terms. As for making sure he didn’t focus on that last string…she might not want to fall into his arms, but there was one weapon she possessed that, in her experience, was all but guaranteed to rattle his brain, to fog his mind and cloud his memories.
She wasn’t keen-wielding that weapon was neither smart nor safe-but desperation beckoned.
The last thing she wanted, the very last thing Rus needed, was Mr. Caxton, Keeper of the Breeding Register, calling at Lord Cromarty’s stables.
Dragging in a breath, she gathered the mare in, let Caxton bring his mount up on her right flank.
She picked her moment, swerved hard and sharp, swinging around a clump of trees large enough to qualify as a wood. The black was less maneuverable; the rapid shift in direction left him careening on.
Curses erupted behind her as Caxton wrestled the beast around, but then she whipped around the wood, streaked along its rear, rounded it again, returning to where she’d started; by then he’d followed and was on the other side.
Hauling the mare to a halt, she slid from the saddle, snagged the reins on a branch, grabbed her skirts, and pelted into the wood.
She raced through the cool shadows, grateful it was reasonably clear under the trees. She found what she was looking for roughly in the wood’s center, a huge old tree with a wide, thick bole. Panting, she whisked around behind it, drew her skirts in, and leaned back against the trunk.
She closed her eyes, fought to catch her breath. Caxton would either find her, or he wouldn’t.
The minutes stretched. She couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of her heart. There was light enough to see, sunbeams lancing through the canopy to dapple the ground; the air was cool, sweet with the scent of wood and leaves.
Her heart slowed, steadied. She strained to hear. All about seemed still. Unthreatening.
A twig snapped, close, on the other side of the tree.
A second later he loomed at her shoulder. Real, larger than life, twice as handsome. Sinfully beautiful and darkly dangerous.
He looked down at her, leaning against the tree, her hands gripping her skirts, then arched his brows, arrogantly unimpressed.
She didn’t stop to think. Straightening, she raised one hand, reached for his nape, came up on her toes, and drew his lips to hers.
And kissed him.
Dillon’s thoughts stopped the instant her lips met his. It was as if he mentally blinked, and when he opened his mental eyes there was nothing there…except for the beguiling sweetness of her lips shifting seductively against his. Delicately tasting, subtly yet evocatively tempting.