Free A Curious Courting by Laura Matthews Page B

it. There are several projects which I had been contemplating, and I would not give a second thought to starting them with the additional funds. Some charities further from home than usual. I have a mind to drive over to have a look at the vale before I decide. Would you like to come?”
    “In the sledge?”
    “Yes, for the way the sun is shining, we won’t have the use of it very long. Perhaps it would be too rough on your arm, though.”
    “A sight more comfortable than the phaeton in this weather, but the road is likely to be unfit for it.”
    “We’ll drive across the fields and look at it from our side of the road.”
    After their easy-paced drive, however, Selina found she was not content to view the land from a distance. “Would you walk the horses a minute while I have a look?”
    “Dash it, Selina, you can’t go climbing over that fence. You’ll break your neck.”
    “Now look who’s being the mother hen!” she taunted and flounced out of the sledge. Her boots sunk into the mushy snow, and she squealed as the wetness assailed her legs.
    “I told you so,” Henry mocked.
    “No, you didn’t. You said I would break my neck climbing over the fence.” She stomped away from him to the whitethorn fence with its shallow ditch. The binding was done with brambles, and though the fence was now more than ten years old, it was not really fully grown, though it was very nearly cattle-proof. Some of the shoots of the bullfinch were eight or nine feet high, and they were protected by a rail on both sides. Having no wish to scratch herself needlessly, Selina pulled herself onto the rail before attempting to ease through the shoots, which were further apart at that height. When she could tentatively place a foot on the further rail, she ducked her head and made the plunge. Unfortunately, her cloak became hopelessly entangled in the brambles, and in attempting to free it, she tumbled off the further rail into the snowy road, the cloak hideously snagged.
    “I see you have not changed, Selina,” remarked the horseman who leaped down to assist her to her feet. “If I am not mistaken, Shalbrook is provided with a very wide gate through which most people gain the road.”
    There was no need to look up into the sardonic face; Selina would have known the voice anywhere. “Well, Frank, you know I am not like most people,” she replied as she inspected the ruination of her cloak. “Though I would not have done it if I had thought to sustain such a catastrophe, you understand. This is the only really warm covering I own.”
    “I should think you would own a dozen just to sit around your medieval fortress,” Lord Benedict rejoined. “Whatever were you trying to prove?”
    At last she looked at him, noting the fair hair escaping from under his curly-brimmed beaver. “I had a desire to have a look at the vale before I sold it.”
    His hazel eyes sharpened with interest. “You have finally decided to accord me my fondest wish then?”
    “No, Frank. I plan to sell it to a friend of Sir Penrith’s.”
    An angry glitter shone in his eyes. “You are doing this to annoy me.”
    “Am I? I wonder. No. I cannot think so, for when the gentleman first asked, I did not agree. But you see, he intends to build a hunting-box which will provide some much-needed employment in the neighborhood.”
    Lord Benedict gripped her arm ungently. “You know I am willing to pay more for it than some crazy foxhunter, Selina. That vale belongs with my land.”
    “We have been over this a dozen times, Frank,” she said wearily, shaking off his hand. “I won’t sell the land to you.”
    “You are a stubborn, capricious, self-willed woman!” he cried, slapping his whip against his leg. “Thank God you broke our engagement, or we might at this very moment be married.”
    “But then the vale would be yours,” she said sweetly, as she stooped to retrieve her cap from the road.
    “That would have been too great a price to pay,” he returned