Free Elise by Jackie Ivie Page A

insult, Your Grace.”
    “That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me thus far.”
    “You’ve gained full measure for any slur to your name that my presence has caused you. Does that satisfy you?” she asked.
    He shrugged. “You’re the one setting the scenes. You tell me. I’ve yet to compliment you on today’s effort.”
    “I had nothing to do with nearly being trampled!”
    “You put your horse directly in my path. You knew exactly what you were doing.”
    “Is that what you think of me?” she asked, in a little voice she hated the moment she heard it.
    “I doona’ think of you at all.”
    She sat stiffer at his words. The horse slowed. Elise wiped quickly at a tear. She was stupid to allow self-pity now, besides, it would make her blackened eyelashes a mess of wet soot. It was because she was suffering from reaction, that’s what it was. That’s all it was.
    “That’s all what is?” Colin asked, as if she’d spoken aloud.
    “I—I don’t believe I’m ever speaking to you again, Your Grace. You may unhand me.”
    “If I were to do so, you’d likely fall again. Why dinna’ you tell us you could na’ sit a horse?”
    “I sit a horse just fine. I wasn’t expecting stallions to come leaping from the sky.”
    “Nor a gallant gent to rescue you, either, I presume?”
    “Is that what you call a rescue?”
    “Actually, it was more along the line of a lesson.”
    “I don’t need, or want, any lesson from you, Your Grace.”
    “Just settle back like a good lass, will you? I’m having a bit of trouble with Thunderbolt here.”
    Elise tightened her lips but knew he wouldn’t spot it. The horse wasn’t giving anyone any trouble. She shut her eyes and allowed herself to lean a bit against him. Colin’s chuckle greeted her action.
    She sniffed again and turned her face away.
    “You still have your handkerchief?” he asked.
    She nodded.
    “Good. I doona’ like to be wet with woman-tears.”
    “You need to worry more about being blackened, I should inform you,” she answered.
    “You use artifice there, too?”
    “There’s not much of me that isn’t artifice, Your Grace.”
    “Hmmn, interesting thought. Is that a challenge?”
    “To what, pray tell?”
    “Find out.”
    The pillow that was his chest moved as he reached about her, pulling her more securely against him. This sort of intimacy she could do without. She’d sworn it after watching Evangeline cry her heart out for a man who could not care less about her. Elise would never let that happen to her. She’d vowed to die a virgin. She’d sworn never to feel anything for a man. And never, ever, to be near enough to one to feel anything. Especially a MacGowan.
    ~ ~ ~
    She lay abed after dining in her chamber, much later than usual. She’d had only Daisy for company, because His Grace, the Duke of MacGowan, had seen her to this chamber, and then ordered it that way while he told all who would listen that she had to recuperate from her ordeal. She didn’t want him seeing to her well-being. She didn’t want anything more to do with him... and she still hadn’t told him of Rory!
    “Damn him, anyway!” she swore, then smacked the covers.
    “What was that, Elise?” Daisy looked up from her sewing to ask it. Elise looked away.
    “I’m talking to myself. Pray, don’t pay me any mind.”
    She didn’t need the extra coddling Colin seemed to have ordered for her, either. She didn’t need or want his horrid lesson. She especially didn’t need the recollection of how warm and secure he’d felt. She only wished she could banish that memory.
    ‘‘Will there be anything else, then?”
    “How about a sleeping powder?” Elise asked.
    “Does your back hurt you that much?”
    “Actually, it’s another part of my anatomy with the larger bruises, Daisy. And, no, I was teasing. I don’t need my head to ache all day tomorrow, should I take one now. You know how they affect me.”
    “Are you certain you don’t wish me to sleep here