Free Cherrybrook Rose by Tania Crosse

Rose’s mouth twisted. Why didn’t he fall off! That would have wiped the smugness from his face! Irritated, she turned her attention to the rugged vista before her while she waited for him to catch up, Gospel pawing impatiently at the ground and shaking his head so that the snaffle bit jangled in his mouth.
    â€˜Bloody lunatic.’ Her sharp hearing caught Charles’s muttering as he approached, and somehow it brought a satisfied smirk to her face. ‘You really should take more care, Miss Maddiford!’ he admonished, raising his voice as he drew level with her.
    â€˜Oh, Gospel’s quite used to it! He’ll slow down himself if he’s unsure. I expect the mare only goes on the roads usually. She’s very sweet, mind.’
    Charles opened his mouth as if he would add some sharp riposte, but then his eyes focused on something strange in the distance and his brow puckered with curiosity. ‘What on earth is that?’ he asked instead.
    â€˜â€™Tis what I was going to show you! ’Tis an ancient stone row. There’s lots of them on the moor, but this is my favourite.’
    â€˜How fascinating!’ His eyes shone with genuine interest, and Rose tipped her head in approval as she urged Gospel forward at a walk, in consideration of the chestnut’s heavy breathing. ‘And how unexpected! I had no idea there were such things on Dartmoor. I know of Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain, but I thought it was unique.’
    â€˜You live and learn, Mr Chadwick. Not that these stones are anything like the size of those at Stonehenge. I’ve never been there, of course, but I have read about them.’
    â€˜You read quite a lot, then, Miss Maddiford?’
    â€˜Oh, yes. Especially about other places.’
    â€˜You’d like to travel, then?’
    The radiant smile lit up her face again, pricking deeply somewhere about his heart. ‘Oh, no, Mr Chadwick. Dartmoor is quite sufficient for me.’
    â€˜You wouldn’t care to visit me in London? You and your father, of course,’ he added hastily. ‘You would be most welcome as my guests, and I could show you all the sites. We could go riding on Rotten Row!’ he suggested with an enigmatic laugh.
    â€˜Rotten Row?’ The puzzlement in Rose’s expression was comical, and Charles’s amusement deepened.
    â€˜It’s a fashionable bridleway in Hyde Park,’ he explained. ‘You’d have to ride at a more moderate pace, though. If you cavorted about at your normal velocity, you’d upset all the sedate ladies who parade up and down on pretty little ponies a baby couldn’t fall from!’
    He chuckled easily at the picture it evoked in his mind, and Rose couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps he wasn’t so obnoxious after all. ‘You ride quite well yourself, Mr Chadwick,’ she admitted.
    â€˜Perhaps. But I’ve never seen anyone of the fairer sex ride like you do.’
    Rose lowered her eyes. She knew she was a superb horse woman and she was proud of it, yet she found it an embarrassment to receive such a compliment from Charles Chadwick’s lips. For once in her life, she felt unsure of herself, and it unsettled her. They rode on in silence, breathing in the fragrant freshness of the damp grass and peaty earth beneath their horses’ hooves, both lost in tangled emotions until they reached the curious line of standing stones set in the ground. Rose eased on Gospel’s reins and the animal came to a halt, standing quite still as even he became swamped by the uncanny atmosphere. Rose’s eyes smouldered a smoky amethyst as she contemplated the mythical scene before her, its familiar power holding her in its hypnotizing spell.
    â€˜Oh, Mr Chadwick, no!’ she called as she was shaken from her trance by the horse and rider moving slowly forward. ‘You must dismount. To show respect.’
    Charles stopped at once, and glancing back over his