Free Lady Caro by Marlene Suson

reached her, the guilty expression on her mischievous face reminded him of William’s three-year-old daughter when Ashley had caught her clandestinely sampling a plate of little cakes prepared for her mama’s guests.
    “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
    “Coming after you. I saw that you were again in need of rescue.”
    “I was not!” she responded ungratefully.
    “You cannot ride alone like this.”
    “Oh, fustian! You are as tiresome as my aunt.” Her little lower lip protruded stubbornly. “And I thought you were a prime ’un,” she said in a tone of deep disillusionment.
    Ashley felt it was his unhappy duty to increase Caro’s indignation by warning her that she was likely to break her neck if she persisted in exiting second-story rooms via the window.
    “Oh, no, it is not the least dangerous when there is a tree there,” she reassured him.
    A dark suspicion crossed his mind. “Have you done so when there was no tree?”
    She nodded. “When I was thirteen, my aunt prevailed upon Papa to send me to stay with her for a week. It was dreadful. Even then she was determined that I should be a lady, and she would not let me do any of the things that I liked. When I sneaked out early to ride, she caught me and locked me in my room. But there was no tree.”
    “How did you overcome that difficulty?”
    “I tied the bedclothes together into a makeshift rope and climbed down them. It was capital fun!”
    The hoyden was incorrigible! “Was it not exceedingly difficult to return by that route?” Ashley demanded.
    “I did not have to. Aunt Olive left the key in the lock, so I was able to open it from the hallway and sneak back in. She generally slept until noon, and never suspected that I, not one of the maids, had unlocked it.”
    “But why the devil did you choose such an unorthodox route to depart from the house this morning?”
    “The door to my room was locked. I am certain that it was Aunt Olive again. She has prohibited my early morning rides while guests are here.”
    Ashley was shocked. “She must have locked it because she is concerned about your safety.” Even as these words left his mouth, he was conscious that he was most likely telling a whisker. The emotion he had seen in Mrs. Kelsie’s eyes when she gazed upon her niece was something very different from either concern or affection.
    Caro shrugged. “Perhaps, but I think it is because she cannot bear to be disobeyed.”
    Disgusted as he was by her aunt, Ashley was still conscious of his duty as an Older Person. “Do you not think it wrong to disobey her?”
    “She is not my guardian, although she orders me about as though she were. Nor did I give her my word that I would not ride,” Caro cried, as if that made all the difference. “Had I done that, I would never have broken it.”
    He could not help but be impressed by how seriously she regarded the sacredness of her word. “Does your father know that your aunt locked you in your room?” Ashley had seen the previous night the deep love with which Levisham watched his daughter and was certain that he would not condone her aunt’s action.
    “No, and I shan’t tell him, for she will only deny it and will find some way to get back at me for telling Papa.” She frowned unhappily. “It is a terrible thing to say, but I fear that my aunt is not always a truthful woman.”
    Ashley suspected that this observation was as true as it was sincere. Caro’s little brown face, which seemed all eyes, reminded Ashley of a wood sprite. He wondered what he should do now. Although she was clearly oblivious to the dangers attendant upon careening bareback and alone about the countryside, he was not. Yet he knew that any request that she return with him to the house would meet with instant rejection. Instead, he asked, “Would you give me a tour of Bellhaven’s park, elfin?”
    “Why do you call me that?”
    He grinned. “Because it describes you so well. Shall we ride?”
    They took a