Free Bought for Revenge by Sarah Mallory Page A

refusing such a tempting invitation.
    ‘Oh, yes, if you please! I should like that very much. I have never been in a curricle and always wanted to do so. Sir John has a phaeton and it is very elegant, but a curricle—is it a racing one, sleek and low?’
    He laughed at her enthusiasm. ‘Yes, it is and tomorrow you shall have your wish and drive out in a curricle, Miss Havenham!’
    Belle was waiting at the door when Lucas swept around Oakenroyd’s curling drive the following morning. She did not come immediately to the carriage, but instead her attention was all on the matched bays pulling it.
    ‘What magnificent creatures,’ she declared as Rudd jumped down from the rumble seat and ran to their heads. ‘May I?’
    She would not approach until she had obtained the groom’s consent, but once he had nodded she moved closer, murmuring endearments and rubbing each velvet nose in turn as she ran a practised eye over the bays.
    ‘They are beautiful,’ she said. ‘Small heads, deep chests—I imagine they are very fast?’
    Lucas was thankful she addressed her question to Rudd, for he was incapable of speech. He was looking at her, a slight smile playing about his mouth. She was wearing her olive-green riding habit with its military-style gold frogging, the one she often wore for riding out with him but now, as she moved gracefully around the horses, discussing their finer points with Rudd, her countenance beneath the stylish beaver hat was quite animated and she took his breath away.
    ‘They are indeed fast,’ he said when at last he handed her into the curricle. ‘They are good for sixteen miles an hour on a fast road.’
    ‘You will find very few highways of that standard here,’ she told him. ‘Except the new toll road at Dyke’s Ridge.’
    ‘Then we shall go there first and I will put them through their paces for you.’ He saw Samuel standing in the doorway and turned to him. ‘That is, if you have no objection, sir?’
    ‘By all means,’ Samuel replied. ‘I saw you drive in and I do not doubt your ability. You have an excellent turnout there, my boy. If I were twenty years younger, I should like to try them myself.’
    ‘Then go in my stead,’ said Belle immediately. ‘I am sure Mr Monserrat would take me another day…’
    ‘No, no, my love, my racing days are over. Wewill enjoy a gentle ride together later, perhaps, but now off you go and enjoy yourself. Take care of my daughter, sir!’
    ‘I will, sir, you may be sure of it.’
    Driving off with Annabelle beside him, Lucas felt unusually exhilarated. It was easy to ignore the tiny pinprick of conscience he had felt when Samuel had adjured him to look after his daughter. He intended to do just that. He also wanted to impress her and he found himself reining in his own exuberance as well as keeping his horses in check. They skirted the town of Stanton, maintaining a steady pace through the rough lanes, but once they had climbed to the high road and left the old track to Oldroyd he dropped his hands. The bays leapt into their collars and sped away. The new road followed the curving ridge; to one side the moors stretched upwards, ending in a grey outcrop of rocks on the skyline, while on the other the land fell away, sharply at first, and the curricle swept around the first bend where the road came close to the edge of the ridge, with only a thin, grassy strip between the road and a steep valley. Once past the bend the land flattened out and a series of fields dipped gently to the old track which could be seen cutting through the valley, dropping down to the ford at Oldroyd Farm before snaking upwardsagain to meet the new road a mile or so past the toll house.
    Instinctively Annabelle put her hand up to her bonnet. Lucas glanced at her.
    ‘Frightened, Miss Havenham?’
    ‘Not a bit of it,’ she declared, laughing. ‘I love racing along like this!’
    They drew up for the toll, paid their fee and were off again. The bays flew over the ground,