Free Jane Feather - [V Series] by Virtue

Sebastian has gone to view the battle and I’m not to be left behind to cool my heels while the men have all the excitement. What are you doing in my cart?”
    “Hitching a ride,” he said shortly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, going to Quatre Bras?”
    “What’s it to you, Lord Carrington, where I go?”
    He didn’t trouble to answer that question. “You’re an irresponsible madcap, Miss Davenport,” he roundly informed her. “What was your brother about to leave you to brew such mischief alone?”
    “I am perfectly able to have a care for myself, my lord, as I rather think you’re aware.” She glared at him in the gray light of the false dawn.
    “Against one unarmed man, maybe. But facing a rabble of looting, rapine soldiery in the aftermath of battle? Permit me to doubt it, ma’am.”
    “I’ve just protected myself and my horse most satisfactorily against two armed men,” she retorted.
    “Pray accept my congratulations,” he said caustically. “However, I am not in the least impressed by your powers of self-defense, or your foolhardy courage.”
    “This is no business of yours!”
    “On the contrary, you seem to be becoming my business with dismaying speed.” He stretched his long legs in front of him, settling down with every appearance of permanence. “I’ve a mind to further our
bare
acquaintance.” He cast her a sharp look and she had the grace to blush. “I should have expected a hornet’s response from you to something kindly meant,” he said, rubbing in salt.
    Judith took a deep breath. “Maybe I seemed ungracious, but I don’t much like being procured.”
    “Being what!” he exclaimed. “Well, of all the …” His shoulders began to shake. “What an eccentric vocabulary you have, lynx. Or perhaps it’s just the product of an overactive imagination.”
    “I don’t like being laughed at, either,” Judith said crossly.
    “Well, you shouldn’t be so absurdly insulting.”
    Judith gave up a battle in which she seemed to be severely handicapped. The road for the moment was deserted, a pale glimmering ribbon ahead of them, the trees and hedgerows slowly taking shape as the night faded. The sky was a deep blue, the North Star a brilliant pinprick, and she had the sensation that they were alone together at the edge of the universe … alone and waiting for something to which she could attach no name. She had a slight sinking feeling in her belly and her skin seemed to have a life of its own. The tautly muscled thigh beside her suddenly touched hers on the narrow seat and her whole body jolted with a current of unidentifiable energy.
    Marcus felt the jolt deep in his own body, the energy emanating from her, joining with his own. He increased the pressure of his thigh against hers. A recklessness had entered his soul. He wanted this woman as he didn’t remember wanting any other, and he didn’t care what he had to do to possess her. If he could take advantage ofthe strange magic of this dawn journey, the apprehension and excitement and drama of events shaping the present moment, then he would. He felt the tension building in the body so close to his and kept silent for a long while, letting her grow accustomed to arousal. When he spoke, it was with a cheerful nonchalance, quite at odds with the brooding tension of the previous silence.
    “How did you manage to come by this dog-eared conveyance?” he inquired, watching her hands on the reins.
    Judith stared out between the horse’s ears, the ordinary question offering a breathing space. After a minute she replied calmly, “Oh, I found it outside a tavern. The owner is probably so far under the hatches by now, he won’t notice its absence for hours.”
    Marcus sat up straight. “Are you telling me you
stole
it?”
    “No, I just borrowed it,” she said with an airy wave of a hand. “I’ll put it back when I’ve finished with it.”
    “You are an incorrigible, unscrupulous, card-sharping, horse-thieving