Free Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 03] by Dangerous Illusions Page B

as that to change a frock. Hello, Lord Penthorpe. Are you really going to ride with us, sir?”
    “I am—part of the way, at least—and I promise I shall not try to talk you into riding toward the moor.”
    “Oh, good,” she said, laughing. “Not that I was afraid you would, of course, for Aunt Daintry promised, but I did fear that Grandpapa might insist, and then, of course, we should have had to obey. Not that Melissa would mind. She likes riding on the moor. But today,” she added, turning and giving Melissa a nudge toward the front door, “we are going to ride on the shingle and see the caves. Will you come that far with us, sir?”
    Daintry stiffened but, determined to avoid outright rudeness in front of the children, managed to hold her tongue.
    His smile was extremely attractive. “Not today, I think,” he said, then added to Daintry in a lower voice, “I did not speak merely to foist my company upon you, you know, but to keep your estimable parent from forbidding your outing altogether.”
    She said in the same tone, as the children vanished through the doorway, “I am not ungrateful, sir, and will certainly acquit you of any other motive. My father would not have forbidden the ride, but he might well have insisted that we ride to the moor, and the girls would have been disappointed.”
    “Where will you ride, exactly?”
    “St. Merryn Bay. There are several caves there reputed to be used by smugglers, though I daresay the men are as likely to have been wreckers as free traders, when all is said and done.”
    “I know those caves from my childhood,” he said, frowning. “The path down from the cliff is extremely steep, is it not?”
    Feeling her temper rise at the implied criticism, she kept her tone even with difficulty. “Both girls are excellent riders, sir. Charley could ride down that trail blindfolded and sitting backwards, and although Melissa is a more nervous horsewoman, she will not have any trouble, I assure you.”
    “Nevertheless, I think now that perhaps I’d better accompany you,” he said. “That path will be slippery from the drizzle, and even though you will certainly take your groom, you will be glad of more help than his, I think.”
    “That is hardly your decision to make,” she said, annoyed.
    He was silent until she looked up at him, and there was an enigmatic look in his eyes when she did, but it vanished, and he said sternly, “Our betrothal gives me the right to make it.”
    She bit her lip, then said, “You go too fast, sir, if you think to give me orders upon such short acquaintance.”
    “Do you deny my right? I heard you say you had given your word to honor this betrothal, or is your word worth no more than that of most females?”
    Indignation threatened to overcome her. “I do not break my word once I have given it, but if you think to run roughshod over me, my lord, you had better think again. I will make you wish you had never been born if you try it.”
    He smiled. “Shall we catch up with our charges before they ride off without us?”
    She gritted her teeth but made no objection. The girls were already mounted, Charley on Victor, her favorite bay gelding, and Melissa on a pretty little gray mare. Daintry’s wiry groom held the reins of the silver-dun gelding she favored, and of a large black-roan stallion with a white blaze between his eyes.
    “Oh, what a beauty,” she said, moving to stroke the black’s silky muzzle. “So tall and powerful, yet so dashing and alert.”
    “My horses have to be large to carry my weight,” he said. “That is Shadow. But come, my dear, your charges grow restless.”
    She felt his hands at her waist before she realized his intent, and there was a brief, exhilarating sense of weightlessness before she was deposited on her saddle.
    Handing her the reins, he said, “Do your leathers require some adjustment?”
    “No, thank you. Clemons knows just how I like them.” She watched as he swung effortlessly into his own