Being the most amiable of the two Arabians, Juno started quicker and was already flying by the time Lottie reached the boundary between the pasture and the next field. But no sooner had she passed through the gate than Guy and Zeus jumped the fence. By the look of determination on both of those faces, Lottie knew this wasn’t going to be an easy race. But if they could jump fences, so could she, and she was a lighter load than Guy.
She nudged Juno faster and, spotting a huddle of grazing sheep in the distance, changed direction early to avoid them. A decision that put him temporarily in the lead, but which paid dividends when she hit a gloriously flat and unobstructed path that cut right through the next hedge.
Guy, on the other hand, decided to continue riding as the crow flew for longer than he should have, making the sheep shatter hither and thither when the ferocious Zeus jumped the hedge into their field and made them panic. A decision that gave him some unexpected obstacles to dodge, which slowed him down.
Lottie couldn’t resist laughing at his mistake over her shoulder as she shot past, then almost rued her hubris as she turned back to find that the path curved and the next gate was shut.
It came up too fast and she only managed to jump it by the skin of her teeth, but already Guy was hot on her heels. With the St. Eanswythe’s steeple looming ever closer and her pride at stake, she had to dig down deep to keep her lead. Her opponent was an exemplary horseman and Zeus was, despite his stubborn temperament, an exceptional horse. Probably one of the finest specimens that Lottie had ever seen. His powerful legs made short work of her lead and he gained on her with every step.
The path petered out and gave way to a couple hundred yards of the stubby, harvested stalks of wheat that were yet to be plowed in, forcing both riders to slow some. Then they both veered in different directions to avoid the dense clump of trees enmeshed in the next hedge before they could find a suitable section to jump. Thankfully, after that, it was pasture again, pretty much all the way down the gently sloping incline to the village.
“Come on, girl!” Lottie used her heels to encourage Juno to pull out all the stops for this last half mile and several yards to her left, Guy was doing the same. As their paths converged again, they were pretty much neck and neck.
She risked turning to check his progress and caught Guy grinning at her. She grinned back, then a bubble of joyous laughter burst out as the last remnants of summer sun finally burned through the dawn clouds and bathed them in warmth.
And he did the same. Tilting his handsome face to the sky to soak it all in. Both of them loving and living in this moment, and as well matched as riders as it was possible to be.
Lottie could have happily lived in the moment forever.
But like all good things, it had to end, and suddenly the church gates beckoned, and things got serious again. In the final seconds they pushed themselves and the Arabians to the absolute limit and, kicking up clouds of dust, they charged through the opening together. Simultaneously standing on their stirrups to slap the wooden archway as they thundered through it.
Guy slowed. “That was a bloody draw, wasn’t it?” He was trying to look peeved but his eyes, alight with the excitement of the ride, made his angry expression unconvincing. He had thoroughly enjoyed himself and it showed. He was rumpled and windswept and so in his element it was a joy to behold. The jaded, guarded curmudgeon was nowhere to be seen this morning and so this was one of the memories of him that she would most treasure after she left. The man she was probably in love with doing what he loved and letting her see his true self in the process. “We hit that gate together.”
“Sadly, I think we did.” Lottie grinned as she gulped in some air, her lungs burning from all the exertion but elated, nevertheless. “But it was the best fun I’ve had in ages.”
“Me too.” Guy was panting too, his broad chest rising and falling as he slid off his horse and patted the stallion’s neck. Zeus snorted in response and danced on the spot, clearly nowhere near as exhausted fromthe gallop as the riders were. “You are some horsewoman, I’ll give you that. I cannot remember a time when anyone has given me such a run for my money. There were moments there when you almost had me.”
“There were moments when you had me too.” Now was one of them. As tired as she was, she still wanted to kiss him until they were more breathless than they already were.
He held out his arms to help her down and it took her last drop of effort not to either collapse in a heap into them or fling herself into them and attach herself to his mouth. After her scandalous behavior last night, she put some distance between them as soon as her feet hit the ground. If they were ever going to kiss again, it was his turn to instigate it. She wasn’t Miss Maybury, after all, and she did have some pride. “Obviously, I’d have won if I hadn’t overimbibed the cognac.”
“For the love of God, be gracious in defeat, woman!” He rolled his eyes heavenward. “I haven’t got the energy to argue with you now. It was a tie—and I hate it as much as you do, but I am big enough not to make any excuses about it.”
Lottie poked out her tongue in response to that and Guy chuckled at her petulance as he gathered up both sets of reins to lead the two horses back out of the gates to the water trough. He was rummaging in his saddlebag by the time she mustered the strength to follow. “But if I were to make an excuse, madam, I was the one carrying extra weight because I don’t suppose you thought to bring any provisions after your overindulgence last night.” He tossed her his water flask first and she caught it gratefully, not caring one wit that glugging from it wasn’t ladylike. That ship had sailed around him too and she was too exhausted to feign any of the expected decorum that had never come naturally to her. Not that he ever seemed to expect it. Perhaps he liked her as she was? A thought that made her smile as she took a seat on the low wall that separated the churchyard from the lane.
“What provisions did you bring?”
He responded by chucking an apple at her, so she swapped him the water as he sat beside her while the horses—and they—cooled down.
Guy shined his apple on his thigh before he took a bite. “I haven’tdone that in years.” His dark brows knitted. “Nine to be precise. I remember because it was just before my twenty-first birthday and poor Bill suffered the last of a series of drubbings.” He smiled at that. “Although if you were to question him about it he’d say that he had to let me win because he feared for his job otherwise—but it isn’t true. He just couldn’t stand that I got better than him.”
“When was the last time you were beaten?”
His nose wrinkled as he considered it. “Probably a decade ago. Bill again and he gloated all the way home with absolutely no fear for his job that day. You?”
“The same. A decade…” Where had all that time gone? Instantly her mind conjured images of home before she had left to study the FourD’s at Miss P’s school for ladies. She had been much wilder then. “Peter Clifton, the blacksmith’s son, beat me by a head.”
“Ouch,” said Guy with genuine sympathy. “So close and yet so far.”
“Although, in truth, I pulled up a tiny bit at the last minute.” She held her forefinger and thumb apart a quarter of an inch. “Anddidlet him win that day, so I am not sure that it counts.”
“Why on earth did you do that?” As a fellow ridiculously competitive person, it was obvious that such a sacrifice was anathema to him.
“Ah…” She smiled at the vivid recollections of her and Peter climbing haystacks in her father’s fields so they could stare at the sky together. “Because he was a handsome and mature young buck of fifteen and I was convinced that I was a woman at thirteen and I thought myself in love with him.” And what a twit she had been then. Womanhood was blossoming but she’d still had the mind of a child. “It was all very serious, of course, as young love always is and we plighted our troths to one another behind a barn. My first kiss too…” She gave a dramatic sigh that made him smile. “I felt so grown-up and thought I had found my soulmate, only to have him reject me in the end, because life is cruel, and love is crueler.” It was certainly being cruel to her now. What had Cupid been thinking to make her poor heart yearn for a forever with a man she likely could never have for longer than this week?
“Why did the idiot reject you?” Guy was genuinely perplexed and she took that as a compliment. “Aside from your infuriating character and problems with cognac, of course.”
Lottie lifted her legs and pointed her toes. “Because thirteen was also the year of my growth spurt. And trust me, I grew like a beanstalk.” Sadly upward but not outward as her bee-sting breasts had never poked out farther from her flat chest than they had when she was thirteen. “Peter was able to look me in the eye for our first kiss—but six months later I was at least six inches taller than him, and he took that personally.” But like the twit she had been back then, she had done everything in her power to minimize her height. Including walking beside him with permanently crouched legs that ended up giving her a backache. “He left me for a shorter woman. Dilly James, the miller’s daughter.” She pretended to swipe a tear from her eye. “She was an acceptably petite five-foot-two. They are married now. She worships the ground he walks on and he happily towers over her while she does. And good luck to them. I am happy for them.”
