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“Are ye then?” he said, as he put a steadying arm around her.
“I must look a mess.” She put a hand to her hat and tried to straighten it as it was hanging a touch too far to the back of her head.
He laughed and straightened her hat for her. “There. All set to rights.”
She dimpled, because she was lost for a lack of words. This man always stole her breath away and turned her mind into porridge. She stood up and he helped her, keeping his hand on her waist as he made sure she was steady on her feet.
She looked up at the sky and said, “I think I better get mounted and hurry home.”
He held her fast and said, “Just give yerself a moment. Breathe. There, that’s it. Now smile that smile of yers for me.” He shook his head, “Och lass, but that smile slays me and makes me yer slave.”
She laughed. “Outrageous. Even after I take a fall, you are still hitting on me.” Oops, she thought, modern slang again.
He frowned. “I would never hit ye, lass. What would make ye say such a thing?”
“Oh, it is just an expression from where I hail from. It means flirting with wicked intentions.” She eyed him saucily and chuckled at his expression. He had, in that unguarded moment, the look of a younger man.
He smiled and acquiesced. “Well then, if ye be determined?”
“I am not injured at all. If you would give me a leg up?”
He hesitated still. “Are ye sure lass, ye can ride?”
She smiled at him. “Oh my pride, as they say, is far more bruised than my body. I’m fine, honest.”
He helped her onto her saddle and mounted his own horse that was grazing nearby with Jack. “I will see ye safely home.”
“Oh no! I can’t ask you to do that,” she frowned.
“Ye aren’t,” he answered and led the way.
They hadn’t gotten very far when they heard the beat of thunder crackle through the air. Lightning hit the earth way too close for comfort as the rain started to fall. Both horses began to fidget under them.
His lordship said, “Come on, we are taking shelter!”
“Shelter? Where?”
“Just over the ridge, I noticed the place yesterday when we rode by. That trail we both saw, it leads to a cottage of sorts,” he yelled over the driving rain.
They rode up the hill and took the trail she had herself noticed the previous day. They took the narrow path through the trees. After some distance through the woods they came to an old deserted homestead.
They rode up to cottage and she hurriedly dismounted. She was too aware that her clothes were sopping wet. She quickly undid the girth of her horse, noting that his lordship had already done the same. He was leading the horses away as he called to her. “Go on, get inside! I’ll just stick them in the back paddock.”
“Back paddock? Is there one?” she yelled after him.
“Go inside, lass.”
Lightning made its path to earth not far off and she did what she was told, standing just inside the door to have a look around.
Cobwebs and dust covered the wooden furniture; sheets covered the sofas and chairs that dominated the small open room she found herself looking into.
She was dripping wet and removed her top hat to set it on a wall hook. His lordship came up behind her.
“The horses are grazing in the back paddock. Most of the fences are intact and they should do until the storm moves off.”
“How did you know about this?”
“Noticed it yesterday. I had a peek, on my way back from Horwich House,” he said. He moved off to the small fireplace and started stacking small dry logs in the grate.
