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“Ready?” Thea asked.
I nodded. “Go.”
We both took off at the same time in the general direction of the folly, but the thick trees made it impossible to stay side by side through the hills. Thea and I weaved between trees and up and over green and yellow swells of grass, avoiding the rocky outcrops and boulders dotting the countryside. A flock of sheep appeared on the downhill in our path and we were both forced to circumvent the animals. For having just suffered such a long break in riding, Thea was deft in her maneuvering. She was a skilled rider, and I should not have had so much confidence in my ability to win.
The domed ceiling of the stone temple came into view, and I pushed Jasper harder. It was tempting to allow Thea the win, merely to learn whom she would choose as a partner for me if given complete freedom. But she would know the win was not truly hers. Somehow, I knew she would.
So I did the only right thing. I leaned forward, pushed Jasper, and reached the columned Greek folly before her. A grin spread over my lips when I met Thea’s disappointment.
“It will take some time to decide on a partner for you,” I said, sliding from the saddle, my chest heaving.
Thea unhooked her legs from the pommels and jumped to the ground, her chest rising and falling in time with mine. “You will not choose Alfred, the vicar’s son. I forbid it.”
“Lucky for Alfred, he has now risen to the top of the list.”
She dropped her head back and closed her eyes for patience.
“You should not have revealed your hand—or so they say when playing cards. You will not understand the meaning, I’m sure.”
“I’ve played whist enough times to understand it very well,” she said, her mottled cheeks and tip of her nose red from the wind and the cold. “You took advantage of my rustiness in the saddle.”
A quiet scoff slipped from my throat. “If that was rusty, you shall be winning before long.”
Thea laughed and shook her head. She started walking away, and a strong desire rose in my chest to follow her. She disappeared around the bend, the marble wall to one side and stone columns to the other, the long skirt of her habit trailing behind her on the ground.
I followed her.
* * *
Thea
Benedict’s laughing eyes and flushed cheeks were too much for me, so I had to leave his presence, if only for a moment to cool my racing heart and retake control of my feelings. His hair had become a mass of curly chaos after the bruising ride, and somehow it managed to appear even more rakish and not at all disheveled.
That he could look so handsome while I was tousled and in a state of rumpled disarray was unfair. Strands of hair had come loose from my dark knot, trailing along my neck and grazing my cheeks in the wind. I looked over my shoulder and found Benedict following me, so I refrained from straightening my coiffure. I could not allow this man to see how his presence affected me.
I continued around the circular building and paused at my favorite place. Hills dipped down into the fog resting on the crisp, wet grass. Inhaling the fresh scent of earth and morning dew, I looked out over the beautiful countryside I had missed so dearly in the dim little kitchen at the Fullers’ house.
“When I went to see Claverley yesterday, I did not realize I was dipping my hand into a situation so far beyond my reach,” Benedict said quietly at my side.
I shut my eyes. “I was just as unaware as you. Your mother never told me that money changed hands. That certainly complicates things.”
“I doubt it has yet, but that does not mean my cousin will not fight for it. They are in a bad way at Claverley. He needs the funds to replace his roof, and his crops haven’t thrived in recent years as ours have.”
Benedict’s knowledge about the situation surprised me, and I turned to face him better. “He told you these things yesterday?”
“No. I have been assisting James with the management of Chelton for some time now, so none of this information is very recent. It is true, all the same.”
I nodded. “I feel for his trials, but I will not go to his house, so he must content himself with finding the funds elsewhere. I was pleased when Felicity agreed to chaperone me to London.”
“Given the scandal she and James were married under, I’m not sure Mother will deem that sufficient.”
This was something I hadn’t considered. In order for Felicity and James to lend me their good name, they would need to first have a good reputation of their own. Though I could not see how anyone would believe either of them below reproach.
It was unfair that I had to have a chaperone at all. If Benedict attended the Season with the intent to look for a wife, he would not need anyone’s patronage—he could live and be received on his own merit. “What of you, Ben?”
He leaned back a little, his brown eyebrows lifting. “What about me?”
“You are older than me. You have no occupation to speak of, and you are not courting a woman, to my knowledge. Why must I be forced to attend the Season and find a husband, but you are not?”
