AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 11
The female voices coming from the hallway bore that tense, overly controlled quality of women engaging in polite argument when at least one of them longed to scream.
“You can have them back when we return home,” said one of the women; Guy identified the voice as belonging to Lady Treadgold. “You may ride astride in the privacy of our estate, not here amid this fine company.”
Bouncing a chortling Ursula on his hip, Guy rounded the corner to see Lady Treadgold with Freddie, who wore a green riding habit and a mutinous glare.
“Why,” Lady Treadgold added, her tone brightening, “whatever will your brother the marquess think?”
Freddie flicked him a scornful glance. “I don’t care what he thinks.”
“What I think about what?” Guy asked, absently unhooking Ursula’s fingers from his cravat before she choked him.
“I was making Turkish trousers so I could ride astride, but Lady Treadgold took them away.”
“Not in this company,” Lady Treadgold repeated. “Riding astride is not becoming in a fine English lady.”
“I’m a good rider and I want to ride fast.” Freddie turned her scowl on Guy. “You remember. You let me go fast before.”
At first, he had no idea what she meant. Then a memory arose, of tobogganing through the snow with little Freddie between his knees as they sped down a hill. Freddie had shrieked with delight and demanded they go faster; Guy had happily obliged.
“But you were a child then,” he said. “You oughtn’t behave like that now, should she, Ursula?”
Ursula’s lively response sounded like “Marcus Aurelius would not approve,” but probably wasn’t. At first, her babble left Guy feeling awkward. He could barely decipher one word in five, and his interpretations were impossible. But in the end, her words didn’t matter nearly as much as their games.
“Arabella doesn’t care,” Freddie argued. “She thought it a brilliant idea.”
“You’ve seen Arabella? How is she?”
Ignoring him, Freddie pushed into the front hall to grab her gloves and hat. “Never mind, I’ll wear this,” she muttered, and marched out the door.
Lady Treadgold also left before Guy could offload Ursula, so he carried her outside and fell into step beside Freddie, as they headed for the stables. If Freddie had spoken to Arabella, he needed to know more.
Guy had not seen Arabella since the afternoon before, at the abbey ruins, when the wind had swept away his vows to avoid her, and he’d fed her a blackberry and nearly kissed her again. When he had finally come back to the house, it was to learn that Sculthorpe had ridden off in a rush, the engagement was over, and Arabella was nowhere to be seen.
Freddie set a brisk pace, but Ursula seemed to enjoy it, judging by the way she squealed and slapped Guy’s bare head.
“What are you doing with Ursula?” Freddie asked.
“We were about to visit the aviaries. Look, I tied this ribbon in her hair,” he added proudly.
Freddie rolled her eyes and kept walking.
“Have you talked to Arabella? Since yesterday?” Guy asked.
“Yes.”
He waited. She added nothing more. “And what did she say?”
“Who?”
“Arabella.”
“I don’t know.”
What the devil had happened with Sculthorpe? Perhaps Sculthorpe had learned about London, but if the truth had emerged, Guy would have suffered a close encounter with the pointy end of a gun.
And why was Arabella in hiding? Surely her pride, at least, would demand she show her face. If Arabella wasn’t sweeping through the world and glaring it into submission, then something had to be wrong.
