AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Squirrels chattered in the trees, and winter birds called to one another as they flew quickly from air into the bare branches.
“The animals seem upset about the weather,” she called to Josephine.
“Can you blame them?” The younger woman laughed and tilted her head back to look at the sky. “They haven’t a warm hearth to return to after being out.”
Isleen grinned at her friend. “Tis true enough. I am looking forward to a hot cup of chocolate when we are through.”
They crested the hill that the men had ridden over long before, and finally caught a glimpse of them again. Simon and Sir Andrew were barely within sight but had turned around to gallop back toward the women.
Simon cut a fine figure on his black horse, in his blue coat. He rode like he belonged in a saddle, the movements graceful despite the power in his steed’s legs and chest. Her heart fluttered dangerously as she admired his form.
Handsome and charming, it would be easy for any woman to fall in love with such a man as he.
Isleen took in a painful breath.
She’d let her guard down. She had vowed, after Sean’s death, to keep her heart open. To look for joy and experience life as he would have wanted her to do. Even if it opened her up to danger or pain.
But that didn’t mean she had to like it, especially when she fooled her ownself. Simon Dinard, heir to a duke, didn’t have interest in a little Irish nothing like her. If her brother wasn’t a politician, their family would never have been invited to the duke’s home. They wouldn’t even fall beneath his notice.
A baron and a duke were worlds apart. A baron’s sister and a duke’s son, even more so.
The first drop of rain fell against Isleen’s nose. The cold water made her shiver and pull her horse up short.
She looked upward at the clouds, realizing the world around her had grown darker when she had been sure it was only her own thoughts that had dimmed the sunlight.
“Rain,” Josephine murmured. “We had better turn back before it gets worse.”
As though the sky had heard the lady’s words, the droplets fell faster. And faster. And as the men approached, they wore worry on their faces.
Josephine released a tightly held breath, and it came out in a puff of steam. The temperature was dropping, too.
“We need to seek shelter,” Sir Andrew shouted when they were within hearing distance. He pointed with his riding crop to the sky behind him. “It’s coming down in sheets!”
Isleen looked up and saw what he meant. The rain fell thickly in the distance, and it crept closer to them, turning the world gray. She looked at Simon as he approached, and her heart reacted to the grim expression he wore with an excitable leap.
Completely the wrong reaction.
“I doubt we can outrun the rain if we make for the castle.” Simon’s horse side-stepped as though impatient to run again. “Not safely. We should go to the Blooms’ inn.”
“We should hurry, Josie.” Sir Andrew’s eyes stayed on his wife. “This isn’t weather I want you caught in.”
“Then let’s stop chattering about it and move.” Josephine turned her horse about, as did Isleen.
They rode back the way they had come, the raindrops keeping pace with them. Josephine beside her husband, ahead of Simon and Isleen.
Simon said nothing to her as they rode, not until they arrived in the village. The rain fell faster than before, making the skirt of Isleen’s long wool riding habit dark with the damp.
The earl dismounted quickly, then held his arms up to help her down. Isleen leaned forward, her hands going to his shoulders, and his on her waist. He guided her from the saddle to the ground, and then the two of them froze.
They stood close. Closer than they had before, holding onto one another. Simon stared down into her eyes, his own dark and uncertain, his lips turned down in a worried frown. “Get inside quickly. Warm up.”
Then he took the reins of her horse and disappeared, following his friend. She stared after him a moment, wondering if he’d felt the strange pull toward her that she felt for him.
“Hurry, Isleen,” Josephine called, snapping Isleen out of her stupor. Josephine was already at the inn’s door, pushing it open.
Following quickly, Isleen realized the inn was also a public house. The sign swinging above the door had a white peacock upon it, the wordsThe Pale Peacockwritten beneath. She hurried through the door, and as it swung shut behind her, she closed the door on thoughts of Simon, too.
Isleen welcomed the warmth of the public house the moment they walked inside. They were shown to a private, upstairs parlor. But Isleen glimpsed the public room full of patrons before they went up. It seems they weren’t the only ones seeking out shelter before the storm grew worse.
