Regency Proposal. Ann Lethbridge

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      But never would she forget the image of his body, the way he looked in profile. Different. Glorious.

      ‘Time for you to dress now,’ he said, ‘if we are to get you home before dawn.’

      She jumped at the sound of his voice. He was right. They really should not linger. ‘Turn your back while I dress.’

      An eyebrow flickered up—no doubt she had sounded too harsh, but he walked away, went to his horse with clearly no interest in spying on her.

      So they’d kissed. A moment of passion after a wild escape. Whatever had happened between them had been the result of shock. Mutual comfort. Nothing more.

      She pulled her hair back from her face; it felt matted and still damp, but she didn’t care. She made a rough plait to hold it, then dressed beneath her blanket, not because she feared he would look, but to ward off some of the chill of the cave. Dressed, she turned back to find him rubbing the horse down with the blanket he had discarded earlier.

      She picked up her shawl, still saturated from the sea, and folded it up. A blanket would make a better cloak and be warmer, though heaven knew what her maid was going to say. She wrapped it around her shoulders and tied it behind her waist as peasant girls did, then gathered up his kilt, folding it to give her hands something to do while she waited for him.

      ‘Are you ready?’ he asked, leading the horse towards her.

      She nodded. It was a lie. A knot formed in her stomach. The thought of returning home made her feel the way an escaped prisoner must feel about the return to prison. A prison of her own making. Which didn’t make a bit of sense, not when she was about to marry the man she had chosen for herself. She held out his kilt. ‘You will want this.’

      He used one of the ropes to tie it, then rested it across the horse’s withers. ‘We’ll mount up outside.’ He picked up a bucket and emptied it on the fire. Choking smoke filled the cave.

      Selina coughed and rubbed at her streaming eyes. ‘You idiot. Couldn’t you wait until we had left?’

      He chuckled. The next moment, he was behind her, lifting her onto the horse. ‘We need to make haste, now.’ He jerked on the bridle and led the big black into the tunnel, holding a torch up so they could see ahead of them. They climbed upwards through the narrow space. Sometimes, when the surf was quiet, she could hear running water—what was left of the stream that had carved its way through the rock and out to the sea, no doubt. And then they were out in the cold night air.

      He doused the torch, tossed it over the cliff and continued leading the horse, back towards the road.

      She clung on to the stallion’s mane and prayed they would make it home in time.

      A good few yards from the keep’s entrance, Selina directed him across country. ‘There is an outcropping of rock on the back side of the hill,’ she murmured quietly.

      ‘I know it.’ Why had he never suspected it might hide an entrance? As lads, his brothers would have been delighted. The thought of the trouble they might have caused made him shudder.

      They needed to hurry. Dawn was already changing the eastern sky from black to grey. Beau shied as a figure rose out of the heather. Ian jerked the horse to a stand.

      ‘Angus,’ Selina cried.

      ‘Shh,’ Angus hissed. ‘What by all that is holy are you thinking, Ian Gilvry?’

      ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

      Ian had a sinking feeling in his gut. Who else knew to expect Lady Selina?

      Angus shot a glance up at the keep. ‘Do you think I don’t know every nook and cranny of my master’s house, my lady? So it is true.’

      ‘What are you insinuating, Mr McIver?’

      Never had Ian heard her sound so haughty. So much like the stuck-up noblewoman Andrew had described on his return from London.

      ‘What is happening, Angus?’ Ian asked, jumping clear of Beau.

      ‘That young lady has been missed from her bed and her fiancé is crying foul, that is what is happening.’

      ‘Fiancé?’ His gut slipped sideways. He glared up at Lady Selina. Had she been playing some sort of game with him back there in the cave, the sort of flirtation engaged in by ladies of the ton, according to what Andrew had told him?

      ‘Nothing has been formally announced,’ she said, sounding defensive. She slipped down off the horse and stood at his side.

      ‘It may not be official,’ Angus said, ‘but he is verra angry. Threatening to ruin your reputation and that of your father. Interfering in official business makes you an accomplice under the law.’

      ‘He can’t know for certain,’ she said heatedly. ‘No one saw me.’

      Ian had the feeling she had her fingers crossed when she said the last. ‘Did someone see her?’

      ‘I’m no privy to that information. I do know that young Dunstan is beside himself with anger. No doubt he expected a bit of glory out of tonight’s affair. Instead …’

      She winced. ‘Father knows I knew what was planned for tonight and he thinks I betrayed him.’

      ‘Well, you did, didn’t you?’ Angus muttered, his deep voice turning into a low growl of frustration. ‘Lady Albright is in tears, speaking of ruin and disgrace. Your father …’ He shook his head.

      Ian stiffened, but for all the anger he felt, he had to acknowledge that if word of her escapade got out Lady Selina would be ruined. Helping a Gilvry escape the gaugers would not be seen as heroic by her people. They also might ponder why she had helped him, and not to her credit.

      ‘I’ll just have to face the music,’ Lady Selina said in a small breathless voice. ‘It is no one’s business what I was doing tonight and so I will tell him. Father will forgive me, eventually.’

      ‘I advise against such a step,’ Angus said, his voice as dry as dust. ‘That young man won’t be satisfied until you admit where you were tonight and give evidence against the Laird. If he persuades your father he is right, you’ll have a hard task standing up to them.’

      Ian’s fists clenched at the thought of her being bullied.

      ‘And once they have what they want,’ McIver continued, ‘the Laird will be convicted.’

      ‘But what else can I do?’ she said.

      He gave her a sharp look. ‘According to that maid of yours, it wouldn’t be the first time you’d gone off on a whim in the middle of the night. All you have to do is disappear for a while and turn up somewhere else safe and sound.’

      ‘So Mary has been gossiping, has she?’ she said icily.

      ‘Mary is worried out of her wits that she will get the blame.’

      Lady Selina’s shoulders sagged. She shook her head. ‘Surely, Father would not blame a servant for my actions? Besides, he knows I don’t do that СКАЧАТЬ