Page 135 of Lessons for Marquesses
Georgiana leaned back, gave Turk his head, and held on for life as Turk landed in the brook. His hind end collected beneath him and he hurled up the opposite bank. Swiftly, she gathered the reins and counted the paces to the hedge looming six feet high and four feet deep.
Beneath her, she felt the gelding push off, his shoulders high, neck long, forelegs in a perfectC. They were flying through the summer sun as he hurdled over the jump. Not even a branch snagged his hooves. He was Pegasus and she Bellerophon.
He landed, two and two, and galloped toward a leaping Kitty. Georgiana dropped the reins and stuffed her arms to heaven, sending a kiss to her mother who was surely celebrating with the angels.
“Twelve years, three hundred thirty-five!” Kitty called out over the meadow. "Julian is now relegated to the dustbin of history!”
Kitty blew her a kiss at Turk’s side. Georgiana bent over and busked her cheek.
“Your father will be so proud of you!” Kitty exclaimed.
Her father, yes! She had spent the past week at Notfelle while he entertained a hunting party but she could not bear to wait. Her excitement could not be contained for another two days.
“I must tell him,” Georgiana said.
“Oh yes, you must,” Kitty agreed. “And when you return, we shall play in the tower.”
“Done.” Georgiana gathered the reins and, after saluting Kitty, tapped Turk’s flanks. Her gelding bolted from the meadow.
She spotted a hedge as the sun drifted behind the clouds, collected Turk, and sailed over its width. The excitement of telling her father of her feat grew as she galloped down the road. She might fly to the heavens.
A gust of wind pushed them off center. Long tendrils of red escaped from her plait and whipped across her cheeks. She veered west from the road. Turk took a ditch handily. She allowed him his own pace for the next few miles until the dome and spire of Chedworth’s main block loomed over the trees. She slowed, her breath coming in great, elated gulps even as the sky had gone dark, threatening rain. One could ride a furlong off the property and be overcome by sunshine. But it seemed always on the verge of rain at Chedworth.
Well, it could rain enough to cause Noah’s flood, and she would merrily swim with the current.
At the gatehouse piers, Turk sprang into a lively canter, anticipating a meal. She gave him his head, stopping at the drive’s fountain and delighting in the gentle lapping.
Bowing in the saddle, she greeted the three Fates. “Good afternoon, ladies!”
In the distance, guns blasted.
Leaping off Turk, she looped the reins over a post, and at his stomp, she hugged him. “Allow me my victory, boy, and I’ll return straightaway.”
She ran to the parlor and found it empty except for a deck of cards fanned over a baize table. The dining room was also empty save Mrs. Higglewaite and a maidservant. The library and the study doors creaked as they always did but there wasn’t a soul to be seen. She pressed an ear to the billiard room door, hearing masculine murmurs, a thump of a cue, and the crack of billiard balls.
Someone cleared their throat. Georgiana spun around to find Beedle, the old butler, with a raised brow, reminding her it was rude to eavesdrop.
“Have you seen my father?” she asked.
“No.”
On to the solarium then. Her father spent precious little time at worship, but she checked the chapel, too. She passed Beedle hovering near the billiard room and went to the west wing. In the ballroom, she followed a disturbance to an alcove.
Georgiana came about the corner and frowned at the sight. A man carried a woman about his hips, bumping into her lifted skirts, like riding a horse at a frenzied gallop. The woman shouted for God, though she looked happy.
Georgiana stepped back. The man caught the movement and yanked away from the woman. Her skirts dropped, and he turned.
Saints in Heaven!He had a breeding organ, like a horse or a hound!
Georgiana giggled. “P-Pardon me.”
Promptly, she dashed away, up the stairs, and in her room, she flew face-first onto her bed and smothered her giggles in her mother’s quilt. Breeding organs! Who knew! Oh, she would have to tell Kitty immediately! First, she had to find her father. Turk was waiting.
She popped the latch on the old priest hole and descended the thirteen steps to the bottom of the chute. Hurrying along the passage, she burst into another spate of giggles.
She slowed as a breeze tickled the tendrils at her neck. Where had it come from? Without a candle, she tread silently to the intersecting routes where she headed east to peek inside the billiard room.
A scuff grated along the stone. Georgiana froze.
