Page 13 of The Lady Who Said No to the Duke
Ridiculous.What was that about?He is a perfectly nice man, nothing more.A friend.That touch was completely accidental and yet…
They had both reacted in a most peculiar manner, so it was not only she who had sensed something.Now what should she do?
Behave as though nothing has happened, of course, the rather tart voice of common sense informed her.
Because nothinghadhappened.
Oh, yes, it has, a little inner voice contradicted.
Thea shivered.
‘You are becoming chilled.There’s very little heat in this sunshine.’Hal was on his feet, packing the remains of their picnic away in the saddlebags, before she could protest that she was not at all cold.In fact, she felt thoroughly—
‘Yes, you are right, we should be getting back.’Thea stood up while Hal had both his hands full and could not offer one to assist her.
She rolled up the rug while he dealt with the saddlebags and led Nero to a convenient tree stump so she could mount unaided while his attention was distracted.
‘I would have helped you,’ he said, turning to see her already in the saddle.
‘I like to do it myself now and again,’ Thea said lightly.‘It pays to keep in practice in case I am ever out alone and have a fall, or want to dismount for some reason.’
* * *
Hal swung up into the saddle without comment.It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, but on the other hand…
What the devil had happened just then?
Their fingers had touched, that was all.And yet he had felt nothing like it since he had attended a lecture at the Royal Society by Humphry Davy and had been invited to touch the apparatus.That tingling sensation… Not painful, exactly, but shocking.
He had read more on the subject, amused himself by rubbing a piece of picture glass with a silk cloth and then watching it make pieces of torn paper dance.Electricity, they called it and, according to what he had read, it seemed to be part of living creatures as well as lightning in the sky.
Was that all it had been?The kind of shock one got from touching a cat’s fur in a thunderstorm, or the energy that made those paper scraps dance?
He glanced across at Thea’s profile.She seemed completely composed, although not, apparently, inclined for conversation.But she had felt it too, he was certain.She had gone very still and quiet until he had heard a sharp little breath when he had moved.
Hal did not understand it and he suspected that neither did Thea.She had clearly trusted him enough to ride out without even a groom in attendance, and she had shown no reluctance to be helped on and off her horse.And then his touch, respectful as it had been, had involved grasping her waist, infinitely more intimate than a casual touch of the fingertips.
‘Thea—’
‘Let’s gallop,’ she said, saving him from what he knew would have been a thoroughly awkward conversation.
She was right: ignore it.He urged Juno into a canter, then gave the mare her head.By the time they reached the crest of the hill and had to slow to negotiate the narrow strip of woodland, Thea was laughing.
‘Oh, there is nothing like a fast gallop to clear the mind and put me in a good temper,’ she said.
‘Were you in such a bad one?I thought you had been enjoying the day.’
‘Oh, yes, I have been, very much.No, I was so angry with Mama and Papa, but I am coming to see they really do think they are acting for the best, even if I cannot agree with them.No,’ she added ruefully, ‘I just have to conquer my feeling about the Duke and my disposition will be perfectly sunny again.’
There was an edge to the last remark that had him looking at here more closely.‘And your feelings for Leamington are what, exactly?’
‘They are not such that can be expressed with any honesty by a lady,’ Thea said though what sounded like gritted teeth.
Every male instinct was screaming at him to leave well alone, that blundering attempts to comprehend were likely to result in her wrath being turned on his head.
Hal told himself not to be a coward.He owed it to Thea, his new friend, to understand, even if he was offering up his head for a washing.
Chapter Five
