Page 7 of The Heir's Fortune
“No thank you, Victor,” Madeline said. “Just me.”
“Should I ask a footman to?—”
“No,” she said, though with a smile to soften her words. “I should be fine.”
“Very well,” he said, nodding his head and ducking back into the stables. Soon enough he was leading Lady out toward her, and she accepted the reins from him.
“Lady Madeline, I should note?—”
“Thank you, Victor,” she said, not wanting to give him the opportunity to tell her that she should not be going out alone. She had enough of that from everyone else in her life – save her father. She didn’t need it from the stablehand. “Oh, if you could watch the puppy until I return, I would be ever so grateful.”
He nodded, still appearing as though he wanted to say more, but he simply clucked his tongue toward the dog, who happilytook off after him as Madeline pulled on her horse’s reins and turned her away from the house and stables toward the open fields beyond Castleton. She had a fair understanding of where the Sutcliffe family’s property began and ended. She and Cassandra had ridden together often enough before Cassandra had become with child.
Once Madeline knew she was out of sight of the house, she leaned down over her horse, urging her into a run. Nothing filled her with more joy than galloping, the closest sense to flying she knew she would ever experience. So often she looked up at the birds in the sky, wishing she had the same ability to freely go wherever she chose, without anyone or anything holding her back.
“That’s it, Lady,” she urged her on as the trees appeared in the distance. There was a lake beyond them where she might stop and rest for a time, although it wasn’t the water that enticed her but rather stretch of trees that led there, which grew so close that their branches reached out to create dark, shadowy spaces to become lost in.
She was so focused she didn’t hear the thundering of another horse’s hooves until they were nearly beside her, the long, sleek black neck of the horse the first thing to enter her vision.
The second was the auburn hair of the tall figure of the man atop the horse. He was leaning forward, his form perfect, his natural speed faster than hers as he could ride astride and therefore had a better seat, although Madeline liked to think that her balance was far superior to any other woman and even most men.
But Lord Ashford was one of the best – he always had been.
As a young girl, Madeline had watched him riding away from Castleton through the large windows of the library, wishing that she could be out there as well, but she was too young to do so and would never have the ability without a proper chaperone.
Well, things were different now.
Most things, anyway.
It seemed Lord Ashford was as proficient as he had always been.
“Why are you alone?” he shouted through the wind rushing by them, and if she could have, she would have rolled her eyes. So predictable.
“I’ll race you,” she called back instead, pretending she hadn’t heard his words.
“Race me?”
“To the trees,” she said without giving him any time to turn her down. “Let’s go!”
She urged Lady on faster, hoping that the few seconds of surprise would give her a chance to get ahead of him, which it did – for a moment.
Then he was gaining on her, and as much as she tried to deny it, there was no use – he was going to beat her.
The wind whipped through Madeline’s hair as her riding cap must have flown off, but she had no care for it as the thundering hooves of the horses vibrated through her body.
The hoofbeats of Lord Ashford’s horse were increasing, but she was not going to give up and let him win without a fight. She urged Lady on faster and faster until she was neck and neck with Lord Ashford's horse once more.
The two of them were so close that it seemed as though their horses were moving as one. She turned her head to look beside her, and for a moment, everything but the two of them and their horses faded away. All she could see was his deep blue eyes staring back at her, locked on hers as the world around them seemed to slow.
They were so close that she could have reached out and touched him, but then his horse surged forward, pulling ahead of hers, and all she could see was his powerful thighs grippinghis stallion. Madeline urged Lady on, but it was no use. Lord Ashford was too far ahead and Lady had nothing left in her to catch him.
Breathless, they pulled their horses to a stop at the edge of the trees. Madeline patted Lady on the neck, nodding toward Lord Ashford despite how disheartened she was at the loss, her defeat annoying her when she was supposed to have been finding freedom.
Just when she didn’t think that she could be more miserable, the first drop of rain hit her nose.
And then the skies opened up.
CHAPTER 3
