Page 38 of The Burning Passion of a Fiery Lady
He sighed. “Yes, it was lucky that I was awake at the time and heard them. It could have been very different.” He hesitated. “Susannah, Blitzen was very spooked, more than the others. He ran the hardest of all the horses, into the hills. It took me a long time to track him down and calm him.”
“And yet, you did it.” She couldn’t keep the note of pride out of her voice. “I do not know how you did it, but he seemed a different horse when you rode in on him, just now.”
Jasper sighed again. “Hedidseem to surrender to me. But there was something else …”
“What?”
“A large stone.” His voice was low. “He panicked at a stone, just like he did the other day, in the corral …”
Susannah felt dread entering her heart as he spoke.
“I think that he knows something,” he continued. “I think that he saw something, or someone, that reminded him of the night that his master died. That was why he was more panicked than the other horses. And there is something about a stone, as well, that is connected to it all.”
The dread had grown to full-blown fear again. It seemed to rise up, almost choking her.
“I am scared,” she confessed, turning to him. “I think I know who was responsible for what happened here tonight … and I have grave concerns about the person, as well.”
His eyes widened. “Who? For the love of God, tell me, Susannah!”
She took a deep breath. “An old friend of mine, from Lincolnshire. His name is Leonard Green.” She felt herself trembling. “He visited days ago, declaring his enduring love for me, and then he returned yesterday. It was a most disturbing encounter.”
“What happened?”
“He declared his intention to marry me,” she continued slowly. “I refused him outright, and he grew almost incoherent with anger. He started to ramble about how he had done terrible things for me, that he had endangered his immortal soul, so that we could be together … so that I could be free of the tyranny of my husband.”
Jasper was white with controlled rage. “Hewhat?But … that is practically a confession, that he murdered your husband! And the man claims he did it for the love of you, so that you would marry him?”
Tears sprang into her eyes. “I have always been wary of him, ever since he asked me to elope with him when I first met Gilbert, so many years ago.” She shuddered. “I tried to forgive him, to justify his behaviour … he had been a good friend to me before that, you see. But we lost touch, and I have not thought about him in years … until he suddenly arrived on my doorstep, still as fiercely ardent about me, as if the years in which we had not seen each other had been mere days.”
Jasper swore softly underneath his breath. He took her hand, gripping it tightly. “I see. And you think that he sabotaged the stables last night, as well, in retaliation for refusing his offer yesterday?”
She nodded mutely. The tears that had been threatening suddenly spilled over. He swore again, pulling her into his arms, embracing her tightly.
“I am so scared,” she whispered, clinging to him. “I have been obsessing over it all day. Replaying his ramblings in my head, trying to make sense of them … and now, this has happened. I cannot think it all a coincidence.”
He gripped her tighter. “No. It is no coincidence. I think that your so-called friend is behind it all.” He paused. “If he had something to do with your husband’s death, that means that he has been watching The Willows for a long, long time, waiting for his moment.”
“He is insane,” she whispered, shuddering against him. “It finally hit me, yesterday, how crazy he is: irrational, rambling, delusional … unable to see reality, at all …”
“Capable of murder?” His voice was a whisper.
She nodded slowly. The knowledge was like a rock sitting in her chest. “Yes. I think that he is capable of murder.”
He put a hand under her chin, tilting her face up, so that she was gazing deep into his eyes. “Is that the reason that you said that you were unwell today? The reason that you did not come out to see me while I was working with the horses?”
She nodded again. “Yes. I could not … deal with anything else, after the shock of the encounter with him. The dawning realisation of what he might have done …”
He gazed into her eyes intently. “And here was I, thinking that you were regretting what had happened between us.” He paused. “I thought that you did not want to see me, anymore. I thought that you had changed your mind about me.”
She shook her head fiercely. “No. No. I have not changed my mind. I do not think that I could ever change my mind …”
He swore again, softly, his pale blue eyes pinning her to the spot. She was almost drowning in them.
The next second, his lips had found hers, kissing her passionately, almost in a frenzy. Her heart lurched as she responded, kissing him back. His lips were familiar, now; she knew the feel of them, the hardness, the way that they claimed her own with a mastery that she had never known before.
Those lips were grazing her face, now, feverishly kissing her eyes, her nose, her jawline. She gasped as he took one of her earlobes in his mouth, sucking and pulling on it. A sharp stab of desire tore through her, and her head fell back, in complete and utter abandon.
“I will never let anything happen to you,” he whispered between kisses. “I swear to you that I will protect you and the horses from this lunatic. You are safe, my sweet Susannah …”
