Page 34 of Bride By Mistake
She stuffed everything into a cloth bag and fastened it with a strip of leather. Not much to show for eight years. Almost half her lifetime.
Poverty, chastity, obedience: all that was about to change.
Six
She was late. Luke put his watch away and resumed his pacing. Sixteen minutes past eight o’clock and still, there was no sign of Isabella. Several nuns and a couple of the schoolgirls clustered in the courtyard, waiting to say good-bye.
He was about to pull out his watch for the third time when he heard faint commotion around the corner, voices only just audible, in a hushed dispute.
“I don’t care.” Isabella’s voice, and the sound of swift footsteps.
She marched into the courtyard. Luke’s eyes widened.
“Isabella!” several of the nuns exclaimed. Exasperation rather than surprise, he noted distantly. But he wasn’t interested in the nuns; only Isabella.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
Dressed in a pair of men’s buckskin breeches, she strode toward him on long, long legs, the heels of her high leather boots ringing on the flagstones. He’d never seen anything like it. A white lawn shirt, a leather jerkin, and a belt completed the outfit. She held a cloth bag in one hand and carried a short, dark blue coat slung over her shoulder.
She crossed the courtyard with a loose, open stride. The breeches fitted her like a glove. The soft buckskin hugged the length of her thighs, caressing her hips and outlining every slender curve. She seemed not the least bit self-conscious.
His throat thickened.
How had he ever thought she lacked femininecurves?They were slender and subtle and they made his mouth water.
A bevy of nuns fluttered in her wake, remonstrating.
“Isabella! You cannot leave the convent dressed like that!” Reverend Mother appeared in another doorway. “It is indecent.”
“It’s practical,” Isabella argued. “We’re riding.”
“I don’t care if you’re flying! You will not leave this place dressed like that.”
She met Reverend Mother’s gaze and raised her chin. “I am no longer a ward of this convent.” Gasps from the schoolgirls at her temerity.
“You are still my niece,” snapped the nun, “and you will obey me. Go back inside and put on a skirt, at once.”
The two women’s gazes clashed. Isabella made no move.
“If I have to ride astride in a skirt my thighs will chafe,” she said. At the brazen mention of thighs, there was a murmuring among the nuns and much pursing of lips.
Luke finally got his tongue to work. “You won’t be riding astride.”
She whirled around and stared at him. “What? I thought you had a horse.” Her frown darkened. “I won’t travel in a litter!”
“Of course not. I told you I’d found a suitable mount. I’ve brought a sidesaddle.”
“A sidesaddle?” Her eyes narrowed, and Luke gestured outside to where Miguel was waiting with two horses and a donkey.
Reverend Mother swept forward. “Of course he brought a sidesaddle for you to ride. What else would a gentleman expect from alady?” Her eyes bored into Isabella in silent imperative. “Now, go and remove those masculine abominations and put on a skirt at once.”
Isabella looked mutinous for a moment, then with a muffled exclamation she turned on her heel and marched back the way she’d come.
Lord, but the sight of her striding away from him in those breeches, the superb curve of her backside… Luke could only stare. And hope his glazed look wasn’t visible to his companions. His body began to harden… He gritted his teeth and willed it to stop. What a time and place to battle with arousal, standing in a convent surrounded by nuns.
Isabella disappeared, and a buzz of conversation followed her departure.
Reverend Mother swished forward. “Isabella can be a little… willful, but she is a good girl at heart. I hope you won’t hold this against her. I have perhaps allowed her a little more leeway than I should have—”
