Page 34 of Snowbound with the Scoundrel
Rosalind’s face fell.“It will be good fun.I daresay we could both use a little holiday cheer.”
“It is a waste of time,” Oliver said tightly.
Rosalind lifted her head.Her chin was quivering, but she held herself with quiet dignity.“That’s all right.You go on and do whatever you like.I’m sure I can find a few people to accompany me.”
“It’s too late now,” he muttered.“If I don’t go, everyone will harp on me for abandoning my wife.”He gestured brusquely to the sleigh.“Go on.Get in.”
Rosalind climbed into the sleigh—with no assistance from her husband, Rupert noted—no longer looking very enthusiastic about the prospect.This, of course, was Rupert’s signal.If the Baxters were going for a drive, Rupert needed to go with them to watch out for any funny business.
Clarissa Weatherby appeared to have had the same thought, bolstering his conviction that she was in cahoots with Sir Henry.She was already climbing into the back seat of the sleigh, saying, “You don’t mind if I join you, do you, Mrs.Baxter?”
The problem was, this instigated a stampede as the half-dozen fellows who’d been dangling after Clarissa ever since she revealed she came with twenty thousand pounds all surged forward.The men began arguing about which one of them should accompany her.
Ignoring them, Rupert shouldered his way through the throng.“’Scuse me—coming through—sorry, old boy, was that your foot?I do beg your pardon.”
That was right around the time Percival Ponsonby noticed that Rupert was stealthily climbing up into the sleigh next to Clarissa.“Hey there!Who says you get to ride with Miss Weatherby, Dupree?”
“Perhaps we should let Miss Weatherby choose her traveling companion,” Rupert improvised.Which, in retrospect, seemed like one of his lousier ideas, which was really saying something.Clarissa famously hated him.Why on earth would she choose him over these other strapping fellows?
But Clarissa surprised him.“I would quite like for Mr.Dupree to accompany me.But please, do not distress yourselves, gentlemen.We’ll just go once around the park.Rest assured, everyone will receive a turn.”
Rupert knew full well that the primary attraction was Clarissa herself, not the sleigh.She had on a cloak and matching bonnet in a lovely shade of magenta, and she looked as pretty as a primrose against the clear blue sky.But her suitors accepted her pronouncement without too much ill grace, and before you could say Jack Robinson, they were off.
Rupert had never ridden in a sleigh before.It was every bit as delightful as he would have imagined.Whereas a carriage jostled you about even on the best roads, the sleigh runners slid smoothly across the blanket of snow.The sun was shining, the slight crunch of the snow beneath the runners mixed delightfully with the sound of the sleighbells, and the wind in his hair was invigorating.
Invigorating, but also cold.He glanced at Clarissa, who had a dreamy smile on her face.The expression suited her tremendously.For a moment, his heart squeezed.Clarissa Dupree.He couldn’t help but wish things had turned out differently two years ago, that he was on this sleigh ride not as part of his duties for the Crown, but with his beloved wife.He felt certain he had never known that degree of happiness.
Clarissa shivered, and Rupert recalled the reason he had glanced at her.That pretty purply-pink cloak she had on was one of those modish things they made for women that were more for looks than actually keeping a body warm.The morning was brisk, and the sleigh really did create an astonishing amount of wind.
She was probably freezing.
He felt beneath the seat, looking for a carriage blanket.Not finding one, he pulled his fur-lined cloak—the same one they had shared in the mail coach—from around his shoulders.
“Here,” he said, spreading it across her lap as well as his, then pulling it up and tucking it beneath his arms.
She started.“Oh, no.I couldn’t possibly.”In spite of her protestations, he couldn’t help but notice the way she snuggled into the cloak.
“It’s all right.I’m not any less warm this way.”
“It’s not proper,” she murmured.
He pitched his voice low so the Baxters would not overhear.“True, but there’s no one out here to see, and we’ll restore ourselves to rights before we come up to the house.Besides, how often do we have the chance to go on a real sleigh ride?It’s important that nothing mar your enjoyment.”
She gave him a crooked smile.If Rupert hadn’t known full well that she hated him, he would have said the expression was fond.“All right, you’ve convinced me.Thank you.”
“You’re most welcome,” he said, ignoring the little squeeze his heart gave when she looked at him like that.Buck up, Dupree, he reminded himself.Clarissa didn’t want anything to do with him.
Just because she was everything he’d ever wanted in a wife was neither here nor there.
“Have you ever ridden in a sleigh before?”he asked.
“I haven’t.”He could hear the excitement in her voice.
“I haven’t, either.Isn’t it marvelous?”
“It really is.”She chuckled, glancing at the snow-frosted vista that surrounded them.“I consider myself to be somewhat jaded.But who could find themselves anything less than enchanted with a sleigh ride?”
At that moment, Oliver Baxter unintentionally answered her question.“What a miserable experience.My face is frozen.And these blasted horses won’t stop fighting me.”
