Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

“ D on’t you feel even a little bad for the poor birds?” Diana asked, peeking around Celia towards where there were preparations being made for the beaters and the assistants for the afternoon’s activities.

Selina laughed. “Sweet sister, if we had sympathy for all the living creatures on the earth whatever would we eat? You like roast partridge and grouse fine enough when it’s on your plate!”

“I don’t like to think about how it got there, though,” Diana said with a shiver.

“And so you shouldn’t, Lady Diana,” Mr. Carter said, passing by. His brows were angled solicitously but Elizabeth was sure that no matter what the conversation was about, the topic would swiftly be changed to Mrs. Carter. “Why my own dear wife will simply not allow talk of hunting in the house. It was only because of the deep admiration that we hold for your family and the Duke that she was willing to come to the party, for she will surely be alarmed with the talk of what we have caught and how we have caught it.”

“I shall stick to her, then,” Diana cried. “We shall avoid the talk together!”

Mr. Carter was so pleased at this that he dropped his hat, then his gloves and then finally his cane and he had to bend three of four times to gather them up again.

Elizabeth moved on from the small group to where the men were discussing stratagems. While the partridge was not a particularly wily opponent, it seemed that the gentlemen were all keen to show their shooting prowess and come back with the best brace for the kitchens, and they were briskly debating the merits of beaters and the foul play that poachers were wont to get up to.

“Before the main event this afternoon and everyone else arrives, let us have a small wager,” Herbert was saying. “Whoever can get the most partridge and pheasants in the woods without any aid shall have the first attempt at the driven game when the rest of the party starts this afternoon.”

“Ah Lord Herbert,” Perceval said, a beaming smile on his face. “That sounds like sport indeed, but let us not wager for so small a trifle. Let us each man put a purse in the pot to be won by the lucky winner.”

The rest agreed heartily to the plan as she approached, and then looked somewhat embarrassed to be caught in the act by a lady, even Stephen taking the air of a man trying to check the time on his watch and the sky for clouds at the same time. Elizabeth had by now spent enough time with Celia to know the Marchioness disliked gambling enormously, which was enough to make those near her nervous of speaking of it where she might find out.

“I shall go with Herbert, we shall keep each other right,” Perceval said briskly, breaking the awkward silence.

The Duke of Seymour looked a little disappointed, Elizabeth thought, and then gamely said that he would pair with Dudley who pretended that he did not notice the hesitation.

“I see that I have been left to my own devices,” Stephen drawled in amusement.

“Not at all,” Elizabeth said. “I shall come with you, Westall.”

He looked up at her, surprised. “Elizabeth?”

“Indeed,” she said, carrying on as quickly as she could so he would not see how nervous she was. “It sounds like an entertaining way to spend the morning and I should not like you to be alone. The honor of the house demands that you win the wager, after all.”

This was at least part true. She did not know if he could see it in her face but the idea of him alone in the woods with his enemy or enemies near him and armed made her stomach turn over in fear.

Perhaps he could see how much it meant to her for he nodded, his face softening a little. “I shall be glad of the company. Come, let us find some horses and be started. You shall be my luck today, wife.”

“Whoa Captain, whoa,” Stephen drew in the rein of his stallion and glanced cautiously at Elizabeth who was sat like a bag of old washing on the back of Cleopatra, one of the gentler horses in the stables.

In truth he should have suggested she ride while he led the horse on a longe line, but she had been so excited at the idea of riding out with him that he hadn’t had the heart.

“Tell me again how it is that you’ve never ridden a horse before,” he called over his shoulder, keeping Captain on a short rein so they would not outstrip Cleopatra who was enjoying the chance to meander the woodlands.

While Captain had aspirations to be some sort of war horse and would gallop all day if Stephen would let him, his glossy black coat rippling over his lean muscles and his proud head tossed back in delight, Cleopatra was a dappled gray who was a cat at heart and loved to poke her muzzle places and properly explore.

“Why on earth would I have ridden before?” Elizabeth called back, trying gamely to urge Cleopatra to a slightly brisker walk. “The horses in the Rosenburg Estate were not for my use, husband. I might have gotten ideas quite above my station if I had been allowed on one.”

Stephen pulled Captain to a halt and glanced at her again, his brows furrowed. The more she spoke about her life before they had met, the more he felt the best course of action before him was to ride to the Rosenburg Estate and push Rosenburg’s head into a horse trough.

How had she remained such a spirited, intelligent and kind woman with everything she had been against?

“Oop!” Elizabeth pulled on her reins. “Why does she want to go off the path so greatly?”

“She desires knowledge,” Stephen said dryly, moving Captain over to take hold of Cleopatra’s reins.

“And who are we to keep her from it?” Elizabeth said with an amused smile as he drew them on down the path. “I cannot help feeling that it would be easier for me to urge her onwards if I were able to ride the way that you are.”

He laughed. “Perhaps, I am sure I simply lack as a teacher for the appropriate way to manage the horse side saddle.”

“Are you saying that there is something you cannot do, Your Grace?” Her smile was impish, mischievous. It was an expression he was beginning to see more of, it was charming on her face. It made him catch his breath a little, how beautiful she was.

“I must admit I have not perfected side saddle riding,” he drawled, smiling back at her. “Oh however shall I live that down.”

“I will keep your secret, sir,” she said, then she moved slightly wrong and her heel clipped into Cleopatra’s side and before he could adjust a stronger grip on the reins Cleopatra, startled by the sudden and unexpected blow, twisted her head and bolted.

Stephen dug his knees into Captain’s side, heart hammering in his chest as he raced after them immediately. He should never have allowed this to happen! How many times a year did a person die from an accident while out riding? And they were in the forest where there were plenty of places for the horse to stumble or a branch to knock her from her perch. He would have his wife dead by the end of the afternoon and that would -

He would never recover that.

It was a new thought, a strange thought in its clarity.

He would never survive losing her.

The race was brief. Cleopatra was a good hearted creature and once she recovered from her startle she came to a stop. However, as much as she had not expected to be kicked, Elizabeth clearly did not expect the horse to stop and slid from the saddle to the ground in a tumble that made Stephen’s heart drop.

He flung himself from the saddle and ran to her side, pushing the horse away before a hoof could go astray and hit her by accident.

“Elizabeth!” he knelt on the loam-covered earth, reaching for her shoulder but afraid in a cold moment that perhaps she was already hurt and he should not move her. “Elizabeth, are you -”

She made a soft noise, small and shuddering and he thought that perhaps she was whimpering in pain or weeping from the fright of it before she moved, her mane of hair falling from her face as she sat up and he realized that she was laughing .

“Oh I am not good at this, Stephen,” she said, tears of mirth running down her face. “I shall never be one of those elegant ladies, I am going to be a wild woman and ride astride like the men and cause a scandal.”

Stephen reached out to touch her cheek. “Are you hurt?”

“Just my pride, what little there is,” she said merrily, letting him help her to her feet. “I always thought it looked so easy, and look how wrong I was.”

Stephen put his arm around her shoulders and drew her against his side for a moment, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. All this time he had thought himself lucky to have met a woman that was interesting and beautiful, not cruel like her family but a good match for him practically and a woman he desired in his bed. It was more than many couples could hope for. He cared about her as part of his family and because their union would keep the peace for everyone he loved.

And yet now, with her soft warmth pressed against him and the music of her laughter still in his ears he knew it was more than that. It wasn’t just practicality, or lust or fellow feeling for someone in his household.

This was deeper, a feeling that consumed him like fire and yet also made him feel renewed, created anew. He knew what it was and yet he was wary of it, wary of the implications in this crucial moment, of what it might mean with everything so delicate.

“No one can see,” Elizabeth said, pouting at him winningly and making his heart melt. “Won’t you show me how to ride astride? I am sure it will be much easier.”

He laughed then and kissed her hand. “When we are not in a forest and there are no important guests at the estate I shall take you to a field and teach you gladly - and in a saddle that will suit it, not a sidesaddle like the one you have. For now I shall fashion a lead rein and help keep Cleopatra from bolting again.”

She beamed at him and he helped her back onto the horse, mounting Captain and using a length of line from the saddlebags to keep the two horses linked. “I feel safer already,” she said. “Nothing can harm me if you have things in hand, I am sure.”

“Quite so,” Stephen said, more seriously than he had initially intended. “Nothing will harm you while I am with you, Elizabeth. That I am certain of.”

“Well then,” she said. “Let us win this wager!”

“And so we shall,” he said, grinning back at her. “Onwards, my duchess.”

They picked up speed once more, and now that Cleopatra was forced to keep from the forest and follow the path and stay at Captain’s side they were finally able to make progress into the woodlands.

It was a beautiful day, the light filtering through the trees and the soft sounds of nature all around them. Elizabeth was enchanted, her face aglow with interest and joy as she looked all around her. Once again he was struck with how well she fitted into the setting, the nymph-like beauty of her.

“How will you kill them?” she asked, eyeing the undergrowth with curiosity. “How will you find them for that matter?”

“It’s the right season for hunting them,” Stephen explained. “At this time of year they are fat and complacent, pecking for berries and foraging for food. We will see many of them soon enough now Cleopatra is not frighting them off for us. I will shoot them with my rifle and we will collect a brace of them to show the others how it is done.”

She nodded. He had been concerned that she would find the matter too bloody and cruel, especially with how she had taken up the wounded falcon and nursed it back to health. But she was apparently practical enough to see a difference between an eating bird and a hunting bird.

“Well then, husband,” she said, shooting him a sparkling look full of wicked impishness. “Perhaps you should show me how well you can hunt? I have seen little evidence so far.”

“Is that so?” he said, a smile tugging at his lips. “Then we must change that immediately.”

He pulled Captain to a stop, having spotted the signs of a large plump bird just moments before. In a smooth movement he brought up his gun and fired, hitting his mark immediately and knocking the bird off its perch.

Elizabeth gasped and then clapped her hands together. “Oh well done!”

It was a cry of honest admiration and Stephen was surprised with how it touched him to hear it from her. “The first of many, my duchess,” he said, dropping off the horse and leading both with him to fetch the bird so they would not take off with Elizabeth while his back was turned. “You clearly do bring me luck after all.”

She blushed when he looked back at her, quick and bright pink and he smiled. Perhaps he was not the only one feeling a warmth at being admired.