Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

S unlight glinted off the blanket of snow covering the back fields. Each member of the house party was outside, dressed warmly, and getting ready to ride. When Grace had suggested the evening before that she might take her horse outside for some exercise after so many days in the stables, she hadn't anticipated that the idea would catch hold of everyone in attendance.

Indeed she had said it as an excuse to get out of the afternoon's activity and find some much needed solitude. Large gatherings did not bother her, but she found she missed the time quietly tucked away in the corner of a forest. Susan had taken the idea and proposed it to everyone, and now here they all were on the grounds, wrapped in brilliant jeweled-toned cloaks.

One by one the gentlemen mounted their horses as they were brought to them. The women required help, but the process only took a few moments.

Susan pulled her mare in line with Grace. "I hope you don't mind the company out here."

"Not at all," Grace said, pushing down some of her disappointment that her solitary time was encroached upon. She would have time enough to be alone after the house party came to an end. "Your house party is quite the success," Grace said.

Susan beamed at the praise. "It has been most enjoyable to plan."

"Thank you for having me. I am sure life at home would have been quite dull by comparison." There were endless activities every day—games, musicales, cards, and dancing.

"Have you developed an attachment to anyone particular since arriving?" Susan asked, wiggling her eyebrows up and down.

Ollie's bright blue eyes came immediately to mind, and heat flooded her cheeks. "I can't think who you would mean," she said. As Susan had predicted the duke had not come to the house party, and though Grace was polite to all of the guests, her heart wasn't up for the challenge of finding other prospects among the party.

"I have noticed that Lord Stanton has been paying you particular attention. Might there be a chance for something there?"

Grace gave her cousin a small smile. Susan knew Grace's plight and her circumstance, but she had yet to learn about Ollie, or how Grace couldn't get her mind off the man who had rescued her in the woods, and then cared for her during the storm.

Perhaps it was only the realization that she could have died out there in the woods, that she'd been foolish to seek her independence from her chaperone to enjoy riding on her mare, but it was more than that. He'd rescued her from the storm, but he'd also unknowingly rescued her heart as well.

If her heart still was with him, how could she choose another now, so soon?

Grace couldn't explain any of those thoughts to Susan, but she finally said, "Lord Stanton is a very kind gentleman. He is attentive and a good conversationalist."

"Those are all excellent things in his favor," Susan said as they rode. "And he is handsome. The two of you make an excellent picture together."

"I enjoy Lord Stanton's company," Grace said smoothly.

"Might he be someone you consider?" Susan asked again, with more than a little interest behind the question.

"Perhaps," Grace said, with less assurance than her prior statements.

The party moved down the hill, toward the trees. In the distance, Grace watched a horse gallop across the countryside. The rider and horse looked so much like Ollie and Poseidon that Grace gasped, startling Honey. She reined her in, calming the beast below her. She stroked Honey's neck speaking softly.

Susan eyed Grace's horse skeptically. "Your horse is quite jittery, between throwing you before and her movements just now …"

"She is fine. It wasn't her fault she was startled when I was thrown. And it was my fault now. I thought I saw someone in the distance who …" She stopped before she said Ollie's name or that he'd rescued her. "Who I once knew, that is all."

Susan turned in the direction Grace was looking and squinted against the sunlight. "It is hard to see much with the sun shining so brightly on this snow. For a moment, I thought I saw the duke riding his horse, but that is impossible, as he is out of town until Christmas."

Grace looked back to where the small horse and rider had disappeared from view, somewhere in the line of trees. Perhaps everyone only saw what they wanted to see—a reflection of their own imagination. Grace had thought of Ollie, while Susan had thought of the duke. In reality, all gentlemen looked rather similar to each other when they were on horseback galloping across a field. Too similar to make any kind of pronouncement on who it was when they were so far away, backlit, and hidden by the tree line.

She dismissed the thought. She was not going to think of Ollie again. Not going to imagine him again. It did no good to think on their time together. She had no way to contact him. No way to find him again. And even if she had his direction—what would that signify? She could not call on him the way she could a friend or neighbor.

She had invited him to come to the ball, but the Christmas ball was still over a week away. She wished it were tomorrow, and that he would actually come. She would know in a week.

"Lord Stanton," Susan called from atop her horse. "Would you mind keeping Grace company while I ride ahead to check on the rest of our party?"

Lord Stanton tipped his hat, riding toward the two women.

"You may thank me later," Susan whispered to Grace. "He is quite the catch."

Grace breathed in the cold air and did her best to smile at Lord Stanton as he approached. She forced herself to not compare everything he did or said to Ollie, but it took a considerable effort.