Courting Kit

He laughed again. “Well, we don’t have too far to go, your skirt shouldn’t wrinkle too much.”

“May I never ride astride in the park and is that the only place there is to ride?” she asked mournfully.

He laughed again. In truth, now that she had curtailed her temper, he found her … intriguing. Absurd, but there it was. She seemed totally without guile, and he rather liked that, for he had never met a woman who did not speak without an ulterior motive behind the words.

“We’ll see what we can do,” he said quietly. He had broken any number of society’s hard rules during his lifetime. Who was he to say what she couldn’t do? Yet, he wanted her, he discovered in that moment, to be comfortable in London, and in order to do that she would have to ‘fit in’.

She sighed and said, “I understand.” She then shot him a smile, and he thought his heart had stopped beating. Her smile was absolutely devastating. “But we are not in London, and this isn’t Hyde Park. So, what do you say to something a bit faster, now?”

He laughed outright. “Right you are, Miss Kingsley, for I, too, am sporting for a run.”

She eyed him, alive with anticipation, and said, “You know, I do think you should call me Kitty. After all, it appears this truce we have struck up should allow us a certain measure of friendship. What say you?”

“Agreed … now how about a good run, Kitty?”

“Done!” she said on a laugh as she urged her horse forward.

~ Fourteen ~

WHILE KITTY SAT with his lordship and her friend’s father, Henrietta found herself flanked on her ride home by both Harry and Clayton, who had both grumbled that nothing was more important to either of them than seeing Henrietta home.

Harry’s eyes had narrowed, and he made up his mind to cut Clayton out with Henrietta if it was the last thing he did. He was certain Clayton was only after her inheritance. After all, he had watched him make up to Kitty for weeks. No, no, he wasn’t allowing the rascal to hurt Miss Henrietta. She was too dear, too beautiful, too kind … too generous of heart to see through Clayton.

Thus, it was that Clay’s plans to flirt with Henrietta were greatly foiled by Harry’s manipulation of the situation.

When the ride found them side by side and Clayton bringing up the rear, Henrietta touched Harry’s arm and said quietly, “Thank you. I’m so glad you are here.”

He felt a wave of pleasure and smiled warmly at her. “I can’t think of any other place I would rather be.”

Henrietta was normally painfully shy when in the company of gentlemen, and Harry was pleased to find that she appeared to feel at ease with him. They fell into an easy banter, which Clayton was not able to penetrate.

Harry laughed over Henrietta’s description of Kitty’s antics while she had been fitted for her new riding ensemble, and he smiled ruefully to say, “Ree … you are a wonder. I don’t know how you made her stand still.”

She pursed her lips, and he thought her hazel eyes were made of amber glitter as she giggled and said, “It was, in fact, not easy, though she isn’t so very difficult if you don’t ruffle her sense of self. The earl is a stranger, and he walked in and began taking control. I daresay anyone, even I, would have found my feathers ruffled. Wouldn’t you be out of temper, given her circumstances?”

“Egad, yes,” Harry agreed.

“Aye, poor Kitty.” Clayton finally found the bend in the road had allowed him to ride up and flank Henrietta’s on her left. “The whole thing is dashed unfair.”

Henrietta did not reply to this but kept her face averted, and Harry wondered at it. Didn’t she like Clayton? He hoped she didn’t like him. Could she be shy of him because she did like him? That was too disturbing to contemplate.

“As to all of that, Kit’s guardian didn’t leave her penniless,” Harry stuck in. “No, no. Quite a respectable dowry and living.”

Clayton seemed pensive, just as Harry had hoped. Perhaps Clayton would return his unwanted attentions back to Kitty, who had no interest in him at all. He could see that the man was giving it all some thought.

“Is that right?” Clayton said, his eyes shaded now by his lashes. He seemed momentarily taken aback. “Even so, it isn’t what she was due.”

“Oh, please,” Henrietta objected. “We should not be discussing Kitty’s affairs like this.”

Harry immediately added his voice. “Quite right, Ree … no doubt Kit would have our heads if she heard us.”

Clayton laughed this off, though it was clear his mind was elsewhere, and Harry was pleased with the results of his efforts. He hadn’t realized just what a rum touch Clayton actually was before this—before the man chose to make Henrietta the object of his attentions.

Still, would Clayton chase after Kit when the beautiful and wealthy Henrietta was available? This worried him. He couldn’t imagine anyone choosing not to chase after his exquisite Henrietta.

Clayton wasn’t one to live a quiet, comfortable life. He wanted all that London had to offer—gaming, wine, and women—and Harry wasn’t going to allow his Henrietta to fall under the man’s spell. My Henrietta? When had he begun to think of her as his?

They reached the end of the road and were turning off Henrietta’s drive when she turned and surprised Clay out of his cogitations. “Thank you, sir.”