Serena

“Yes, you are quite right.”

He eyed her for a moment, and against her will she looked into his deep blues and was caught up in the fantasy that she saw something there … something that spoke of ‘feelings’.

He said, “I like young Billy … and the way he addresses you. Lady Sunshine. He is quite right, you know. You do have a sunny disposition.”

She laughed. “Ah, but there are reasons beyond my disposition.”

“Out with it, girl. I am more than a little curious,” he asked, smiling warmly.

“It was three years ago and he was an imp of a seven-year-old, but he saved my life.”

His lordship cocked a look at her. “How did the little man do that?”

“A friend of my uncle’s came visiting with a lovely mare … chestnut with a perfect white star. Well, my uncle wanted to buy her for me, you see. Faith, the way she held her head high … and snorting fire …” Serena smiled and sighed. “Highly spirited but, as some mares are, temperamental.”

“I quite agree. Females …” He then clicked his tongue, and she glared at him.

“She was too beautiful, and I was fool enough to think that my experience might overrule her waywardness. Off we went for a run. We hadn’t gotten very far when she reared with me over some nonsensical thing, perhaps a rabbit. I don’t mind managing a horse with a buck or two in him, and I don’t mind managing a horse with spirit, but I do not like a horse that rears. She went from the rear flying and bolted out of control. Taught me a thing or two and brought me down in my own esteem. I zigzagged the reins. I brought them in sharply and released. I climbed onto her blasted head and took the bit into my grip, and she still would not stop. So I held on for dear life and decided to ride it out as best I could.” She sighed and continued, “We came to a fallen tree that was angled and stood a good three feet off the ground. What must she do but fly over it like a mad creature without any sense. When she landed, she lost her footing and went down, pinning me for a moment beneath part of her weight.”

“Certes, Serena!” his lordship exclaimed. “You could have been killed!”

Was that real concern in his eyes and on his face, she wondered. She gave him a half smile and said, “Yes. Well, I remember jumping to my feet and thinking that I was still alive, when I promptly passed out. The next thing I knew this angelic face was peering over me. “Sunshine … come on then, Sunshine, open your eyes. That’s the ticket,” Billy said as he patted my face. He told me later that even lying there I was smiling, so he called me Sunshine, and it stuck. He was then, even at seven, so very adult about it that I could not help but laugh right out loud. He grinned at me and said he had the ‘devil-mare’ tied up nearby, but that he had sent his friend to the squire to fetch help.” She shook her head over the memory.

“Well then, that explains everything,” his lordship said, suddenly running his finger down her arm.

His touch sent shivers through her, but she maintained her control and answered, “It does, doesn’t it?”

“Indeed,” he answered. “It would appear, my beauty, you capture hearts, young and old and without trying.”

She looked at him sharply, and he said, “What? What did I say to make you look at me like that?”

“I am not sure of your meaning. If you mean that I make friends regardless of their age, yes, why yes, I do.”

He laughed and changed the subject. “And what happened to the devil mare?”

“My uncle would have sent her packing, but I kept her and worked with her day after day after day. She ended up my pet and responds to me as such. She won’t allow anyone else on her back.” Serena smiled softly.

“You don’t give up easily, do you?” he asked, watching her face.

“No, I don’t, but I am not a fool. I know when to walk away,” she answered and was satisfied that her meaning was not lost on him because he frowned darkly.

“Still,” he said after a lengthy pause. “That friend of your uncle’s was not doing him any favors trying to sell him such an animal for a woman.”

She laughed. “You are quite correct. I have always thought him a ‘rum touch’.”

His turn to chuckle as he said, “Such language. Where did you pick it up?”

“Ah, you must know that I ride neck or nothing and thus end up forever in the company of Master and the whips and the men that can keep up with us.” She laughed. “So I have always been privy to all sorts of wondrous language.” She peeped at him and laughed at his expression.

“Enchanting. You have me completely under your spell. Do you know that, Miss Moorely?”

“No, I doubt that very much. You are a man, I suspect, that does not fall victim to spells and enchantment,” she bantered, totally aware that her heart fluttered in her chest and insisted she have at him. Perhaps, just perhaps, he did care? Perhaps, just perhaps, she could make him love her?

“You know, beauty, that you are in danger in my company … don’t you?”

“Am I? Should I be afraid?”

“Forewarned,” he answered.