Beatrice (The Tipton Hollow 2)

“Ben!” Beatrice screamed, and felt herself start to slide across the seat as their own carriage tilted wildly when they took the corner far too fast.

“Hang on,” Ben shouted over the panicked screams of the horse behind them when it realised that it had no choice but to run straight through the hedge at the end of the road.

Unfortunately, the carriage was too big to fit through the narrow gap in the hedge left by the horse and it slammed to a bone-jarring halt that made the horse scream even louder.

“It’s stopped. They are stuck,” she gasped and turned fearful eyes on Ben. “What do we do?”

“Hope he fell off?” Ben suggested helpfully.

Beatrice stared at him. “We need to know who it is, and what they want with us.”

“They may be armed,” Ben argued. There was no way in hell he was going to put them both in danger and go back.

“If they were going to shoot us, wouldn’t they have done so while they were following?” She refused to give up and glared at him when he made no attempt to slow the carriage down.

Eventually, when he couldn’t ignore her hard stare any longer, he reluctantly reined the horse to a stop.

“We have to go back and see if the driver was injured,” Beatrice declared flatly, but didn’t wait to argue with him.

“Beatrice, come back!” He called, and cursed fluidly when she began to march down the road.

When it became evident that she wasn’t going to listen to reason, Ben secured the reins and hurried after her. He hated to leave the carriage unattended, especially now that the reckless coachman had lost his own conveyance, but he had little choice because there was nowhere in the lane where he could turn the carriage around. Right now, it was more important that he stopped Beatrice doing something incredibly foolish, like approaching the person who had been trying to kill her.

By the time he caught up with her, she was already next to the damaged carriage. The loud squeals from the horse continued to grow increasingly desperate. Beatrice blinked away the tears that stung her eyes, and tried to think of a way she could help the distressed beast.

“We have to do something,” she gasped, as she tried to find a way through the bushes to get into the field. Even from the road she could see that the horse was struggling fiercely against the restriction of the traces and knew that it was going to hurt itself.

“Help me,” she snapped at Ben, who still stood in the road.

Ben cursed and forced his way through the thick bramble. One look at the rapidly retreating back of the dark figure in the far corner of the field was enough to assure him that the damned cretin had just cleared off and left his animal to suffer. Luckily, they were heading in the opposite direction to his carriage, and so he and Beatrice still had a way to get home.

“God, how could they?” Beatrice gasped in disgust as she glared after their tormentor.

Ben sighed and walked slowly up to the horse. “Because they are brainless idiots,” he murmured softly. Although his words were harsh, his tone was gentle.

Beatrice had never felt so helpless in her life. “What do we do?”

Ben studied the traces. “I am going to remove the reins. Stand back. He will most probably run once he senses freedom. Don’t try and stop him. Just stand well away from the carriage. It is fairly bogged down so isn’t likely to fall over or anything, but I don’t know how much damage there has been to the wheels. If one of them drops off, I don’t want the carriage to tip over onto you. Step back against the hedge over there, and stand still.”

She had little choice but to comply, and watched Ben swiftly release the reins. The animal suddenly charged across the field without a backward look leaving the traces to thump heavily onto the ground. Luckily, the carriage didn’t move.

r /> She looked at Ben before she opened the door next to her and peered inside. There was nothing inside the shabby interior; no personal items, or clothing, or anything that might hint at who the owner was.

“I am sure that I have seen this carriage somewhere before,” she murmured when Ben moved to stand next to her.

Ben sighed as he studied the area around them. “Now that the horse is safe, and the carriage is blocking the gap so the horse can’t get out of the field, we need to go and get help. We have to find Fred Dinage, and tell him what has happened. He can come and try to identify the owner, and take it from there. Right now, we need to get out of here,” he growled as he waved her toward the hedge. “Let’s go.”

He held the hedge back to allow her to climb through and followed her down the road. As they walked, he glanced at her and just had to touch her. For his sake, he had to reassure himself that she was alright.

“Beatrice?”

Right there, in the middle of the road, he drew her into a kiss that was so swift, so fierce, that her world spun on its axis. His lips lay siege to her senses and left her reeling beneath the weight of sensual promise. Tongues mated hungrily, lips duelled lovingly, and arms cradled protectively. In that one brief moment, their worlds collided and changed irreversibly, because they both knew that they were now together.

“Are you alright?” he growled when the need for air made him lift his head.

She nodded and lifted onto her tiptoes to place one last kiss on his lips. “I am fine.”

“We are going to talk about this later,” he warned, and captured her lips in a kiss that sealed the promise. “Let’s go.”