The Sherbrooke Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 1)

It was a good five minutes before it occurred to her to question what she was going to do. Fury, humiliation, and a profound acceptance of having lost, with no more recourse available, had doused her like a flood of cold water, and she’d acted without thought. It took only another minute to hear the thudding hooves of Garth coming after her.

The stallion was fast, no doubt about that, strong and fast, but not brutal, not like his master would be if he caught her. But why was he coming after her? Was it his male pride? His arrogance that no one should act without his precious Lordship’s permission?

Alex shook her head against Fanny’s neck. She wouldn’t think about him, about his motives. It was true, she didn’t want to do this; she didn’t want to run away by herself, a female alone and thus vulnerable to every villain on the English roads. But she wasn’t stupid. She fully intended to ride only at night and hide during the three and a half days it would take her to get back home. She had ten pounds of Douglas’s money, surely enough to feed herself. No, she wasn’t stupid. She would be very careful. Perhaps that was why Douglas was riding after her. Men gave women no measure of credit for accomplishing anything on their own. He probably saw her riding into the midst of thieves, heedless, reckless, unthinking. He probably thought his reputation would be damaged if something happened to his wife—she still was his wife. Ah yes, if something happened to his runaway wife. Such an eventuality would harm his pride, make his gentlemen friends raise their brows.

The rain came down quite suddenly, in thick cold sheets, washing away her body warmth and her thoughts in an instant. She gasped aloud. She hadn’t counted on rain in her plans. She hadn’t even thought about the possibility of rain. Perhaps Douglas was right; perhaps she was stupid.

Alexandra shook her head. What was a little rain? She wasn’t a bolt of silk to fade and unravel. No, she would be fine. In all her eighteen years she’d never known a day’s illness. Yes, she would be just fine if she managed to elude Douglas.

He was closer. She sensed him, she heard Garth’s hooves. She turned to see him coming around a curve in the road, just as she went around a blind curve herself. It was her chance, perhaps her only chance. She quickly turned Fanny off the road into a copse of maple trees. She slid off Fanny’s back and quickly pressed her nostrils together with her fingers to prevent her from whinnying to Garth. She held her breath.

Douglas passed by. He was riding hard. He looked magnificent on Garth’s broad back, strong and determined even under the bowing rain, a man to trust and admire. And she would have admired him if she hadn’t wanted to massacre him so badly.

Good, she’d fooled him. The rain was not quite so dense because the thickly splayed maple leaves slowed it. Alex patted Fanny’s neck.

“We’ll be all right, my girl. I’m not stupid and I won’t abuse you. I am self-reliant and even though I haven’t seen all that much of the world, I still know how to go on. We will be safe. You will like the stables at Claybourn, for they’re very nearly empty and you’ll have no stupid stallions to bother you.”

Alex remounted, swinging herself up easily with the help of Fanny’s thick mane. She headed the mare back onto the road. She had to be watchful. Douglas could turn back and she could run right into him. She kept the mare close to the edge of the road, ready to turn her off into the trees in an instant.

The rain continued, relentless and colder by the minute.

Fanny tired and Alex slowed her to a walk.

She would have missed him if she weren’t being so vigilant.

CHAPTER

10

HE CAME OUT of the trees like a black shadow, yelling like a madman, Garth rearing up on his hind legs, Douglas big and frightening on the stallion’s back. He got the stallion under control in a few moments, hauling him sideways, effectively blocking the road.

He smiled at her, an evil smile. “Got you,” he said, satisfaction and rage mixed in his voice.

Alexandra pulled Fanny to a halt and simply sat on the mare’s back, looking at him. “I tried,” she said quietly. “I truly did, but you know, I couldn’t bear to remain in the trees, hiding and growing colder by the moment. I was listening for you, that’s why we were going so slowly, I was listening for I feared you would turn back and I would run into you. But you are very smart, aren’t you, my lord? Very cagey. You simply lay in wait for me.”

He remained silent, just looking at her. She thrust her chin into the air.

“I am not going back, Douglas.”

“You will do precisely what I tell you to do, madam.”

“You make no sense. You don’t want me. Is it your plan to humiliate me further? Do you wish to accompany me back to Claybourn Hall, a rope around my neck, perhaps, and hand me back to my father? To announce that I am worthless, that I am not deserving of your consideration? I had not guessed you to be so cruel.”

Douglas frowned. His rage was justified, certainly it was. And she was putting him on the defensive, making him sound a veritable monster. He was a man, educated, fluent, well stocked in his brain, and yet, she was doing him in. No female had ever before managed it, but she was doing it quite nicely. He wouldn’t stand for it. He would stop it now.

“Come along,” he said. “We’re going back to Northcliffe Hall.”

“No.”

“How do you intend to prevent me from dragging you back? Perhaps you’re making ready to come after my guts with a rake again? Well, no matter what you’re considering as a weapon, you will not try anything. Not this time. I will tolerate no more of your violence. You will obey me and you will be quiet, no more of your disobedience. Come along now.”

“No.”

Alexandra whipped Fanny around and dug her heels into the mare’s fat sides. In the next instant, a bolt of thunder rang out, making the earth tremble, making the trees beside the road shudder. Then there was a thick flash of lightning, ripping through the rain and darkness, white and jagged. It struck a maple tree.

Alex jumped, nearly losing her seat. She twisted about on Fanny’s back and watched, so astonished and terrified, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The lightning struck a thick branch at its base. The branch snapped, sending plumes of smoke into the air, and it slammed downward onto the road, not a foot from Garth’s front hooves. The stallion, maddened with fear, screamed, twisted about, and entangled himself in the thick limbs and leaves on the maple branch.

Douglas didn’t have a chance. He was thrown, landing at the side of the road. He didn’t move.