The Valentine Legacy (Legacy 3)

He swallowed hard. “Shall I tell you a story?”

“No. I’m very tired. I want to go to sleep. Oh, I nearly forgot. Dr. Raven said you were to have another glass of lemonade with laudanum.”

He decided he wanted it. He didn’t want to lie awake, his ankle hurting like the devil, listening to Jessie breathe next to him, within arm’s distance, within touching distance. No, better to retreat into oblivion.

He slept through the night. Jessie, a light sleeper, kept waking up, listening to him. He didn’t wake up in pain.

The next day his ankle was very much improved. “ Perhaps,” he said at breakfast between bites of toast and eggs, “I’ll be able to ride Bertram tomorrow.”

“Not in your wildest fantasies. No. I won’t allow that, James.”

“I wouldn’t even have to leave until later tonight. Some years ago, Frances, the Countess of Rothermere, worked with an architect in York and invented a carrier for horses. That way the racehorse arrives all rested at the course, not exhausted from having walked the whole way.”

“That’s ingenious,” Jessie said, dropping her fork and sitting forward. “What does it look like?”

“A covered smallish wagon that’s pulled in turn by two horses. You just secure the horse’s reins to the bar to keep him still, and off you go. The rear upper half of the wagon is open, so there’s plenty of fresh air.”

“Goodness, how I’d like to see that. A woman, Frances Hawksbury, had the idea?”

“Yes. Contrary to popular belief, her husband wasn’t at all dismayed that she, his wife, came up with the idea and not he. He tells everyone he knows about it. I’ve seen several of them around now.”

“I wish I were smarter, then maybe I’d have thought of that.”

“You’re smart enough. Be quiet. I thought I’d build a couple so I could race horses at courses farther away, say in North Carolina or Washington City.”

“Oh, James, that would be wonderful. I remember we raced the local ponies on the Outer Banks, near Ocracoke. It’s odd, you know, but we haven’t gone to the house on Ocracoke since I was a young girl. I suppose Papa just grew tired of listening to Mother carp about all the insects that were always biting her. They bit Glenda as well, but not Nelda or me. Isn’t that strange?”

“I’ve heard it said that bugs only bite succulent flesh.”

“I daresay that the Duchess would have thrown her peas at Marcus if he’d said that to her.”

He liked the way those streamers of hers curled lazily down to nearly touch the collar of her pale yellow gown. The new Jessie was in full bloom this morning.

“Are you wearing your underwear underneath that gown since I’m incapable of doing anything?”

Her fork hit her plate. She looked down at the small yellow pile of eggs. She said, “No.”

His eyes nearly crossed. The throbbing in his ankle was nothing compared to the sudden surge of lust in his groin.

“You’re torturing a sick man.”

She tilted her head to one side, the streamer falling loose beside her cheek, and grinned at him, a teasing grin, one that Glenda wouldn’t hesitate to copy if she’d had the pleasure to see it.

“I’ve been thinking about what would please you today. I’ve decided I’m going to take you for a ride in the landau. We’re going to have luncheon with the Duchess and Marcus. What do you say?”

He thought about his ankle being jostled around for two hours to Chase Park and two more hours back to Candlethorpe, and nodded.

“Good,” she said, tossed down her napkin, and rose.

An hour later James was very comfortably ensconced in the landau, his foot propped up on pillows, all secured with ropes tied to the sides of the landau. No jostling.

“Frances’s horse wagon gave me the idea. You know, tying the reins to keep the horse steady?”

He just shook his head and relaxed while Jessie click-clicked Phantom, his magnificent gray Barb, who was snorting happily, and broke into a trot.

But they didn’t go to Chase Park that morning. They were only thirty minutes from Candlethorpe when two riders came into view. It was the Duchess and Marcus coming to see the felled master of Candlethorpe.

Amid the laughter, the questions about James’s ankle, the shaking heads at the quirks of coincidence, and Jessie’s inventive way of tying James in place, Phantom suddenly reared up, shook his great head, and tried to jerk the reins from Jessie’s hands.