Midnight's Wild Passion

Without looking at Cassie, Antonia stood and straightened her skirts. The jibe about youthful foolishness had hurt. It hurt even more that Cassie seemed unaware how cutting her comment was.

“I’ll see you downstairs, Cassie,” she said quietly.

“As you wish,” Cassie said sullenly. Then with a spark of spirit, “I believe Lord Ranelaw is placed next to me for dinner. He asked Lady Humphrey specially.”

Antonia didn’t answer. What point nagging Cassie right now? For the thousandth time since she’d met him, she consigned Lord Ranelaw to Hades.

After a restless night plagued with anxiety about Cassie and Ranelaw’s open flirtation, Antonia rose early. Soon she wouldn’t need a disguise to play the hag. When she checked the mirror, she looked so tired and distraught, it was a relief to hide behind her spectacles.

The sun wasn’t long over the horizon. The guests wouldn’t stir for hours. This was her favorite time of day here. Before she left the house, she peeked into the room beside hers to see Cassie asleep and looking the perfect angel she certainly wasn’t when awake.

In the stables, the grooms had her usual chestnut gelding saddled. The horse greeted her with a soft whicker.

“He

llo, my beauty,” she murmured, extending her palm with a piece of apple.

She’d eaten the rest of the apple on her walk across the dew-laden grass. The world seemed made anew. Her turmoil receded. Evil couldn’t prevail on this pristine morning.

She wasn’t fool enough to believe her contentment would endure, but carefree moments were so rare lately, she snatched at this one. Carefree moments when she was alone and unobserved. That was one reason she treasured these rides in the quiet dawn. At first she’d expected the more vigorous gentlemen to be about, but the lure of the port bottle and the smoking room past midnight proved too strong.

Her first two mornings, she’d dutifully asked a groom to accompany her. Now she knew the estate, she rode alone. For one brief hour, she tasted freedom. Fleetingly she became Lady Antonia Hilliard, not dour Miss Smith.

Once out of sight of the house, she slid her spectacles off and slipped them into her pocket. Immediately colors sprang to life. Drawing a deep breath of fragrant air, she urged her horse to a canter down a wide forest path.

She should have guessed her contentment would prove short-lived.

She rounded a bend and before her, on a large gray, waited the devil who blighted her existence. He was dressed for the country in a buff brown jacket, breeches, and black boots polished to a mirror shine. Her belly knotting with a queasy mixture of irritation and excitement, she drew her horse to a stop a few yards away.

“Miss Smith, what a delightful surprise.” That mocking smile twisted his mouth as he doffed his hat. Sunlight glanced across his gilded hair, vied with the glitter in his black eyes.

His eyes devouring her as if she was the woman he wanted, he replaced his hat at a jaunty angle. Resentfully she stared back.

He’d spent all last night making up to Cassie, through dinner and later during an uproarious game of forfeits that had caused general notice. Clearly Antonia’s cautionary lecture had only incited Cassie to demonstrate she wouldn’t be guided on Ranelaw’s courtship. Antonia should have left well enough alone.

Of course jealousy stabbed her when she witnessed him flirting with her cousin. She wouldn’t be human if it didn’t. But her overriding reaction was concern for Cassie’s happiness. At her deepest level, Antonia was convinced Ranelaw meant the girl no good.

“Lord Ranelaw,” she said in a repressive voice. “You followed me.”

“Of course I didn’t follow you,” her nemesis said calmly.

She realized she wasn’t wearing her spectacles. Her heart pounding with trepidation, she fumbled in her pocket. “Don’t treat me like a fool.”

He watched her with that same predatory glint she’d seen in London. A few days in Surrey had made her forget its devastating effect. “I didn’t follow you for the good reason that I knew exactly where you’d be. One of the grooms and I had a long chat about your morning rides yesterday. To his profit.”

He made his scheming sound like the actions of a reasonable man. “Surely bribing servants becomes tiresome,” she said acidly, still trying to find her glasses.

“The rewards are worth it.” He focused on what she did. “It’s too late to worry about hiding from me, Antonia.”

Just like that, she was back in his arms in London. It was as immediate as if he kissed her with his hot, voracious mouth and pressed her against his long, lean body. She froze with humiliation, and a prickling tide of color flooded her face.

“Why are you here, Ranelaw?” she said in a hard tone, as she withdrew her trembling hand from her pocket and curled it around the reins. The chestnut sensed her disquiet and shifted with an uneasy snort.

Ranelaw looked around, his face alight with amusement. “It’s a lovely morning for a ride.”

She noticed the emphasis he placed on ride but ignored it. As so often when she was with Ranelaw, uncertainty receded under anger. Neither was as potent as her stirring physical awareness of his presence. “Stop playing games.”

His black gaze centered on her, bright with curiosity and a sensual appreciation that made her pulses race. Since yesterday the bruising had faded but it still added a rakish danger to his features. She didn’t want to respond to his manifold attractions, but she suspected while she lived, she had no choice.