The Accidental Abduction Read Online Free PDF Page B

Leannah eased up on the reins just a little. If the team wanted to run now, let them run.
    She wished she could enjoy the ride. It had been years since she’d driven like this. She’d pull them back in a few minutes, when she could be sure she really had gained on Genevieve, and that lecherous scoundrel Anthony Dickenson. She’d allow them just one more minute of speed, of flying free. This would be the last time, after all, before she had to sell them both. Before she had to take up her life with Mr. Valloy so she didn’t have to sell anything else.
    But that wasn’t yet. Now there was the rush of the wind and the tension of the ribbons in her hands, and the giddy speed of driving, and no one to see or know or care that she was a woman driving herself.
    No one, of course, except her passenger. Well, she’d dealt with everything up to now. She’d deal with him when she had to. But for just another minute, she and her team would run. Just one minute more . . .
    The black, animal shape flashed across the white road. Gossip reared up, pulling Rumor with her. This time Leannah’s hands did slip. Both horses came down short and hard, and she heard the ring as the shoe skittered free across the macadam. Gossip whinnied and the team stumbled to a halt.
    â€œNo!”
    Leannah jumped down from the box and ran around to Gossip’s flank. Both horses were blowing hard and working their bits. The sweat on their necks gleamed in the lantern light. Gossip pawed the ground, but showed no sign of pain.
    But the shoe was gone. She’d heard it go. Had she wondered how things could get worse? They just had.
    â€œAre you all right?” asked a deep voice behind her.
    Leannah turned to face the man she had inadvertently abducted, and her breath caught in her throat.
    She’d abducted a positive Adonis—a disheveled and thoroughly wind-blown Adonis to be sure, with some rather overdone sideburns, but he carried it magnificently. He was tall enough to look down on her, something Leannah seldom encountered. The moon came out briefly to mix with the lantern light and show him to be fair-haired, with dark brows and a square chin that would send any lady novelist into raptures. His shoulders were broad and the arms beneath his coat were well shaped. She remembered the strength of his hands as they clamped down over hers and hauled back on the ribbons, hard but evenly, to try to slow the team.
    She’d yelled at him, and kidnapped him. Did she remember hitting him? Leannah knuckled her eyes. If it wasn’t for Genevieve, it all might have been funny.
    But there was Genny, now well on her way to Gretna Green, and they’d never catch her.
Stupid,
irresponsible child.
    â€œAre you all right?” the stranger asked again.
    â€œNo. Yes. Oh. I’m so sorry, Mr. . . . Mr. . . . Oh,
God
, what a mess!” Leannah whirled away from him to face the highway, straining eyes and ears for some hint of a carriage. All the exhilaration of the drive and the thrill of her borrowed freedom were gone. “I’m going to murder that girl!”
I’m going to kill myself if Gossip is lamed, and how are we ever going to be able to afford the farrier’s bill and what if I don’t catch Genevieve . . . ?
    Tears of anger and fear streamed down Leannah’s cheeks. She wiped at them and the salt stung her raw palms. Two strong hands gripped her shoulders from behind. They didn’t exactly shake her, but they did turn her irresistibly to face her disheveled Adonis. Leannah gulped air. She couldn’t breathe. She could barely think. The man said nothing. He just held her still long enough for her to see that his eyes were set deep above sharp cheekbones, and that those eyes were kind, as well as sane and sober. His hands curled around her shoulders and she was highly conscious of their warmth seeping through her thin sleeves. He was not only