The Belligerent Miss Boynton AND The Lurid Lady Lockport (Two Companion Full-Length Regency Novels) Read Online Free PDF Page B

surrounded by ingratitude. It seems you, dear Miss Boynton, are to be no exception. Very well then," he said, and then unceremoniously grabbed her about the waist. "Up you go."
    Amanda landed on the mare's back all at once, the ridiculous chip straw hat she had refused to leave behind knocked askew by the force of her landing. "Blackguard," she accused, just as Jared's hand came down on the rump of her mount and she was off through the gate—clinging to the mare's mane while striving vainly to get her hands on the reins. Luckily the horse was a docile creature and settled herself almost at once into a leisurely walk that promised to be her pace throughout the journey to the stable yard.
    Jared, astride a mount vastly superior to Amanda's, came abreast of her as the horses' metal shoes first made contact with the cobbled street. "I had considered tying rags around their hooves to muffle the sound of their shoes on the stones, but it seemed too much like something out of some romantic Penny Dreadful novel, don't you agree?"
    Amanda turned on him in a fury. "You're enjoying this, aren't you? To you this is just a lark, something with which to regale your low friends at one of those horrid clubs you overgrown schoolboys seem to need in order to survive."
    "Well, m'dear, you must admit escorting unattached females in moonlight flight from domineering stepfathers is not an everyday experience. Yes, I'll own up to it, I am enjoying myself. Enormously."
    Amanda decided it was fruitless to argue with a man who refused to be serious. "Where can I hire a chaise? Is it far from here?"
    Jared reined in his horse and sat as if pondering her question. While she waited, he made an elaborate business out of tapping his chin in thought and casting his gaze in all directions as if looking for outside guidance, all while murmuring under his breath for several moments—until Amanda's temper was pushed past its limits. With a muttered exclamation, she dug her heel into the mare's flank and started off down the lane.
    "Amanda, you addlepated female, wait for me. You can't go haring off alone." Jared called out angrily, and spurred his horse forward. In his haste, Amanda's bundled clothes, which he had deigned to carry, fell to the ground and he was forced to dismount to collect the scattered belongings. By the time he remounted and rode on, Amanda had turned down a narrow street and Jared lost sight of her.
    "Mad as Bedlam," he muttered to himself, "that's what she is. And that's what I am for allowing her to lead me along like a tame bear trailing behind her. Damn if I shouldn't just leave her to her fate."
    Just then he heard a female scream and turned his horse down the dark alleyway to his left. In the distance he could see Amanda deliberately rearing her horse as if to trample the two rag-covered figures pressing in against the mare's flanks. Brandishing his whip, he sped his horse into the fray, loudly calling, "Help ho! Footpads! Forward, men, we've got them now!"
    Two pairs of startled eyes saw the mad horseman bearing down on them and, abruptly letting go of Amanda's horse, quickly scurried off into the darkness.
    By the time Jared drew abreast of Amanda she had regained her poise enough to demand: "Where were you, you idiot? I thought I would have to beat them off myself."
    Jared, who had been expecting tears and hysterics, threw back his head and laughed uproariously. "That's my girl, nothing missish about you, is there?"
    "I am not , as you say, your girl. I thank you for your timely rescue, but don't expect me to fall on your neck in gratitude. I wouldn't be on this road if not for your interference. Now, if you don't mind, I should like to proceed to the nearest posting inn."
    "Fancy you should mention that, Miss Boynton, for before you rode off I just had decided that it would be better if we proceeded all the way to Fox Chase on horseback."
    "Oh, you had, had you? And I thought, my lord, that I had already made it most abundantly