The Pirate's Duchess: A Regent's Revenge Novella Read Online Free PDF Page B

flowed over her like cool water on a scorching hot day as her eyesight adjusted and the lane leading up to the chapel slowly materialized before her.
    A flurry of activity unfolded as coachmen who’d been mingling with one another took a moment to peer at them curiously to see if their employers had emerged. On the lane, various conveyances lined the cobblestones, including the shiny black landau sporting Underwood’s crest, prepared to carry Prudence and Basil to the Blackmoor estate.
    Tobias ignored his surroundings, pausing only long enough to let out a shrill whistle. Within moments, clip-clopping hooves approached, and a large black stallion she immediately recognized advanced to a stop before them.
    Manfred!
    Prudence eyed the beast and suppressed a shiver. She’d bought the exquisite horse for Tobias shortly after their marriage. She hadn’t had the heart to get rid of the magnificent animal since the night of the fire. Keeping it had been a comfort, especially since her steward, Jones Denny, trained the animal and kept it in excellent condition.
    “How did you get that ?” she asked, pointing a finger at the horse.
    “How do you think I got here?” he parried, slipping his cane through a loop on the saddle.
    Tobias winked and took her by the shoulders. The pressure of his hands, the feel of his touch, sent tingles to her waist and below. How tall he was! How handsome and commanding! She’d forgotten his magnetism, the probing sensuality in his stare, how different he was from Basil.
    His lovely blue eyes bore into hers with a fervent will that stole her breath. “I will answer your questions as soon as you are safe. Until then, you must follow my orders and do everything I say.”
    Baffled, she stared at him, narrowing her eyes. How dare he? Did he seriously expect her to go away with him? The very man who’d deceived her?
    “Nod, if you understand.”
    She shook her head. “Why on earth would—”
    “We don’t have much time,” he interrupted. “Markwick can only hold off those mercenaries for so long. Please, Prudence.” His voice softened with the last two words, surprising her almost as much as the words themselves.
    “Hold off?” she asked. “Why did Lord Underwood feel the need to employ a small army at my wedding? Surely he could not have anticipated this !” she exclaimed, pointing to Tobias.
    “A storm is coming, my dove.” His casual observation of the weather gave her no hint of what motivated him, just made all her feelings for him rush back from the way he addressed her, so sincerely, so easily. The emotion mixed with the anger, hurt, and betrayal already stirring in her gut. Nothing made sense as he led her to Manfred, the horse she’d named on a lark after the villain in The Castle of Otranto . “Let me help you mount.”
    “That beast? No.” She would go anywhere with Tobias in order to understand why he’d cleaved her heart into pieces, but she would not go on that horse.
    “Why not?” His brows knit together. “This pound of horseflesh is in top shape.”
    The horse’s condition wasn’t the issue. Manfred had been one of the last horses rescued from the stable fire because he had been unwilling to leave without Tobias. Jenkins, the stable manager, claimed the animal was crazed as a result.
    “You cannot expect me to ride such a dangerous horse.”
    “Grab hold,” he said, wrapping her fingers around the stallion’s mane. “You have no choice.”
    “And I’m beginning to loathe it.”
    Why was he so insistent on acting her savior? She’d done a fine job surviving until now, even at the expense of sleepless nights and untold heartache.
    “I do not trust you or this horse.”
    “Well, you are stuck with us.”
    He grabbed her foot and ankle, sending an astonishing familiar heat up her leg, and launched her into the air before settling her sideways onto Manfred’s saddle. No. I will not let my body betray me, too.
    “Is this truly wise?” she asked.