To Win the Lady Read Online Free PDF Page B

him to sleep.
    A few minutes
after he had turned down the lane which led to the stud farm he was suddenly
alerted by the sound of hooves thundering towards him and only just had time to
pull the mare to one side before a shadow loomed over the hedge beside him and
a horse and rider flew over it and galloped on towards the heath, leaving him
swearing fluently and once more in solitary possession of the lane. It had
either been a completely irresponsible act of someone ignorant of the
consequences or the rider was a supremely confident horseman to take a hedge
like that, but then he was in Paget country where reckless riding was normal.
    He rode on down
the hill towards the house and outbuildings of Rowan Park. If the horse came
from there, then he would speak to Sir Henry about it; horse and rider should
not be risked in that fashion.
    Dawson came out
to meet him as he rode into the stable-yard and dismounted. ‘Can I be of
assistance, sir?’
    ‘I have just
been almost run down by a maniac on a black stallion, which I assume came from
here. Have you no control over your lads at all?’
    ‘The lads are
all sensible riders, sir.’
    ‘This one
wasn’t. Six foot, that hedge was. Six foot and the rider so slight, I wonder
you dare put him up. I had thought Sir Henry had more in his cockloft that to
allow such a thing.’
    ‘Sir Henry died
a year ago, sir. Had you not heard?’
    Richard’s
seething anger subsided. ‘No, I am sorry to learn of it; Sir Henry was the best
judge of horseflesh I ever knew.’
    ‘Yes, sir, he
was that.’
    ‘But that is no
excuse for ramshackle behaviour. Are the stables still in business? I collect
Sir Henry had no son.’
    ‘The stables
are in perfect working order, sir.’
    ‘Then where is
the new owner? I would have a word with him.’
    ‘Coming now.’
Dawson, barely able to suppress the grin which creased his rugged features,
nodded in the direction of the lane along which Richard had himself arrived. He
turned as the horse and rider he had seen earlier walked calmly into the yard.
In spite of his annoyance, he found himself admiring the way the young horseman
controlled the restive stallion and brought it to a halt a few yards from him.
    ‘You are a
sapskull, bratling,’ he said. ‘A veritable thatchgallows. It is a good thing
that, unlike you, I am a careful rider, otherwise my horse might have bolted
with me. Don’t you know better than to jump blind?’
    ‘I wasn’t
blind. I saw you clearly enough even if you did not see me and I have taken
that hedge any number of times.’
    He was alerted
by the voice into looking more closely into the rider’s face and found himself
gazing into a pair of dancing green eyes, which thoroughly unnerved him. His
surprise must have shown for she laughed aloud. ‘Have you never seen a woman on
a horse before?’
    He was tempted
to tell her what he thought of women in breeches who galloped about the
countryside without benefit of groom or chaperon, but decided against it. It
was probably not her fault if she was a daughter of Sir Henry, and she looked
oddly vulnerable, in spite of the easy way she handled the horse. ‘Not riding
an animal like that,’ he said, appraising her mount appreciatively. ‘And most
assuredly not one so foolhardy. You were lucky your horse did not bolt at the
sight of me.’
    ‘Why sir,’ she
said, throwing a breeches-clad leg over the saddle and sliding to the ground,
‘I did not think your appearance so very out of the ordinary. If you had two
heads, then Warrior could be forgiven for taking fright, but an ordinary man on
a very ordinary horse - what is that to fly into the tree-tops about?’ She was
aware as she spoke that he was not in the least ordinary. For a start, he was a
very big man, tall and broad-shouldered, and his features had a ruggedness
which in no way detracted from his good looks; his jaw was clear-cut and his
mouth firm. ‘Did you ride down here especially to ring a peal over me? For I
can