“Yes, My Lady.”
Betty hurried away, and Melissa dropped down into a crouch before Flit, grabbing his face in both hands and rubbing behind his ears. “Shall we go for a walk, my beautiful boy?”
Chapter 2
Viscount Elijah Spurnrose, eldest son to the Earl of Durham, was not best pleased to have been banished to Oxfordshire from London, though he did have to admit the area held a certain beauty. And just the day after arriving at the estate his father had ‘gifted’ to him with the intention of his retiring there until things cooled down in London, he rode out with his cousin, Harold, hoping the fresh air might clear his shattered mind.
Of late, he had been doing everything he could to stop from thinking. It was likely the very reason he got himself into so much trouble that his father had banished him from society. It might also have a little to do with the scandal he had caused with the daughter of another nobleman, though it was not nearly so drastic as everyone was making it out to be, nothing that he could not overcome. At least, given time—time he did not have. However, his father knew nothing of that, so he could not blame him for his punishment.
Perhaps being out here shall be better for me anyway,he thought as he kicked his horse into a canter and allowed the great black stallion to carry him across the outer fields of his brand-new estate. If he were to be banished to such a beautiful place, he would damn well enjoy it while he still could.
“Elijah! Don’t go too fast!” Harold called after him, sounding almost breathless as though he were struggling to keep up on his own smaller stallion.
The man’s words only made Elijah more determined, and he kicked Tempest just a little harder into a full gallop, throwing his arms wide and giving the horse all the reins to go where he pleased. He cried out with elation, enjoying the feel of the wind in his auburn hair.
“Elijah! Pull up!”
Again he ignored his cousin, having no intention of doing so until a line of trees came into view at the bottom of a small hillock. Using the reins to turn the stallion slightly, he pulled back to slow him, not wishing to end up in the brambles or find himself de-saddled by a tree limb.
As his cousin finally managed to catch up with him, he felt the sudden and familiar pain beginning to clench his stomach, and knowing what would soon follow, he pulled Tempest to an abrupt halt. Harold’s stallion almost ran right into his own horse’s rear, Harold only just managing to steer him out of the way in time.
“You’re a madman!” Harold protested, gasping for breath as he drew to a halt a little ahead of Elijah and turned his horse back to face him. “What the hell was that?”
Elijah shrugged, gritting his teeth against the growing pain in his stomach and trying not to show his cousin anything was wrong.
“I was just teasing you,” he lied, not yet ready to let Harold know the knowledge that, as yet, only he, his doctors, and his mother knew. Silently, all he could do was pray that another episode of illness was not looming. With each episode, he felt the talons of death gripping tighter around his throat. Perhaps if his family knew they would be more lenient with all the decisions he had chosen to make of late, but his cousin already looked at him as though he was a madman. He couldn’t bear the thought of how he might look at him if he knew the truth. It was better for everyone to believe him a roguish rake than a sick and pitiful man worthy of their sympathies.
Harold looked as though he was about to speak, his mouth opening and bottom lip quivering, but before he could do so, they were both caught by someone yelling from the woodland beyond.
“Flit! Come back here!”
Elijah turned in his saddle to see a black-and-white blur race from the tree line. It darted in and out of the bushes, taking Elijah a few moments to realise that it was a dog, a spaniel, to be exact. And as he watched, a woman appeared, snatching her brown silken skirts away from the clutches of a bramble bush she had walked a little too close to.
“Flit!” she yelled again, seeming not to have noticed Elijah and his cousin where they had halted just at the top of the hillock once more.
Elijah watched her as she walked the tree line, following the spaniel without any real urgency. Clearly, the dog was one for chasing squirrels as she did not seem too fazed at his running off in such an unruly manner, barking and yapping at whatever he believed he was chasing.
And though it was the dog making the most noise, the woman caught Elijah’s full attention. Even from such a distance, her beauty caught him off guard. The blonde curls beneath her brown bonnet gleamed in the dappled sunshine filtering through the outer branches of the tree line, and what little he saw of her face was creamy-skinned. With a womanly, curvaceous figure and an outwardly confident manner, she was quite simply breathtaking.
Who is she?he thought, biting his lip as a wonderment of uncouth thoughts crossed his mind. Of late, he had allowed his thoughts to wander where women were concerned, determined to have as much fun as humanly possible before it was too late for him.Perhaps she is a neighbour. I would certainly like to get to know her better.
But at the back of his mind, he remembered the damage he had already done back in London and the pain he had caused his parents. His actions had to change. He would not be remembered in Oxford the same way that he would be in London.
As though his cousin did not believe he could control himself, Harold warned, “Stay away from her, cousin. She is like the deadly nightshade flower.”
At that, Elijah turned to his cousin, utterly intrigued. With a raised eyebrow, he asked, “What is that to mean?”
“She is extremely beautiful and extremely dangerous. It would not do to get involved with a woman like that.”
The sheer distaste on his cousin’s face was enough to pique Elijah’s interest all the more, and he scoffed, thinking that his cousin was most definitely going the wrong way about warning him away from her.
“Who is she?”
Harold, who spent most of his time in Oxfordshire, clearly knew the woman well. At least, Elijah could guess so from the warning and the disgusted look on his face. Though Harold couldn’t imagine how such a beautiful woman had elicited such a reaction in Harold, who was usually so mild-mannered.
“She is Lady Melissa Belmont, the Duchess of Twinton,” Harold explained, and Elijah thought he saw his cousin actually tremble with disgust as he spoke. “The daughter of the late Duke of Twinton and widow to Doctor Thomas Belmont.”
Now Elijah was even more intrigued. It was quite clear that the woman had a colourful past, not at all the kind of lady one usually met. Though Elijah was sure he had heard her name mentioned before, he could not quite recall where he had heard it, though from the look on Harold’s face, it couldn’t have been for anything good.
