Captain Langthorne's Proposal by Elizabeth Beacon

Author:Elizabeth Beacon
Language: ron
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-12-25T20:01:11+00:00

Chapter Ten

T he silence was broken only by the rapidly fading sound of Adam’s horse galloping back to his stable in panic and the

agitated clap-clap of pigeons’ wings, Serena stigmatised herself a disgraceful wanton to feel heady aches in places she had never

known could ache for fulfilment at such a ridiculous time. As her body responded to the overwhelming sense of warm, seductive

entanglement with Adam’s, she tried to tell herself it was just the after-effects of shock that made her cling to him like a limpet. Her

senses were amazed by the intimacy of their contact. Silly senses, she informed them sternly, and finally opened her eyes to look into

warm, gold-flared brown ones, full of as many contradictions as she was.

‘Be you still alive, my lady?’ Toby’s painfully anxious voice reached her almost as if it came from another world, and

Serena tried to gather the few senses she had left.

‘Perfectly, thank you, Toby. Are you?’ she replied, with a mighty effort at some sort of normality.

‘Aye, ma’am. Though I thought one of us was sure to be dead,’ he replied roughly, and Serena closed her ears to the

addition of some succinct swear-words roundly condemning whoever had shot at them, along with several generations of his

forebears.

‘Quite,’ Adam agreed calmly, once Toby had run out of breath and words, and then rose from their hiding place as if

gentlemen threw themselves and any available ladies into ditches on a whim whenever they felt like it.

A wave of fury tore through Serena at his nonchalant reply—for how could he pretend nothing much had happened when

someone had just tried to kill her? And after all that flattering anxiety over her welfare as well, she fumed. Then she met his eyes once

more and saw her mistake.

Raw fear fought with ferocious rage in his dark eyes, and she marvelled at his self-control as her own anger gave way to

shocked reaction at last and she stumbled as he helped her out of their ditch. Reluctantly freeing her hand from his sure grip, Serena

risked a glance down at her dishevelled person and gave a shaky laugh as she tried to brush the worst of the mud and dead leaves off

her shabby skirts.

‘At least nobody could accuse me of being faint-hearted,’ she joked. ‘Both of you will bear witness to the fact that I didn’t

even whimper, let alone scream.’

‘Most admirable,’ Adam said, looking as if he would like to shake her. He doubted her self-control would stand it, so he

barked orders at Toby instead. ‘Catch my confounded horse, or borrow another, then ride to Windham Place and fetch his lordship,’

he commanded brusquely. ‘Then fetch the Dowager’s coach and meet us with it in Windham Regis, where even her ladyship can

hardly get herself into any more trouble.’

‘I didn’t make any of it this time,’ Serena protested indignantly.

‘Yet somehow it found you so easily,’ Adam muttered darkly.

Toby gave him a sympathetic man-to-man grin that made her fume even more, then bade them a cheery farewell and went

off to do as he was bid.

‘That was most unfair of you, Sir Adam,’ Serena protested as soon as Toby was safely out of earshot.

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