How to Wed a Warrior by English Christy

Author:English, Christy [English, Christy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2016-02-01T23:00:00+00:00

Twenty-two

Robbie got Mary Elizabeth back in the house and managed to keep her there the rest of the evening. He had hoped to take Prudence out for a walk along the shore cliff at dusk, but he was afraid to leave Mary Elizabeth alone for fear of the mischief she might get up to. She had always been one to dawdle with the servants as if they were family, but he’d thought that Alexander had broken her of that when they came south. It seemed the closer they got to home, the more Mary Elizabeth went back to her old childhood ways.

Robbie was proud of her for being a sweet, unspoiled girl who treated all members of the clan like the family they were. But here among the English, she could not behave as if the people around them wished her well. Because God alone knew what even the servants were thinking, much less the young men.

Robbie sat at the duchess’s breakfast table alone, thought of the dance coming in two days’ time, and cringed. He had been a young man himself not long ago. He knew what the young men who came to Mary Elizabeth’s dance would be thinking.

Where was Ian when you needed him? The colossal eldest Waters brother could put the fear of God and the devil into any boy five miles near. Robbie wondered if he might imitate his brother enough to keep the young Englishmen in line. They were no longer in the safe, fop-infested ballrooms of London, but in the wild north.

Well, as wild as England ever got.

Robbie ate his third bannock with a dollop of honey and cream and wondered where on God’s green earth Mary Elizabeth had gotten to. She always ate a hearty breakfast, and had never been one to stay abed.

And where, on that note, was Prudence? Though she was a lady and delicate, she did like her food.

He felt a moment of dark foreboding and rose slowly to his feet, his bannock forgotten. One girl might be innocently missing, but not both. If both were gone, they were up to mischief.

Robbie did not leave through the door to the corridor but stepped out onto the terrace. He set out for the stables at a fast clip; with luck, he would get there before either or both of them fell under a horse’s hooves.

He thanked God for his moment of the second sight, for Prudence, when he found her, was dressed in breeches, standing on a riding block, and about to mount a horse twice as tall as she was.

“My God, Pru, get away from there!”

The beast shied at the sound of his voice, but he did not care. Mary Elizabeth caught the gelding’s bridle, and that’s when he noticed that his sister was dressed in men’s clothes as well. God have mercy on his soul.

“Pru! Mary Elizabeth! For the love of God, you’re not decent!”

Robbie heard that he sounded less like a man and more like a shrew, but the sight of Pru’s curved buttocks and thighs in tight breeches had undone his reason.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.