Where Roses Grow Wild by Patricia Cabot

Author:Patricia Cabot
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Pegeen was wakened the next morning by a series of soft thudding sounds. At first, she thought someone was pounding on her bedroom door, but after sitting up, she realized that the dull thumping was coming from something being thrown up against one of the large casement windows that lined the southern wall of her room. After rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Pegeen threw back the heavy coverlets and padded barefoot to the windowseat, shivering a little in the chill that the dying fire had been unable to disperse from the room.

A glance at the wintry, grey sky told her that she’d slept well into the morning, and she wondered why Lucy had allowed her to doze so long. Probably the poor girl had thought a rest would do Pegeen good, never knowing that it was her mistress’ heart that was suffering now, not her body.

As Pegeen knelt on the silk cushions of the window-seat, a large white projectile thudded against the window-pane, and Pegeen realized that she was being bombarded by snowballs. Jeremy, she thought, and heedless of the thinness of her cotton and lace nightdress, she pushed the window open and leaned out, just as another ball of snow smacked against the side of the house.

Below her, mounted on an enormous black horse and half-hidden behind a large evergreen, Jeremy called up a greeting and waved. “Good morning, Pegeen!”

“Good morning, Jeremy,” she called down to him, trying to keep her long, loose hair from getting wet in the snow on the windowsill. “I supposed that’s your new horse?”

“Yes.” Jeremy gave the magnificent animal a mighty smack on the neck. The horse whinnied appreciatively. “This is King.”

“King?” Pegeen clutched her arms, trying to retain some warmth in the chill wind that swept through the window. “That’s a curious name. Why King?”

“Because I’m the duke. And Uncle Edward told me he’d buy me a horse fit for a king. So I named him King, of course.”

Pegeen nodded as if this explanation made sense to her, which, of course, it didn’t. “And where are you and King going this morning?”

“Well,” Jeremy said slowly. “We’re going to ride around a bit and see the lay of the land.”

“Not by yourself, I hope.”

“Oh, no. Uncle Edward is coming with us.” Jeremy turned and looked at something that was hidden behind the branches of the evergreen. “Aren’t you, Uncle Edward?”

To Pegeen’s dismay, another horse and rider came into view beneath her bedroom window. It was Edward on his massive black stallion. And there she was, leaning out the window with her hair tumbling wildly about her shoulders and nothing on but a practically transparent white nightdress.

“Good morning, Miss MacDougal,” Edward called cheerfully, acting for all the world as if what had occurred between them last night had been a figment of someone else’s—hers, presumably—imagination. “Sorry to wake you, but His Grace insisted upon showing off his new steed.”

“Oh.” Pegeen tried to keep her tone light. “Well, King is a very lovely horse. Did you thank your Uncle Edward, Jeremy?”

Jeremy rolled his eyes dramatically.

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