A Lady Without Peer by Grace Burrowes

Author:Grace Burrowes [Burrowes, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781941419953
Publisher: Grace Burrowes

Harriet was angry, and not with herself. Papa’s decision to take a partner—meaning to bring a titled lord with money into the business, because what mattered hard work and loyalty—and the notion that Philippe had fallen on purpose at his last lesson left her upset in ways too numerous to list.

She and Philippe had much to sort out, but as with any spirited mount, she would begin as she intended to go on.

“A duchess is not a prime filly,” Harriet said, “to be owned by this or that lordling, raced by this or that stable. She’s a person married to a man who has a title. If I marry you, we will be husband and wife, but I hope I don’t consider you my duke.”

Philippe stared across the room, at the rack of saddles and bridles neatly arranged on the wall. “Is that a yes, Harriet, or a no?”

She dropped her feet to the floor and smoothed her skirts. She’d told Philippe to ask her, but the habit of answering for herself would take some time to develop.

“I love you,” she said, taking him by the hand, and drawing him to sit beside her. “You have been in my heart forever too, and when you took me to bed… I will never be the same, Philippe. I like that. I like that I chose to share that with you, despite propriety, despite common sense. I want to marry that man, the one who can inspire me to reach for my heart’s desire, to step off the bridle path and gallop the fields and forests.”

Philippe slipped an arm around her shoulders. “I want to be with the woman who gave me the confidence to get back in the saddle and to pitch myself from it. The woman who made me think about whether I’m living my life or trying to live my brother’s. I’ll never be an avid horseman, Harriet.”

“I’ll never be an avid duchess.”

He took her hand. “Fair enough. I’m not an avid duke, and with you, I’ll never need to pretend otherwise.”

The rain began to beat against the windows in earnest, and Harriet tucked closer to Philippe’s warmth. “You needn’t be an avid horseman either, Philippe. I’ll be an avid wife, though.”

“I will be a passionately avid husband.”

He kissed her, and what happened next had to qualify as the fastest disrobing of a woman in a riding habit in the history of equitation. Philippe made a bed of wool coolers before the parlor stove, and amid the good smells of leather, horse, and hay, Harriet made the decision to anticipate her vows.

Two hours later, a sopping, irascible Earl of Ramsdale had been retrieved by the grooms, and Philippe was passing out toddies in the Talbot family parlor.

“A toast,” Ramsdale said, “to new ventures succeeding beyond our wildest dreams.”

“To new ventures,” Philippe said, lifting his glass and smiling at Harriet over the rim.

She’d asked that they not announce their engagement until Philippe had told his sister. Philippe had asked if Harriet wanted him to observe the protocol of asking her papa for permission to court her.

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