Lady Harriet's Unusual Reward by Em Taylor

Author:Em Taylor [Taylor, Em]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2015-02-23T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Two mornings later, as the pink fingers of dawn snaked their way through the trees at Hyde Park Corner, Harriet shrugged deeper into her warmest pelisse and rubbed her hands together. There were a few ladies present but the vast majority of the crowd who had gathered to see the race between the Earl of Oldbeck and Lord Adam Cavanaugh were gentlemen.

William was up on his horse. Harriet eyed the gelding warily. Obviously it was not William’s usual mount that was stabled in Oldbeck estate. But the Duke of Halimead had loaned him this animal, promising that it was fast but steady. Stephen and William had been in Hyde Park late yesterday afternoon trying him out and her brother had told her he was almost as good as Jim, his own horse.

Cavanaugh, on the other hand, looked out of sorts. Not many gentlemen of the ton enjoyed early mornings when in town and Harriet wondered if he had even been to bed yet. Was he even sober? She hoped the fellow did not have an accident. Partly because he may cause William to have one or hurt his own mount and partly because they would all feel responsible having suggested this race.

“Oh Lady Harriet, doesn’t the earl look so handsome and strong?” said Mary, her cheeks pink with pride and something else that Harriet did not want to consider.

“Yes, he does,” she said, a little non-committedly. She had never really considered her brother handsome but then she suspected no one ever thought much about the physical attributes of their siblings. She glanced over at Stephen. As William’s number two, the lord sat astride a black gelding, also from his brother’s stables.

It was a beautiful beast but Harriet suspected the animal’s beauty came partly from the man sitting astride it. The muscles of his thigh flexed as he turned the horse in a wide circle. His motion was fluid, barely moving the reins, his crop resting against his shining top boot. His back was straight but relaxed as he gently touched his knee to the horse to bring it to a stop alongside William. He spoke in low tones to her brother, who smiled broadly and laughed loudly. Stephen clapped him on the shoulder and turned his horse towards them, finding Harriet in the crowd and giving her a warm, reassuring smile.

It was then that Harriet heard a discussion between two gentlemen who were just arriving.

“I put a hundred pounds on Oldbeck,” said a tall young fellow.

“A hundred pounds on an imbecile. Are you addled in the brain too?” said the older gentleman who seemed to be a bit of a dandy if Harriet was any judge of gentlemen’s clothing.

“I know a good bet when I see one. Look at the way he’s sitting atop that horse. He knows his way around the beasts. Cavanaugh could not ride a donkey at a county fair.”

“Possibly but Oldbeck is still an imbecile.”

“Aye and I had a cousin who was called an imbecile. And he could out run all of us as children.

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.