Page 405 of From Rakes to Riches

She shook her head. “I just had other things I wanted to talk to you about. And also…I thought it would be good to see what you enjoy doing. Would you show me the stables?”

She seemed to square her shoulders as if in preparation for an argument. How could he refuse her?

“Come along then,” he said, noticing her relief as she fell into step beside him. The day was warm, and he found himself watching Victoria as she strolled through the garden, smiling at the flowers, with the sun glinting from her hair.

“Have you ridden since you moved in?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’ve only ridden twice in my life,” she confessed, a reluctant smile forming.

David glanced at her in surprise. “Twice?”

She shielded her eyes from the sun and stared up at him. “Do you remember why?”

For a moment there was something between them, a ghost of words from long ago. He tried to remember the boy he’d been, the eager way he’d looked forward to reading everything—anything she’d written. That boy was so innocent, so uncomprehending of the realities of life. David couldn’t remember what it felt like tobethat boy, when the world was still fresh.

“No, I don’t remember,” he said.

He could see her brief disappointment. Her every thought was always laid out for him to read on her face. She never held anything back, as far as he could tell. That showed a kind of trust he wasn’t used to.

She gave a dramatic sigh. “I guess it wasn’t very memorable then, though you teased me about it for months afterward.”

“Now youhaveto remind me,” he said with a smile.

“My father’s head groom was in charge of my training. I was ten, and my sisters eight and six, so it was up to me to set a good example. Naturally, they wanted to be there for my first lesson, which made me very nervous.”

“I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to learn to ride sidesaddle.”

“Now you see my predicament. I constantly felt like I was going to fall off. And that’s what I did.”

“I don’t remember you being seriously hurt,” he said with a frown.

She tilted her head, eyebrows raised. “I thought you didn’t remember much at all.”

“Sometimes things come back to me,” he said gruffly.

“Well, I fell off, all right, but my fall was cushioned.” She grimaced. “By a pile of manure.”

His laugh was sudden and spontaneous, and soon he was bent over with a stitch in his side. Victoria put her hands on her hips and gave him an arch look, but there was definitely a smile flirting with the corners of her mouth.

“I seem to recall you having this same reaction,” she said dryly, “although you spelled your laughter out for many lines.”

“And that made you quit riding?” he asked, trying to catch his breath. “Surely we’ve all fallen into horse shi— manure.”

“I did not quit. My sisters hounded me so terribly about how foolish I looked covered in…manure that I was determined to try again.”

“More manure?” he asked with amused sympathy.

“This time I slid right into a water trough. Louisa swore that several horses had just spit into it, so I promptly relieved myself of lunch right into the water.”

He groaned.

“So I was covered in horse spit and vomit. Meriel teased me for weeks, saying that the horses wouldn’t use that trough anymore.”

He grinned. “I’m sure they would have rather gone thirsty.”

“That’s exactly what you wrote to me!” She laughed until she wiped tears from the corners of her eyes.

He watched her, enjoying her mirth. It made him feel peaceful. Slowly his smile died.

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