Page 33 of His Betrothed
Angel herself guided them back up the cliff,and when Thornton would have headed for the cottage, Roselyn stopped him.
“Wait.” She took the reins back, and turned Angel toward the channel. They looked out over the dark water,and she couldn’t help but remember the night she’d found him, when the moon had been full, and enemy ships threatened the island.
She took a deep breath. “Do you remember anything more about how you arrived here?”
She was so close to him she could feel the slight stiffening of his muscles.
“Only what I’ve told you.”
“It must bother you to have a piece of your memory missing. How long wereyou with the fleet?”
“Almost three months.” The tension in his voice grew. “What is the point of these questions?”
“I’m curious. This island is not so remote as you imagine; Francis goes to the mainland often and brings back stories he hears in the taverns. It might surprise you to know that your…exploits are talked of even there.”
“My exploits?”
He sounded suitably bewildered; she was impressed.
“The only reason I asked how long you’dbeen with the fleet, is because Francis heard talk of you that sounded quite recent.”
Thornton said nothing.
“Perhaps Francis heard incorrectly,” she continued.
“That could be,” he said mildly. “I’ve had so many exploits that stories of them could easily take a while to spread.”
“Why do you feel the need to behave in such a way?” she asked, trying tomask her disappointment that she couldn’t trap him.
She thought he would laugh and make light of his behavior. Instead his hands tightened where they rested on her waist.
“How else will society forget how you humiliated me?” he said coldly.
She gritted her teeth together. “You’re claiming that your actions are my fault?”
“Who else?”
“You didn’t want to marry me, either!”
“Perhaps not, butafter the contract was signed, I was committed.”
“Thornton, your scandalous behavior proves to one and all that I was justified in not marrying you—and it began long before you met me.”
He leaned against her, suddenly reminding her that she was alone with him on a deserted cliff in the darkness.
And no one knew where she was.
“Rationalize your own behavior all you’d like, Lady Roselyn, butwe both know who was doing his family duty, and who was selfishly destroying lives.”
She elbowed him in the stomach, and with a grunt he straightened. “I haven’t harmed my family,” she said, “and though it has taken me time, I’ve found my own peace. Can you say the same for yourself?”
She tapped her heels into Angel’s sides, and let the horse’s hooves drown out anything else he might want tosay. At the cottage he dismounted without a word, and she continued on to the Wakesfield stables, walking the last few hundred yards.
After unsaddling Angel, she rubbed the horse down, then spent a moment petting her, not knowing when she’d get the chance again. After a last look around to make sure everything was as she found it, she left the stables for home.
Francis Heywood arose beforedawn, certain he’d heard someone near the stables. After he dressed, he crept outside in time to see Lady Roselyn returning Angel. Instead of confronting her, he hesitated. She never rode the horse, no matter how far her business took her.
So why had she borrowed Angel in the middle of the night? Why had she been acting so distant? Whatever secrets she was keeping, he wanted only to help her.But how could he help if she wouldn’t confide in him?
