Page 51 of Suddenly a Bride
“Both times I’ve been to the village, I’ve seen children running about. Athelina is a very learned woman, and I’m certain she would want to open a small school to teach the children.”
“This is the sister who likes books.”
She glanced up at him in surprise. “You remembered!”
He raised one eyebrow. “’Twas not difficult. There are only three of them.”
“Well, Papa thinks she would do well as a teacher, although most of the teachers in London are men.”
“We have a teacher here, a woman.”
“Oh,” she said, then sighed.
“You are disappointed that the children are learning?”
Again she thought there was amusement in his voice.
“Of course not. I am merely relieved.” How could she explain that she was only trying to interest him in her family, maybe eventually invite them for a visit? He might be more inclined to help them with their marriages if he met them.
Several drops of rain splashed across her face, and she looked up at the sky. The gray clouds had massed together into inky blackness. She sighed again. “Wet for the second time in one day.”
“We need to move faster,” Edmund said, “but ’tis difficult to gallop with you lying across my lap. You need to ride astride.”
“But Edmund, there cannot be room on this saddle for two.”
“It has a low cantle, so I can slide back.”
The rain was coming faster now, and Gwyneth found her hips squeezed between the pommel and her husband. He put an arm around her waist and lifted her up.
“Slide your right leg up over the horse.”
“But my skirts!” she cried, even as the rain soaked into her hair and slid down her face.
“Surely they’re wide enough,” he said into her ear.
Pressing back into her husband, she lifted her bent leg over the horse, then adjusted her skirt to sit on it rather than on the bare saddle. She smoothed the rest of the fabric down her legs and discovered to her relief that only her ankles and feet were showing.
“Are you ready?” he asked, raising his voice to be heard above the rising wind.
She nodded and gave a little gasp as he slid against her. His hips pressed into her buttocks, his thighs were molded to hers, and his arms came around her to grip the reins. She could only hold onto the pommel with panicked excitement.
“We’re going to start galloping. Just move with the horse’s gait as I do. You’ll be all right.”
“Edmund, I’ve never—”
He pressed his hand against her stomach, and her breath caught.
“Relax.”
How could she relax, when his splayed fingers were barely above her spread thighs? But before she could dwell on the wicked pleasure of that, she felt his thighs tighten, and The General burst into a gallop. She could only hold on. The rain poured down on them, sheets of it, which soaked through every layer of her clothing. Edmund leaned forward over her, urging the horse ever faster to speeds she had never imagined. The countryside moved by in a rain-soaked blur. When she got over her fright, there came a sense of exhilaration, of feeling that this was where she was meant to be, with this man whose body enfolded hers.
When the castle courtyard and the broken-down walls loomed ahead out of the gloom, she was almost disappointed.
But she couldn’t be, not when she felt so free on this horse. As they slowed down, she straightened and threw her arms wide up to the sky, opening her mouth to taste the cool rain. In the deserted courtyard, Edmund didn’t even wait for her approval. He just lifted her leg over the horse, and dropped her down to the ground in a maneuver they both were getting to know well.
Gwyneth leaned against his leg, laughing up at him. To her surprise, he was smiling down at her, a smile so wonderful and alive that she felt as if someone had caught her lungs and squeezed. He was such a handsome man when he grinned like that, with strong, white teeth and those blue eyes that sparkled with merriment. She wanted to see that expression every day of her life.
He flung himself off the horse and led it into the stable, and she ran behind him.
