Page 22 of Sir Andrew and the Authoress

The petty wish didn’t make her feel any better. Her heart kept a frantic rhythm for several minutes after she resumed her walk. Another pheasant attack felt imminent.

It took ages to climb the last rise in the land, which would put her atop the hill overlooking Lambsthorpe, including its little church and the vicarage that stood nearby. When she saw the rise ahead, and she stepped out of the trees, a sense of relief washed over her that made her knees momentarily go weak. With her gaze trained upon the wildflowers waving atop the hill, she stepped out from beneath the cover of the trees.

“Ah. Here you are. I was beginning to wonder if you’d lost your way.”

No. It could not be—

Josephine turned to the right at the same moment a large golden-yellow horse snorted. Honey. Tied to a tree while her rider, the most disagreeable man in all of England, lay sprawled in the grass with an elbow propping him up. He grinned at her.

“How?” Josephine asked. The word stretched as it left her lips, her mind searching for any possible explanation for Andrew’s appearance. No one had seen her—she’d been certain of it.

He waggled his eyebrows at her. “How, indeed. Life is full of mysteries, Josie.”

She did not bother correcting his familiar use of her family’s pet name. Not this time. Her irritation had yet to overtake her confusion. “No one saw me,” she insisted, despite his presence offering evidence to the contrary.

“Two someones saw you.” He sat up and brushed off his sleeves, then stood and stretched. Languidly. As though nothing in the world was amiss. “Simon and I had returned from our ride, and we came to the castle rise at nearly the same moment you stepped into the trees. The timing was most fortunate.”

“If Simon saw me,” she said, folding her arms over her mid-section, “why did he not come after me? Why didn’t either of you stop me?”

“Your brother had an important appointment with the land steward. You know how he is about his obligations in your father’s absence.” Andrew shrugged somewhat dismissively. “He asked me to fetch you home.”

“He did not mean for you to come all the way to the village and lie in wait like some sort of wolf,” she said, scowling at him. After the fright she had in the woods, and the uncertainty of walking a well-worn path alone for the first time in her life, coming upon Andrew was not a happy surprise. Not in the least.

Andrew’s grin returned, larger than before and unrepentant. “Likely not, but this method was much more entertaining than stopping you earlier.” He took a sauntering step toward her, and then another, amusement in his eyes and confidence in his posture. “How was your daring adventure, my lady? Did you come upon any bandits? Dragons? Perhaps a fairy in disguise?” He did not stop until he stood nearly toe-to-toe with her, his smile almost wicked.

Her heart picked up speed as it had after her fright. Indignation made her hands tremble—nothing else would make her react with such strength to Andrew’s nearness. Nothing else would cause her cheeks to flush with warmth or the skin along her arms to prickle.

How dare he mock her?

“What is this?” His voice dropped low, to a teasing murmur. “Have I left you speechless? Wonder of wonders.” He bent his head down, eyebrows lifted. “Shall I escort you back to the castle, now that the adventure is over?”

Josephine came to herself at last. “You may return to the castle without me,” Josephine said, chin tipped so she might glare at him. Truly, it was quite inconvenient that he was taller than she. Perhaps he saw it as an advantage of some sort, to look down upon her. “I have no intention of allowing you to ‘fetch me home.’”

Andrew’s chuckle, low and soft, made her want to shiver where she stood. She hated how superior that single sound made him seem. “You haven’t much choice in the matter. No one knew you were going out, nor granted you permission to wander about on your own. Come. I’ll walk with you.” He didn’t move from where he stood, waiting for her to capitulate, no doubt.

“I have business to tend to in the village.” Her gaze lowered from his twinkling eyes to his smirking lips. She stared at his mouth, positively annoyed by it. How dare he smirk at her? “I made my way here well enough, and I will return home the same. You needn’t worry about me.”

She stepped around him with a deliberate speed meant to look like confidence when, in reality, she wanted to get away quickly.

But Andrew had cursed-quick reflexes, and his hand nabbed her forearm. “Josie. You cannot wander around unchaperoned. It isn’t proper for a young woman, especially one of your standing.”

She tugged her arm away and narrowed her eyes at him. “I am the duke’s daughter. I may come and go as I please, and you, a mere baronet, have no say in the matter.”

He snorted. “Your attempt to use your rank is noted, but it is ridiculous. Even if you were serious, I am under orders from your brother, an earl and the duke’s heir. And I cannot think your grandmother, or your parents, would approve of you casting off their rules.”

She kept walking up the hill. “Go and tell my grandmother, then.” She was bluffing, of course. If Grandmama found out what Josephine was up to, and why, she would berate her granddaughter for years to come.

Boots thumped the ground behind Josephine, quickly gaining on her. She expected Andrew to catch her arm again, and her heart rose into her throat. But he did not touch her. Only grumbled from behind. “What do you have to do that is so important it could not wait for your brother’s escort? Or so secretive you must see to it alone?”

She stopped, now at the top of the hill, and looked back at him. Then her eyes went to his horse. “You mustn’t leave Honey all alone out here. She is too fine a horse to be unprotected.”

His jaw dropped a moment, then he looked back at the horse and up at her again. Incredulous. “You are worried about my unattended horse and not about yourself, as an unattended young lady?”

Josephine tightened her hands into fists, turned, and marched down the hill toward the road. She would visit the rector today, no matter Andrew’s protests. She had done nothing wrong.

A moment later, she heard a horse coming down behind her and turned to see Andrew striding after her, leading his horse behind. “We should return to Clairvoir, Josie.”

“I have things to do, Andrew.” She kept walking, outpacing him. He stopped protesting and followed. Unwilling to leave her to herself. As she knew he would be.