by Brianna York
“Damn!” Matthew cursed as he swung aboard Apollo. “I knew that we’d be late!”
“Matthew!” Emmeline snapped loudly. “Mind your language! There are ladies present,” she added with a dignified sniff.
Alex saw her brother’s shoulders stiffen in protest, but he remained silent in deference to the fact that his mother was required as a chaperone. Alex cringed at Emmeline’s tone. Perhaps it would have been better if Forrest had come rather than Emmeline. She exchanged a little smile with Rob. Matthew detested tardiness, especially in himself.
“I doubt if we will be more than five minutes late,” Rob whispered to her.
Alex nodded and reached up one white-gloved hand to stroke her mare’s chestnut neck. “It makes no difference to my brother,” she replied. As they made their way into the street, Alex allowed herself to slip into her own thoughts. Given the events of the past couple of days, she had to admit that Forrest’s absence greatly improved the prospect of a pleasant outing, but she missed him in spite of herself.
As Rob had predicted, they were exactly five minutes late in covering the blocks between Matthew’s residence and the one where the Dartmoors were residing. Matthew swung off Apollo and handed the reins to Rob. He climbed the stairs and halted before the white door. He removed a calling card from a silver case, then rapped the knocker firmly.
The butler opened the door, and stood staring down at Matthew with a touch of hostility. Matthew returned the servant’s unfriendly gaze with the demeanor he used to get his way with little or no trouble. “Miss Dartmoor is expecting me,” he informed the servant brusquely, holding his card out impatiently. “Be a good man and run this up to her immediately. I do not want to keep her waiting, and I am a bit late I am afraid.” The butler took Matthew’s card and stared down his long nose at it without moving. “Hurry man!” Matthew ordered, his voice rising a bit as his annoyance increased. “She is expecting me,” he repeated.
The butler started a bit at the commands issuing from the young man standing on his doorstep in the middle of calling card hours, demanding an audience with the young lady of the house. He was however, not willing to press the irritable Duke any further, and so he turned away and made to close the door in Matthew’s face. “I shall see if the young lady is receiving, Your Grace,” he said in a bored voice.
Matthew however, was not willing to stand on the doorstep, looking silly. Before the butler could close the door in his face, he reached out a hand and caught the door. “I shall be waiting inside, thank you.” He pushed firmly on the door, easily dislodging the indignantly clinging butler. He smiled thinly at the servant, who glared mutinously at him for another moment.
“I shall be a moment, Your Grace,” he informed Matthew as he mounted the stairs set directly before the door. Matthew watched the man leave, and shook his head. It had been a long time since he had been forced to give anyone a good set-down, and the Dartmoor’s butler was the perfect sort for exercising his skill at intimidation.
The Dartmoors must be staying with some sort of relations or friends, he thought to himself, brushing at his lapel idly and glancing around inquiringly. The quality of the Dartmoors’ clothes attested to the fact that they did not have deep enough pockets to afford the rent of the townhouse Tess had directed him to. He supposed that Tess might be a fortune hunter, but the thought would not quite take hold. He realized that it had been quite a while since he sent that butler up the stairs, and he was beginning to wonder if Tess really wasn’t going to receive him. Just then, however, there was the sound of a door being flung open in the upstairs hall, and the pattering of feet.
“Matthew!” Tess exclaimed, skirts clutched in her hands as she scampered on delicate feet down the stairs toward him. He grinned, utterly enchanted with her eagerness that never once verged on ungraceful or clumsy. She halted before him and smiled in delight at him, her green eyes sparkling. There was a delightful flush to her cheeks, and her hair was a bit disarrayed from her run. She was wearing what looked to be a very new riding habit cut in the fashionable military style. The styling of the habit combined with her height should have made her seem less feminine, but it provided a stark contrast with her natural feminine perfection that was both startling and pleasing. He would have been content to just stare down at her for all of eternity, but he realized that he needed to act more respectably to Tess than he had to her butler.
“Shall we be off?” he suggested, winging one brow slightly at her before sketching her a fluid bow.
“Oh!” Tess exclaimed, remembering herself. “Of course.” She had only seen Matthew in evening clothes but she found that he appeared even more elemental in riding clothes. The green coat clinging tidily to his shoulders brought out the gold in his eyes and emphasized the long, lean lines of his body. The boots that were rubbed to a high polish were nevertheless obviously well-worn and she noted that the buff gloves he carried in one hand were also smudged and stained with use. She sensed that Matthew was at his finest when he was out on a horse; she read it in every line of his body.
He grinned at her, and offered his arm. “I remembered that you said that you had ridden before, so I brought you a gelding that I am sure will not bore you, nor overstrain you.”
Tess’s eyes were shining. “Is he lively?” she asked.
Matthew shrugged. “Enough to be interesting, but not too much for you to ride.”
She frowned a bit at that. “I am really quite a good rider,” she assured him.
Matthew nodded. “I am sure that you are, but I have no other horse that I trust as much as Hermes with a lady. He is very well-schooled, and will be as much horse as you make out of him.”
“It is very kind of you to be so thoughtful on my account,” she replied dutifully. Matthew cast a skeptical glance down at her and she laughed aloud. “You have caught me out. Thank you for not bringing me a nag,” she amended.
Matthew laughed heartily at her pertness and chucked her lightly under the chin. “I don’t own a single nag, love, of that you can be sure.”
“I presume that you have brought a suitable escort for my sister?” the voice was Dartmoor’s, and Matthew glanced over his shoulder at the other man, his eyes still alight with laughter.
“I have.”
“Well then,” Dartmoor said reluctantly, “Enjoy your ride, sister.”
Tess inclined her head and nodded. “I shall.”
“Ready?” Matthew inquired, meeting Tess’s eyes. She nodded in reply, her eyes telling him what her voice could not in the presence of her brother.
Matthew and Tess stepped outside together, and Alex smiled. They really were a lovely pair. Rob glanced away from the street and caught his breath. He was certain that there could not be a more lovely woman alive with the exception of Alex. Tess was dressed in a light tan riding habit that lent her eyes a tawny hue and touched her skin with a soft blush of gold. There was a starched white cravat around her neck, and her black hair was piled in ornate waves and swirls that far outdid even Alex’s coiffure. Matthew chuckled as he caught sight of the stunned look on his friend’s face.
“Which one is to be mine?” She asked as she scampered down the stairs, holding her skirts carefully above the fog-dampened street. “Is this your horse?” she asked in a rush, holding out a tiny gloved hand for Apollo to examine. “He is beautiful!” she breathed.
“This is Apollo.” Matthew was watching his stallion carefully. Apollo had ever been an apt judge of character, seeming to know instinctively those who were good at heart and those that were not. After sniffing Tess’s hand thoroughly, he blew softly at it and pushed his nose close to her face to snort at her.
“Oh!” Tess laughed, planting a kiss on the velvety black nose so close to her own. “I am pleased to meet you too!” Matthew smiled in relief. Apollo was not just acceptant of Tess; he seemed to like her as much as Matthew himself did.
“He likes you quite a lot, I think,” Rob told her quietly.
Tess stroked Apollo’s neck
and grinned up at Rob. “Well I like him quite a lot,” she replied.
“The Earl is addressed properly as My Lord,” Emmeline interjected, her voice cold and cutting.
Tess blushed hotly and glanced in panicked apology at Matthew before straightening and dropping a curtsy to Matthew’s mother and brother.
“Forgive me, Your Grace,” she said quickly, her shame far too great for the measure of her transgression. “I seem to have forgotten my manners in my excitement.”
Matthew hurried to put her at ease. “It is I who should be apologizing since I failed to introduce everyone properly. Miss Dartmoor, this is my mother, the Dowager Duchess, and my brother, Julian.”
“It is an honor, Your Grace,” Tess hurried to say, smiling apologetically at Emmeline. She dropped another curtsy for Julian, who inclined his head in return. “A pleasure as well, Lord Julian,” she assured him, her composure returning. Matthew’s mother was obviously not going to be welcoming and Tess decided that she would try not do her the honor of being embarrassed. She rather thought that she liked the look of Matthew’s brother however, and she smiled quickly at him.
“Are you ready to mount up?” Matthew asked of Tess to break the silence that ensued his mother’s rudeness. She nodded, her cheeks still coursing with too much color, and Matthew placed his hand gently at her waist and led her over to Hermes. “Here is Hermes,” he said to her, indicating the tall black gelding that Julian had ponied on the ride over.
Tess evaluated the gelding as Matthew led her over to him. She chuckled gently when she saw him looking at her as if he was sizing her up as well. He was not truly remarkable in any way, but she read the unmistakable aura of good breeding in his clean limbs and in the intelligent, almost wise look in his dark eyes.
Matthew boosted her into the sidesaddle on Hermes’s broad back, then shortened her stirrup. “Comfortable?” At her nod, he placed his hand carefully on her knee and squeezed gently. Crooking a finger at her, he invited her to bend closer. When she obeyed, he whispered into her ear, “Remember what I said; that Hermes is only as good as you make him. Show me how well you can ride.” Tess, enchanted by the brush of his lips against her ear, still did not fail to grin at him competitively.
“I shall prove to you, then, that I can cut quite a dash on horseback,” she assured him. “I cannot possibly marry a man with an hundred horses and not be capable of riding all of them, can I?”
Matthew had not realized how nice it would be to hear the word marriage fall from her lips, and he felt vaguely stunned as he mounted Apollo and fell in beside Hermes and Tess. Alex and Rob paired up and rode a discreet distance behind them.
“Hermes is probably trained rather differently than any other horse you’ve ever ridden, but I like to think that he is easier to ride for my own personal methodology,” Matthew was saying to Tess as he launched into a full explanation of what buttons to push to make the horse do what.
Rob listened for a moment, then turned to Alex. His mouth quirked a bit as he said quietly to Alex, “Matthew does love to be good at things, doesn’t he?”
Alex nodded. “Everything has come easily to him, but to his credit, he has worked hard with the horses and on his estate. He has tripled his inheritance on investments alone, and instead of sitting about idle, which he could choose to do, he continues to work horses for clients and sell his own stock off after personally training them. I cannot complain about his minor failings.”
Alex glanced at her brother, but he was grinning rather foolishly at Tess, and she knew that he had not heard a word she and Rob had exchanged. “You cannot really pretend that you did not know my brother’s nature when you decided to become one of his closest friends.”
Rob cocked a brow at her, then looked away across the street. “I assume that you refer to his excess of self-confidence?”
“That is precisely what I meant, and well you know it,” she replied. “Surely you are not jealous of something that you possess in an equal quantity?”
Rob returned his attention to her face. “I appreciate your confidence in my character, but you are sadly mistaken about my inner strength. In fact, I rather suspect in hindsight, that I attached myself to Matthew in order to absorb some of his own self-confidence.”
“You were not at all attracted to the aura of power and privilege that came with my brother?” Alex asked carefully.
Rob started and stared at her for a long, silent moment, then nodded a bit tensely. “Perhaps I did take that into consideration when I met Matthew for the first time, but I truly did like him. He was the first person I had met that expected more out of me than what came at face-value. One must be Matthew’s equal to be his friend, and that was a challenge that I simply could not ignore.” He smiled softly, “I have never regretted knowing Matthew. He is the most essential person in my life.”
Alex thought on that for a while, watching her brother. Her brother was pointing out sights of interest as they clip-clopped through the crowded streets, occasionally interjecting something humorous that made Tess giggle in a bell-like manner. Alex and Matthew were as close as any two people could be, and Alex had always felt confident that their love for each other would never have to change. However, as she watched her brother and the girl that he was falling in love with, she realized that the nature of their closeness would necessarily have to change somewhat to allow for his new wife and perhaps someday her new husband. She did not want to lose her special friendship with her brother in order to have a husband, however.
She tilted her head to one side and compared Forrest and her brother for a moment. There was no denying that Forrest would never be blond, or six feet four inches tall. He would never attract the attention of everyone in a crowded room upon his entrance, nor would he ever have enough money to his name to fund the entire country for a good year, but he was Matthew’s equal in every non-superficial way. She sighed. Life was so very complicated sometimes.
Once in the park, Matthew and Tess set off at a trot. The trot turned into a canter which soon became a competitive gallop that left the others straggling behind them. Alex had to smile as she watched her brother laughing and shouting encouragement to Hermes and Tess. Tess rode to an inch and she made the rather plain Hermes look very fine indeed. Any doubts that she might have had about her brother’s selection were blown away in the face of his obvious joy and her obvious competence in all things. She only wished that her own life would play itself out so simply. She had once thought that if and when she should find herself in love, marriage would follow quite naturally. The events of last night had quite removed that possibility. She watched her brother explaining to Tess how to make her horse half-pass whilst demonstrating the movement himself and smiled in spite of herself. If there were people capable of so much life, how could anything be wrong in the world?
∞∞∞
“Did you enjoy yourself in spite of Forrest’s absence?” Matthew inquired under his breath of Alex as he helped her down from her horse in the stable yard.
She nodded. “Thank you for inviting me. It was good to ride in the morning in skirts,” she whispered to him and he laughed.
“What do you think of Tess?” he asked her as the party returned to the house.
Alex slanted a glance up at her brother from underneath her lashes. “Let us say that I was planning the wording of your wedding bans this morning,” she teased him and was surprised when he colored slightly. “It is good to see that you trust her,” she added. They exchanged a knowing glance, both of them remembering the last time that Matthew had contemplated matrimony.
“It is early days yet,” he said then, suddenly sober.
Alex nodded in reply, but she knew she was smirking a bit. “Well, when you require your bans to be written, I have them all tucked away up here.” She tapped her temple with one gloved finger and smiled at her brother.
He chuckled at her, then ducked his head to press a kiss to her forehead. “What would I do without you?” he said unnecessarily, ho
lding open the door for her.
“You would be much less humble and far more bored, no doubt,” she replied saucily as she passed by him.
“I do believe that I could eat a horse,” Julian announced, making a bee-line for the breakfast room.
“I assure you that we have much better sustenance in the breakfast room than horse,” Matthew replied drily.
The group filed into the breakfast room and Matthew poured himself a cup of coffee with eager impatience before taking a seat and awaiting his turn to collect a plate of food. He knew that he was still smiling foolishly to himself, but he found that he didn’t mind. He was pleased to find that he felt none of the usual panic at the thought of courting a woman. He felt that he had done his penance for his past mistake and he knew Tess to be of finer character than his first fiancé.
“Is there entertainment for us to attend tonight, Matthew?” his mother asked as she took her customary place at the table.
Matthew glanced at Alex and raised a brow. Alex cleared her throat, then said, “Indeed Your Grace, there is. We have all been invited to attend the Rotherham ball this evening.”
Emmeline nodded. “Perfect. I trust that we shall be traveling there as a party?”
“I cannot speak for Forrest or Marcus,” Rob spoke up. “But I myself shall be attending.”
Alex forwent the heavier dishes on the sideboard and simply collected some shirred eggs and a bit of biscuit. She settled tidily at the table and began picking at her food. She wondered if Forrest would attend, or if he would abstain from attending events with the party simply to avoid her. The thought made her stomach churn unpleasantly, and she abandoned her food in favor of her coffee.
“Shall we take two carriages then, Matthew?” The Dowager Duchess went on.
As Matthew dutifully replied, Alex sighed to herself and attempted not to worry about the remainder of her stepmother’s visit. It seemed to her that it could not be soon enough that all of her brother’s friends would return to their respective residences.
