James sat up a little straighter, openly thrilled at Phillip’s bold invitation to their guest. “Oh, yes! Do enjoy the day, Lady Wellcott! We have a horse or two with suitable temperaments for a gentle seat and Cousin Phillip is an excellent guide.”
“Well,” Serena began before glancing at Delilah. Clearly Mrs. Osborne was not going to offer the faintest whiff of resistance to the notion, and Serena let out a long sigh. She studied Phillip for a moment but the man was looking at her as innocently as a lamb.
As if I would be fooled by that expression into forgetting what you are capable of Sir Phillip Warrick. You are trying to draw me out. For another confrontation? As if I would shy away from the chance? Idiot. You want to go out for a ride? Be careful what you wish for.
“A ride sounds lovely,” she conceded at last. “I only hope I can keep up, Sir Warrick.”
“There! There!” James celebrated as if some great victory had been achieved. “Phillip will set a civilized pace, won’t you, cousin?”
“Undoubtedly,” Phillip said. “The lady couldn’t be in better hands.”
Serena had to ignore the urge to throw her toast in his face and instead smiled. “Aren’t you sweet?”
Delilah’s shoulders relaxed and Serena suspected she was relieved to see that Phillip was making an effort to amend for his poor behavior the night before.
So long as Dell is in her company today, it should be safe to be away from the house for a few hours.
“Believe it or not, Lady Wellcott, Sir Warrick was once one of the most charming young men in all of England!” James said with a flourish of his fork. “Of course, that was before he unexpectedly became ‘Phillip the Porcupine’!”
“James!” Delilah chided softly. “Don’t embarrass him so!”
“What? Come! Look at him! The man’s been as dour as a vinegar vendor the last few years! I wished to compliment him on his cheer and simply make sure Lady Wellcott knew his potential to actually smile even if his social skills have grown a bit rusty.” James put his fork down. “Can a man not make light conversation at his own breakfast table?”
Serena looked at Phillip who was staring daggers at James Osborne. “May I ask when he earned his quills?”
Phillip’s gaze returned to her, a simmering anger in his eyes charging the air. “It is of no matter. I am as I have always been.”
“What a liar!” James laughed. “It must be going on seven or eight years. No one’s brave enough to hazard a good guess but whatever happened, it was memorable enough for him to turn into a badger with a grudge. He holes up in his estate and not a single season in London or house party. Hell, your friends wrote to ask if you had died and we’d forgotten to take out a column in the Times! That is,” her host quickly began to amend his words, “until now! Perhaps your lovely company has begun to amend his spirits, Lady Wellcott.”
“One can only hope,” she said softly then diverted to her plate.
“A woman’s power should never be underestimated,” Phillip intoned.
Delilah cleared her throat. “Phillip is still the sweetest and most charming man and I say that we’ve poked at him enough for one day.” She smiled at her cousin and reached over to squeeze his wrist. “Even just to avoid risking those quills.”
Phillip’s expression softened. “I’ll do my best not to injure anyone.”
The rest of the meal unfolded without incident as Phillip asked James about the “nonsense of ditches” and the conversation diverted to farming and irrigation. Serena tracked all of it, unwilling to be the first to retreat from the table. The men discussed business and the profit of one kind of livestock versus another and without realizing it, Serena began to see him from a different vantage point. Where James bemoaned the details and spoke of the local inhabitants as chattel, Phillip held a level view and never failed to demonstrate a strong respect for those who worked the land. Even as he confessed that most of his investments lay in industrial fields, Phillip proved that as a baron he was not blind to the sweat and labor that created the mortar between the bricks of his estate.
She tipped her head to one side. He was a man in his element and a peer. When she had first met him, she had seen only how handsome he was and while she’d thought him clever and kind, there had been a blinding madness in the emotions of a young girl falling in love for the first time. She would have been quick to bleat poetry about his form and face, hungering endlessly for his kisses but it would never have occurred to her seventeen year old self to inquire into his financial skills or approaches to management.
Sir Phillip Warrick’s gaze shifted back to her and her cheeks warmed to be caught staring at him. Holding her place to prove indifference was a tactic she immediately abandoned. Serena stood abruptly. “If you will excuse me.”
The men shifted to stand politely at her retreat.
“Until this afternoon, Lady Wellcott,” Phillip said. “I so look forward to it.”
“As do I.”
She sailed from the room concentrating only on the even brisk sound of her heels against the wooden floors. And the fury of forgetting herself in front of him. Now there was nothing to do but head upstairs and give Pepper the news that she would need to brush out her riding costume.
James’ stables yielded a biddable mare for Lady Wellcott and Phillip rode his own stallion. There was little conversation to be had as they left the stable yard at a brisk pace that evolved into a breathless gallop across the fields. Phillip wasn’t sure what they were racing against but neither wanted to be the first to yield. He kept a close eye on her as he noted that she was not very comfortable on horseback but Lady Serena Wellcott was fearless.
If courage were the measure of a rider, there would be no catching her.
Eventually it was the stamina of their mounts that forced them to relent and out of necessity, they ended up in a gentle walk along a lane beside a wooded grove cut with a stream.
A thousand thoughts clamored for expression but Phillip finally settled on attempting to hold out an olive branch. “I was a fool to swallow Trent’s poison.”
“Phillip.” She pulled up on the reins of her horse, and he did the same. “As easy as it would be to throw that back in your face, I am tired of the taste of acid in my mouth when I look at you much less speak of our mutual past. Tomorrow is soon enough to loathe the very sight of you. But today, the sun is shining and I am bone-tired. Today I want to pretend that you are simply Phillip Warrick, cousin to a friend and that there is nothing beyond this moment. No ugly past, no threatening future, just this moment. Can we do that?”
“You always did have a talent for surprising me, Lady Wellcott.” He nodded slowly, wary of such an unexpected truce. “I don’t see why we couldn’t try.”
“Thank you.” She let out a sigh. “Do you mind if we walk for a bit? I am not so practiced in the saddle and feel the need to stretch my legs.”
He dismounted quickly and chivalrously moved to help her do the same. “A walk sounds refreshing.”
“Yes.” She slid from her saddle without taking his hand, refusing to allow him to touch her. Serena gathered up the reins of her mare and they began to make their way down the lane. “I was never much of a horsewoman.”
“No?” Phillip smiled. “It’s strange, but I find it hard to imagine that you aren’t spectacular at everything you do, Lady Wellcott.”
“It’s an art to leave you with that impression.” She untied the scarf at her throat and allowed it to trail from one hand. “But too much effort today.”
“Can I ask what has changed?”
She shook her head. “The rights and privileges of a woman are few and far between but being changeable and mysterious must be universally understood.”
“Look, there’s a brook just there. Let’s bring the horses down for a drink and take our respite there.” Phillip said, politely taking note that the lady was limping slightly.
She yielded to his suggestion and they tied off the horses before finding a comfortable plac
e to sit by the music of the brook.
He waited for her to speak and then gave in to the balm of being in the presence of a woman he had once loved. Phillip glanced over to study her, so very real and alive it took his breath away all over again. For wasn’t this the dream he’d had? To have her by his side? To have the perfume of her hair on the breeze and Raven within reach?
She looked back at him, openly accepting his study. “Is it a pleasing picture?”
He nodded. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever known. I don’t see a thousand centuries changing that fact.”
“A thousand centuries,” she echoed and began to pull off her boots and stockings. “A pretty phrase, sir.” She looked up at him. “Where do men learn to say such pretty things?”
“University?” he said with a wry smile.
Raven laughed. “Ah! I should have guessed!”
“I often wished I’d paid more attention to the classics. If only it meant being able to keep up with your wit and intelligence, Raven.”
She stiffened. “Don’t use that name.”
“I’m sorry. Lady Wellcott,” he amended softly. “Truly sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” She stood from their perch and tucked the greater length of her riding skirt around her waist in a clever knot that raised the garment up to her knees revealing the ankles he’d so mockingly offered to worship. “I’m going to walk into the shallows.”
He held out his elbow to steady her and without a word, she accepted his arm. Phillip kept his boots on, uncaring of the state of his pants as Raven wobbled into the ice cold water and giggled at the sensation of smooth rocks and silky sand against her bare feet.
“When I was young, I used to pretend that I was a water nymph,” she confessed. “I imagined that I could dance on the glassy surface of any body of water so long as my heart was pure. Isn’t that silly?”
He nodded, not trusting his own voice. Because it didn’t sound silly at all when she said it with a faint echo of forgotten innocence in her eyes and merriment altering her so much that it made his chest ache.
She released his arm to balance on a rock above the babbling flow at the brook’s deepest point, her hands outstretched as if she were about to take flight. “What do you think, Warrick? Is it too late to make my petition to Queen Maeb and see if she’ll have me?” she teased.
He stepped carefully onto a rock furthest out to help steady her if she needed it and laughter ceased. “It is never too late.”
“How strange that now you are the one who sounds like an optimist and I am the pragmatic cynic.” She put her arms down and the knot holding her skirts loosened to let her hem fall to skim the water’s surface. She was transformed into a feminine creature that appeared to stand on the water itself, her eyes as cold as the brook at her feet. But she was still human, still full of fire and tempestuous impulses that made him long to warm his soul and hold her close.
“Raven, please! I—“
Her expression twisted in fury. “I bid you not to call me that! You are never to use that name! I was a fool to indulge myself like this! To think that it was even possible to escape—Never again!”
“Wait.”
“Wait? Wait for what, Phillip? For reason to return? Well, for that you need wait no longer.” She lifted the hem of her skirts and moved skillfully from rock to rock heading toward the bank.
Phillip turned on his precarious perch. “We don’t need to be enemies, Lady Wellcott.”
“No? What are we to be? Friends? Acquaintances?” She dipped her chin down to look at him through her lashes. “Lovers?”
His gut twisted at the word. “Rav—I meant—“
“Thank you for indulging me in an afternoon of fantasy and daydreams. But I think it is time we both returned to the real world.”
“Do you hate all men, Lady Wellcott?”
“No, of course not. I am not an unreasonable woman.” She recrossed the stones effortlessly to stand before him on the precarious bridge of stones. “I hate men who lie, or abuse others, or think that they live apart from the moral laws of this world. I hate men who are self-important or pompous or arrogant. I hate cruel men and men who wallow in ignorance clinging to it as if their twisted views formed plated armor to make them righteous and invincible.”
Lady Wellcott tipped her head to one side and froze him with a seductive smile that did not match her speech, flooding him with foreboding. “But what I loathe above all are men who speak of love, and tenderly promise their hearts when all the while they have no heart to give.”
It wasn’t that she pushed him with any great force, but it was a quick lightning strike against the center of his chest; and it was all that was needed. Phillip’s arms pinwheeled to try to keep his balance before he lost the struggle to fall back into the icy cold stream to land on his backside with an ungrateful splash.
“God…. Damn it, woman!” Phillip sputtered as he stood up from the shin deep water, his clothes soaked in a punishing grip on his body. “I thought you didn’t want to fight today?”
She laughed as she made her way with light steps to the safety of the grassy bank to fetch her boots and stockings. “How many times must I tell you that it is a woman’s right to be changeable? But I thank you for such a refreshing ride, sir. I cannot remember the last time I laughed out loud.”
“Damn it!”
She retrieved her horse just in time to watch him take an unfortunate step onto a mossy rock that gave way to dump him back into the brook. As she mounted her horse, Raven began to truly laugh, uncontrollable peals of merriment at the delicious sight of Phillip Warrick sputtering and cursing from an ignoble seat in the water. “Priceless. Thank you, sir. Priceless!”
She spurred her mount and was off, reveling in the moment.
Who knew that joy and a taste of satisfaction could come with a splash?
**
Serena walked up the steps of Southgate, as merry as a child on holiday.
“Did you have a pleasant ride?” Delilah asked before her eyes widened at the sight of Serena’s wet skirts and the boots she held in her hands. “Oh! Did you fall?”
“No.” Serena shifted to step around her and start toward the staircase.
“Lady Wellcott?”
Serena stopped and faced her hostess. “Yes?”
“What is it between you and my cousin? I cannot help but notice the strange tension that lingers whenever you are in the same room and,” Delilah cleared her throat. “Wasn’t he with you on your ride today?”
“He was.” Serena forced a smile. “Though he fared worse, I am sorry to say. As for the other question, I cannot say.”
“Cannot?”
Serena shook her head. “Of all the men on this earth, Phillip Warrick is—don’t worry, friend. He will remain unbruised and I have no interest in sparring any longer. I am here for the matter at hand not the distractions of Sir Phillip Warrick. Now, I shall change quickly for tea time and see you shortly.” She picked up her skirts to continue back up the stairs while a bemused Delilah watched her go with a smile.
It was a soggy miserable ride back. The day was warm but not enough to prove a relief from the layers of soaking clothes that chafed against his skin and fueled his anger. Setting out, he’d been prepared for more slicing banter, quiet venom or—hell, he’d been ready for anything!
Queen Maeb! Water nymphs! What a load of tripe! And I’m standing there with my mouth open begging her for more!
The actress had gained in her skills. Like a chameleon, she shifted to her own advantage and without warning, she’d dropped the reserved mantle of a refined lady and walked into the water like a country maid. And God, he’d had no defenses against her in that guise.
Time had melted away and he’d lost his place in the fight.
Where was the harridan? Where was the terrifying creature who taunted him in the garden and scoffed at his threats?
That woman he’d have rebuffed with ease.
By the time he rea
ched the stables, every bone in his body was aching with the damp. Not a single groomsman made one comment as to the state of his clothes and Phillip stalked into the house to change.
The look on the valet’s face when he picked up the ruin of Phillip’s riding boots spoke volumes but the transition to dry clothes suitable for the afternoon was made without a single word. He selected a soft brushed light wool coat of green and eyed his reflection with critical eyes. The lines were good and his cravat was tied with a casual style he favored. He waved away any offer of a pomade and decided that he would pass any inspection the witch cared to make.
He headed out only to find James waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “I knew you were back but then one had only to follow the trail of your watery footsteps on my carpets…”
“I didn’t know you to be so fastidious about the state of your floors, James.” Phillip readjusted the buttons of his shirt at his wrists. “I’d have stripped naked and left my wet things on your doorstep, but I didn’t want to traumatize the modest sensibilities of your staff.”
“What happened out there?” James demanded. “Delilah said that Lady Wellcott returned some time ago and alone! What the hell are you doing?”
“I am coming down to have a cup of tea in the drawing room.”
“That’s not what I meant and well you know it! What are you doing with Lady Wellcott? She’s worth a hundred thousand pounds or more! I’ve heard tell she has a purse so deep she could finance a small war if she had a mind to!”
Phillip crossed his arms, the memory of an icy bath a bit too recent not to add to the sting of the present fight. “Well, imagine that! Should we warn any neighboring countries to beef up their defenses before it’s too late?”
“If you mean to seduce this woman and win her, I hardly think hurling yourself into creeks is the way to her heart, Phillip.”
“I do not mean to seduce this woman, James. I do not mean to win anything to do with that creature! She is the last woman on this earth I would touch and you’re a fool to push me! Lady Serena Wellcott is—“
“Standing just behind you?” Serena’s voice cut him off, her tone full of amusement. “Pardon me for interrupting but I offered to be the one to tell you that tea was being served in the garden. Mrs. Osborne thought it would be a lovely surprise for you both.”
Lady Rises (The Black Rose Trilogy Book 2) Page 5
