A Rose Between the Thornes (10 page)

Which way? There was no point in following Jasper. Nat walked into the hall and started to walk along the corridor. He was fairly sure Sophia couldn’t have gone far. If she
was
still in the lodge, they would find her. It wasn’t an overlarge house, a mere six bedrooms plus the public rooms, and quarters for their valets and the couple who combined caretaking and cooking when necessary. Nat took his time and looked in each bedroom in turn. Satisfied Sophia wasn’t hiding in any of them, he made his way downstairs, and into the study. The fire, which had been lit earlier in the day, was now glowing embers. Nat stirred them briskly, and then added small coals until the flames once more danced. A noise at the French window made him jump and look in that direction. Jasper stood outside. Nat walked across the room and opened the glass door to let his twin enter.

“Any luck?” he asked as Jasper walked past him, and Nat closed the door once more. A sudden gust of wind made it harder than he anticipated, and he gritted his teeth as he put his strength into closing it and a bolt of pain shot through his arm in protest.

Jasper shook his head. Droplets of rain hit Nathaniel. He realized with a start that Jasper was soaked. To reinforce his thoughts, a gust of wind made the fire belch and smoke billowed into the room. Rain splattered onto the window glass, the noise of each drop harsh and shrill.

“The horses are all in their stalls. I can find no door unlocked. She must be inside the house somewhere. Damn, I am soaked to the skin. This squall came out of nowhere. I need to dry myself, and continue the search. Where do we need to look?” He threw his jacket onto the back of a chair and the noise of the water dripping from it added to the cacophony from outside.

“Wait here, and I will get you something to wipe yourself with. There is no point in trailing what seems half of the Thames through the house.”

“No need.” Jasper pulled his shirt over his head and put it on the mahogany table.

Nat winced. “If you stain the wood, Mrs. Cathkins will have your guts for garters. This table, I was told, is her pride and joy.” Why anyone would be so attached to a piece of wood, Nat couldn’t fathom, but the housekeeper had informed him of the fact earlier when he had admired its perfect finish.

“Once I have divested myself of my clothes I will wring them out, and be able to walk upstairs without fear of flooding the house.” Jasper replied. “And the surface of the table will remain unsullied. As I need to take my boots off to remove my britches, and the bootjack is upstairs, they will wait. Will you hold the door?” Nat nodded and once more wrestled with the wind over how wide the door should be ajar.

A swift but thorough search of the rest of the house gave no sign of Sophia.

“Unless she had decided to enter the Cathkins’ quarters or thrown herself on the mercy of Tobbert or Stimson, I am at a loss,” Nat said as they climbed the stairs a while later. Surely she can
not
vanish in a house so small as this?” He was worried and a lump of dread lodged deep inside him. “Has our night of bliss been so abhorrent to her that she had to flee from us? Where would she go?”

“When we find her, be she agreeable or not, I will tan her perfect arse for this scare.” Jasper said. “
Are
we so bullish, so awful she has to flee? Did I imagine her responses, her agreement and enjoyment of all we did together?”

He looked so disconsolate, that Nat’s heart bled for him. His twin was the deep one, the one who took everything to heart. Perhaps, it came with the territory of being the eldest. Nat rested his hand on Jasper’s shoulder in a gesture of sympathy.

“I think it is the other way round,” he said softly. “She is scared because she did enjoy all we did, not because she didn’t. If you think for a moment, we asked so much, and she gave freely. Yes, I know,” he continued hurriedly as Jasper opened his mouth to speak. “It was but a little of what we like and want. Nevertheless, it was no small introduction to our lifestyle, and she may well need time to assimilate all it means to her. And, I suspect to lose the guilt she feels for the enjoyment she received. Remember she is a lady, who I suspect had no idea that she was so perfect for what we offer.”

Jasper sighed. “I accept that, and I agree. But Nat, was I too hard on her, did I push too far?”

“No, she is too hard on herself. Now we have to let her alone for a while. However, I can only wish she had chosen a different way to express her desire for time apart. We can’t let her roam the countryside in a bathing robe.” He paused. “Talking of which, divest yourself of the rest of your clothes, and I will see if the bathwater is still warm. If so, I suggest you get into it and get warm whilst I sir up this fire. You may smell sweet, and be glad we are not around certain members of the ton, but it will stop those shivers.”

Jasper sneezed.

“And hopefully stop you getting a cold.” Nat said as he went into the bathing chamber. The air was still full of the evocative smell of roses. He put his hand into the rose strewn bathwater, relieved to find it was still warm. As he walked to close the doorway to the servant’s stairs, Nat noticed the door of the armoire was slightly ajar. He wrinkled his nose, trying to remember if it had been so earlier when he had retrieved his shoes. To his knowledge, it had never been opened by either of them.

With a mental shrug, he retraced his footsteps across the room and put his hand on the doorknob of the elegant wardrobe. It was one he knew that remained unused. Left by the previous owner as too ornate for his tastes. Personally, Nat thought it too elaborate for a hunting lodge, but in the few weeks they had owned the building, removing it had not been high on their list of priorities. The large comfortable bed, and their chest of toys had been uppermost in their minds.

A glitter of an object on the floor caught his eye, and he leaned down to pick it up. Nat ran the metal object through his fingers.

“What have you?” Jasper had walked up to him unheard.

Nat handed it over. “A hairpin. So now we know how she left the room. Who would have thought a well brought up lady such as ours would know how to pick a lock.”

“I suspect there are hidden depths we have no idea about,” Jasper said, as he put the hairpin onto a table. “Why did you open the armoire? It has been locked ever since we bought...ah.”

“Ah,” Nat agreed and swung the door open.

What he had expected to find he had no idea. The almost empty interior mocked them. On the uppermost shelf, neatly folded was his bathing robe.

Nat looked at his twin in consternation. What on earth was she wearing?

“What now?”

“We start again. After I change my clothes.”

***

Warm, if not elegant, dressed in pantaloons and a thick jacket, she had found in the painted armoire in the bathing chamber, Sophia saddled the large black gelding. She crooned to him as she did so, and he responded with a whicker. Her heart was beating over fast, and her fingers clumsy as she fastened straps in a hurry. Luck may have been on her side so far, but she didn’t kid herself it would always be so. Pretending to have left whilst hiding in the armoire had been a risk, but the ruse seemed to have worked. The fact it had been locked had been in her favor because she’s hoped they would not think of it as a place she could access. The lock had opened easily with the help of a hairpin, and not for the first time Sophia has sent up a silent prayer of thanks to the errant stable boy who had taught her the skill. She’d scarcely dared breathe while she crouched inside and heard Jasper and Nathaniel looking for her. It would have been more than embarrassing to be found. She sternly quashed the arousing thoughts of what punishment might have been meted out to her, if they had discovered her. Her cunt clenched as her juices gathered. This was not the time to get wet with the thoughts of Jasper’s hands on her arse. Or, a wayward thought impinged on her consciousness, one of those interesting objects she had seen oh so briefly.

Sophia tightened the girth on the saddle, and satisfied the horse was ready for her, led him out of the stable. She hoped the cloths she had covered each hoof with would deaden the noise of the horseshoes on the cobbles.

No one accosted her as she encouraged the gelding toward a mounting block and got onto his back. It was a blessing her father had allowed Sophia to be somewhat of a hoyden in her younger days, and riding astride held no mysteries for her. Indeed, if she had the option she much preferred it. As she gathered up the reins and directed the animal in the direction of what she hoped was the main entrance, the sway of the horse, combined with the confines of the pantaloons she wore, set up a pleasant friction on her quim. It was no wonder the act of sex was sometimes called riding. She could imagine how exciting and arousing it would be to ride a horse with her men either side of her, one cock teasing her arse and her cunt tight up against a hard male body. Idly she pondered if there was a horse that could hold them all.

Her men? Where had that thought come from. Would it ever be so? The horse shook his head and his tack jangled. With a start, Sophia realized she had let him choose his own direction. Where was she? Not that it matter, she reasoned; she had no idea where she had been before, so why would this make any difference. She didn’t know why she was riding away from her men. No one would miss her. Sophia was as sure as she could be that the staff at Midwood had no idea she was supposed to be visiting, and Hermione would not yet be worried about receiving no communication. Her heart felt light; for once she was free to do what she wanted. And she wanted to teach Nathaniel and Jasper a lesson.

A lightening of the sky showed her which direction was east. She may as well head that way. The horse, who she named Thunder for no other reason than she thought there had been a grumble of thunder as the rain stopped earlier, was happy to head that way. The track they were on was perhaps two horse widths wide and with the dawn approaching she was confident she could see well enough to urge the horse on at a canter.

Thunder responded like a perfect gentleman, and increased his speed. The track ended at a rutted road, and Sophia hesitated. Did it look familiar? It seemed so to the horse, who didn’t slacken his pace, but turned to the left and cantered on.

As the road’s surface improved somewhat, the canter turned into a gallop. In the distance, the first houses of a village showed, smoke drifting from some chimneys. Sophia slowed him. She could not ride past them and risk being seen.

A large, overgrown gateway appeared on her right, and Sophia stared at it. She could scarcely believe her eyes—or her stupidity. It may have been many a month since she had been in the area, but how had she not recognized the lane to the village of Chantery? She was just a few miles from her own home. The gateway was the disused entrance to the estate next to hers. Sir Miles and Lady Frichett had made a new and easier accessed entrance on the other side of the village. This entrance would work in Sophia’s favor. Now she could skirt the village, cross the Frichett’s land and reach her own boundaries in a few miles, all with less risk of being seen. Or, she thought as she turned off the lane and let Thunder pick his way along the ill-marked track, be caught. Once there, surely she could fabricate some reason for her visit?

Within a few hundred yards, the old driveway twisted around trees, and she could no longer see the track or the village. It was peaceful under the trees, the leaves underfoot muffling Thunder’s hooves, the early morning sunlight filtering through the branches. Sophia could smell wild garlic, and some other plant she could not put a name to. If she hadn’t so much to think about, she could have sat back and enjoyed the early morning ride. As it was, her brain was overactive, and her thoughts chaotic. She had enjoyed herself with the twins; there was no denying it. Even—and she felt her skin heat as she remembered it—the spanking. The caress of Jasper’s hand on her, the way the sharp shiver of pain spread and became the sweet sting of pleasure, had amazed her. Deep in thought she rode on. Her body tingled, with the memory of both of them inside her, of filling her and encouraging her to come. That sensation had been more than she ever thought possible, and she admitted there was nothing she would like more than to do everything all over again, many times.

However, she accepted the enormity of what she would perhaps be agreeing to was spine-tingling in a different way. There was a lot to think about, and she was determined to take the time to herself to do so. Once—and if—she agreed to their demands, Sophia accepted she would be committed to a three-way relationship for as long as they decreed. She knew she would never be the one to leave. The mechanics of the ménage, should it happen, would be left up to her lovers.

A movement in the trees ahead brought her out of her reverie. A fox ran across the track, followed by another. Thunder stood still, and waited for her order. His powerful body quivered beneath her, and Sophia gave him a consolation pat. There would be no thrill of the chase for him that day. Or her. Where were her lovers now? Had they made up their minds not to follow her, to leave her to her own devices, and cut their losses? That scenario did not fit either of them. Would they enquire of her at her own home? All of a sudden Sophia wasn’t sure that Midwood was the place she should be headed for. The memory of the so-called factor’s ill-written note made her stiffen. She had commented on the handwriting, she should have been suspicious even then. Of course now she realized it hadn’t been from Lodden; it had been a ploy to get her where they wanted her. The Thorne twins had waylaid her on her way to Midwood, just where they wanted to, and it seemed, taken her only a short distance. She retraced that morning’s ride in her mind.

The old hunting lodge near Tanners. Damned, why had it only just come to me? I heard it had been sold, now I know to whom.

Not that it made any difference, except to give her the satisfaction of knowing where she had been, and the fact she had, even by default, chosen the shortest way to her estate. Clicking her tongue, she urged Thunder forward.