The Gallant Guardian (23 page)

William spent as much time as he could in the stables pumping Griggs for any information that he could be persuaded to share on the care and training of horses, though he also spent a fair amount of time exploring the countryside on Caesar.

In the absence of Dr. Moreland, Charlotte did her best to carry on with her brother’s lessons, but though she tried valiantly, she did not have the materials at her command or the vicar’s years of experience. Much to William’s delight, lessons took a decreasing portion of the day each day.

For William, life was happier than it had ever been and there was only one thing it lacked to make it entirely perfect. One morning at breakfast, before Charlotte had joined them, he screwed up his courage enough to put forth a request. “Charlie says that I am not to bother you, and I promised her I would not, but there is something that I would like to do. I think you would like it too, and I
know
Charlie would…” He paused and fixed his guardian with a hopeful look.

It was a glorious day and Max, having decided to forego all the
onerous tasks he had planned for himself in favor of riding out with Charlotte and William, was in a generous mood. “Well, young man, out with it. What would you ask of me?”

Reassured by the marquess’s smile and the teasing note in his voice, William drew a deep breath. “Well, it’s like this, sir. Griggs was inspecting the harness for your curricle the other day and I remembered what a nice ride we had in it before and I thought maybe Charlie would enjoy a ride, and maybe you could let her drive it a little the way you let me, and I could come along and sit where Griggs usually sits.” It was an unusually long speech and William, aghast at his own temerity, was forced to take a deep, steadying breath at the end.

Max took a bite of toast and chewed thoughtfully. “That sounds like an excellent idea, William. What do you say to doing it today?”

“Hooray! I shall tell Charlie right now!” He chortled as he pushed back his chair to rush off and tell his sister the good news, but remembering his manners, he paused in mid-flight. “That is, if I may be excused, sir.”

“Yes, go ahead, scamp. You are likely to burst if you don’t.” Even though he had become more accustomed to his wards’ presence, Max had still not grown accustomed to his own enjoyment of William’s transparent delight in such simple things as a curricle ride or his gratitude for every bit of interest that anyone showed in him.

The day was a fine one, with only the gentlest of breezes. The scent of roses was in the air and the sky was a brilliant blue, a perfect day for a drive. William climbed happily into the tiger’s seat as Max assisted Charlotte up onto the seat next to him. “Wait until you see how much you like it, Charlie. Maybe you can take the ribbons, but you have to be quite strong.”

“Of course she will take the ribbons, but we shall wait until we have reached a good stretch of road.” Max flicked his whip over the horses’ heads and they were off.

After they had been rolling smoothly along for some time, he turned to her. “Ready? I have gotten them started, now all you need to do is let me help you with the reins.”

Charlotte did have a moment of misgiving, for the grays did indeed look powerful, but since both her brother and the marquess appeared to have no doubt of her ability, she said nothing.

Max carefully lifted one hand over her head. “Now, place your
hands behind mine and take hold of the reins.” Barely loosening his grip he slid his hands back over hers, covering them with his own.

Charlotte did as directed, but in truth, her attention was more taken up with her guardian than with the team she was driving. She underwent the oddest sensation as he put his hands over hers. Their warmth, even through his gloves and hers, was comforting and there was the oddest fluttering in her stomach as she felt the strength of his arms pressing on either side of her waist. The hardness of his chest behind her shoulders was so solid and reassuring. Charlotte had never been so close, so intimate, with a man before, even her father, who had rarely seen her and never hugged her or held her close.

It was all she could do not to lean back and relax in his arms and revel in the sensation of being taken care of, enjoying the knowledge that for once there was someone else who was there for her, to hold her and protect her should anything happen. The tip of his chin just touched her bonnet. “Do you feel comfortable now?” His voice, so near to her ear, was warm and deep, like a caress, and she wanted to give herself up to the feeling of closeness and security, if only for the moment.

With an effort, Charlotte forced her thoughts back to the business at hand and gripped the reins, clenching her hands tightly until her fingers dug into her palms and fighting the languorous feeling that threatened to overwhelm her. She knew that in real life there was no such security, no guarantee that anyone would look after her. Her family, such as it was, never had looked after her, and if they had not, who else would? Charlotte knew that such safety and such belonging did not truly exist, but that did not keep her from wishing for it or for nearly succumbing to the illusion of it. She dug her fingers harder into her palms, so hard that her hands ached with the effort and the tension it created in her arms brought back her concentration.

“Relax, Charlotte, relax. You only need direct. The grays’ mouths are so sensitive that they will respond to your every thought. You only need to be ready to hold them should they become frightened. Relax.” The marquess’s hands, gentle but firm, rubbed some of the tension from hers. They moved up her wrists, soothing, caressing, massaging away the ache and spreading a tingle so delicious through her that she longed for him to continue on
up her arms to her shoulders and she was forced to bite her lip in order to keep her mind on the powerful horses she was holding.

At last Charlotte’s thoughts cleared, and with a deep sigh, she let herself feel the horses’ heads and mouths. That was better. She kept her eyes fixed on the pair’s ears, making herself read every little twitch and ignoring as best she could the disturbing awareness of the marquess’s body so close to hers.

“There; that is better. Give them their heads. It is not like you to be timid.” Max slowly drew his hands away.

“I know it is not, but we do not have such expensive cattle at Harcourt and I am unaccustomed to handling such ‘sweet goers’, as William would call them.” Charlotte laughed shakily. Good, let him think it was nerves that had overcome her instead of the foolishness that had truly afflicted her. She had herself reasonably well in hand now and was beginning to enjoy the sensation of guiding the powerful but sensitive animals and the smoothness of the ride as they glided past hedgerows bursting with green. Though she had no intention of springing someone else’s horses. Charlotte could feel the speed they were capable of and found just the thought of such speed exhilarating.

She drove for several miles in silence, her eyes riveted to the unfamiliar road and her arms sensitive to every motion of the horses, and soon—blessedly soon—she was able to forget everything in the rhythm of the horses’ hooves, the freshness of the sweet-scented air, the sun warm on her back, and give herself up to the pleasure of driving.

Charlotte was a natural horsewoman, the marquess reflected as he watched her ease into driving. After her initial and uncharacteristic nervousness, she had relaxed and become one with the team as he had known she would. There was an intuitive sensuality about her that, aside from her obvious intelligence, made her aware of things that most people never noticed. What other people had to learn, she seemed to sense instinctively, and in no time at all she had the team moving along as easily as if there had been no change in driver. He glanced at her as she sat there, her back straight, her arms at the precisely correct angle. She was a slender little thing, but there was a strength in her and a vitality that he had never felt before in a woman and he was drawn to it, almost mesmerized by it.

Strength was not a quality Max had ever looked for in a woman. He had always wanted them sophisticated, willing, voluptuous,
and blatantly sexual—until now, that was. There was something damnably attractive about a woman who held a powerful team so easily but whose slim form radiated an energy and a bond with the natural world that was completely sensual. Her arms formed a fluid connection through the reins with the horses and her entire being was devoted to sensing their every thought and movement, yet he could see her delicate nostrils flare as she took in the heady scent of the surrounding countryside and see the sweep of her thick, dark lashes against the smooth cheek as she glanced from the road ahead of her to the woods and fields on either side to the tips of the horses’ ears. He watched her bosom rise and fall under the white fichu of her severely tailored carriage dress as she savored the breaths of fresh air.

Observing her patent enjoyment of the out-of-doors, Max was again reminded of her bare feet dangling in the water and his own breathing became slightly irregular.

“How do you like it, Charlie? Aren’t they the most bang-up pair you have ever seen?”

Both Charlotte and the marquess were so immersed in their own thoughts that they had been forgetting William’s presence entirely. Charlotte glanced up rather guiltily at her guardian before replying. “That they are. I am so glad you had the notion of asking Lord Lydon if we could go for a drive.” She spoke in a normal enough tone, but a self-conscious blush stained her cheeks. It was not like her to ignore her brother so completely and the expression she had seen on the marquess’s face as she had looked up at him told her that he too had been lost in some sort of reverie. It had been rather unsettling to look up from the reins to find him regarding her strangely, almost as though he had never seen her before. The expression in his eyes was oddly intent, as though he were talking to her or at least reading her thoughts.

The recollection of some of those thoughts made her blush even more, bringing a glimmer of amusement to the marquess’s eyes. So she had been aware of his scrutiny, had she? Did she suspect the nature of his thoughts? Perhaps Charlotte was more of a woman than she liked to think. And just how aware of women and men and their relationships was she?

She had always spoken of marriage in such disparaging tones and had made it so abundantly clear that she had no very high regard for men—understandable in the light of the men who were her relatives—that Max had thought her completely ignorant of
such things. Now he wondered. A complete innocent would not have colored under his gaze the way she had.

One wheel of the curricle hit a largish stone, jarring Max out of this dangerous train of thought. What was he doing even entertaining such ideas? Charlotte Winterbourne was an inexperienced young girl, and his ward at that. Anxious to direct his thoughts somewhere else, Max turned to William. “If you would like to try your hand at it, we could stop at the next crossroads where there is a place wide enough to turn around and you may drive us home. Would you like that?”

“Would I? Oh yes, sir!”

“That is,” Max turned to Charlotte, “if you do not mind. I shall change places with William.”

“You be the tiger?” William’s astonishment was comical to behold.

“I expect Griggs would allow me to do so just this once. He is secure enough in his position not to feel threatened so long as I do not make a regular practice of it.”

“You’ll see, Charlie, how I can hold the horses just like Lord Lydon. He taught me just the way he taught you, by first putting his hands over mine on the reins and then letting go.”

Stealing a sidelong glance at his ward, Max surprised another conscious flush. Good. She had felt something as he had clasped those delicate hands in his and held his arms on either side of her. It had been disturbing enough as it was to find himself so very aware of her as a woman; it would have been more disturbing still if she had felt absolutely nothing in return.

They reached the crossroads. Max descended and took the horses’ heads as William climbed down. It was a relief to leave Charlotte’s side. The closeness of the shared seat had been altogether too distracting. But as he took his place in the tiger’s seat Max realized that this relief had been short-lived for now, though he could not see her face, he was offered an excellent view of the trim waist and slim hips, which proved to be equally as distracting as proximity had been.

With an effort he forced his mind back to the activity of the moment—driving the curricle and William’s ability to guide the team. It had been rather a rash decision on the marquess’s part to move back such a distance that he could not easily grab the reins should anything go wrong, but then, he had been rather desperate to divert
his thoughts from the woman next to him. Changing places, as drastic a measure as it was, had seemed to be the only solution.

Fully aware of the awesome trust his guardian had placed in him, William concentrated so hard on maintaining perfect control of the horses that sweat was trickling down his cheeks by the time they reached the gate to Lydon Court, but he managed it perfectly, coming to a smooth and easy stop on the gravel drive. He let out a sigh of relief. “I did it, and you were not even next to me, were you, my lord?” He exclaimed proudly as he handed the reins to Griggs and climbed down. “I drove us all the way back, Griggs, and Lord Lydon was not even next to me.”

“Very good, sir. I knew you could do it, sir.”

“We had ever so much fun. Charlie drove too. And you liked it, didn’t you, Charlie?”

“That I did.”

“Do you think we could have a curricle, Charlie?”

This was too big a decision, and Charlotte was not thinking as clearly as she would have liked, but she could not resist the eager expression in her brother’s eyes. “Let me think about it, dear. It is a rather big decision,” she temporized.

Any answer that was not an outright negative was enough to satisfy William, and he went off happily to the stables with Griggs and the horses.

“You are a very good sister.” The marquess gave Charlotte his arm as they made their way up the steps.