Besides, the child might not be a boy. Daisy tried to think of the advantages she could offer a girl. Lots when she thought about it. There would be her allowance for a start. It would be far more than most had to live off. And she had some personal jewellery that she could sell. Who needed diamond necklaces or pearls hanging from their ears? And the emerald ring Robert had given as a gift. What good was it to be decorated in such finery if one needed to eat? The ring would fetch a princely sum. She might have enough to make some investments. They certainly wouldn’t be destitute. All she needed was food, her horse, and a roof over her head.
Feeling the best she had done for weeks and thinking about the future in a positive frame of mind she quickly saddled her mare, but still jumped guiltily as she heard a heavy footstep.
“Morning. I thought I heard someone down here.”
She smiled up at Alfred, her mother in law’s driver.
“Just taking Bernadette out for a run. She has been cooped up for far too long.” She prayed that he wouldn’t try to stop her.
Alfred glanced out of the stable door.
“Storm’s a brewing. Are you sure you don’t mind getting wet?”
The man obviously hadn’t heard of the Dowager’s directive banning Daisy from riding. Or if he had, he didn’t care. Daisy hid her relieved grin and checked the girth on her mount.
“It will only be a shower and I am sure that I won’t shrink. I’ll take Bernadette for a gallop across the fields and if it rains we’ll head to the cottage in the woods.”
Looking doubtful, Alfred glanced outside once again.
“Well, on your head be it if the Duchess throws a fit when you come in looking as though you have been for a swim in the lake, not a ride around it.”
Perhaps he had heard about the veto after all but chose to ignore it.
“No one is up yet. I’ll be back, bathed, changed, and coiffed before she even knows I am gone.” She began walking Bernadette towards the mounting block.
“Go on my beauty! Stretch out your legs!” A gust of wind snatched Daisy’s gleeful shout into the air.
But the huge horse heard, took her mistress at her word, and increased her pace as the first heavy splash of rain fell from the sky. Daisy glanced up and tightened her grip on the reins. The clouds had turned a thunderous dark grey, rolling and tumbling as the wind pushed them over the horizon. She directed her horse towards the tree line. No sense in getting drenched if they didn’t have to. The forest would offer some shelter, and if the storm lasted long they could make for the old woodsman’s cottage.
But even Bernadette couldn’t outrun the howling tempest that suddenly raced across the fields and nipped at the horse’s fetlocks. The clouds opened while they were still a goodly distance from the trees. They were soaked to the bone within moments and the ground turned to a sea of mud. Seconds later, a bolt of lightning streaked from the sky, hitting the ground only a few yards distant. Daisy let out a shout of fright as the air crackled and hissed around them. Bernadette screamed, tossed her head, and reared back as she slid to a stop before the steaming ground.
Clinging onto the panicked animal’s back, the muscles in her thighs screaming as she held on, Daisy knew that they had to find shelter fast. Bernadette came back down to the ground and pranced to one side, snorting and pulling on the bit. More than a little relieved to still be on the horse’s back, Daisy dashed the rain from her eyes and leaned over her mare, running a calming hand down the frightened animal’s neck. Banishing her own fears, Daisy spoke gently to her mount.
“Enough is enough my courageous one. Let’s go to the woodsman’s cottage and wait out this storm.” She put her heels to the animal’s sides. Bernadette whinnied, nodded her head as if agreeing with her mistress, and they quickly set off.
Pierce cuffed his forearm across his face, but it was a waste of effort. The Duke’s surefooted mount had run for what felt like miles but as the rain increased Pierce could now see only a few yards ahead. He brought the obedient horse to a walk. They were wet through anyway and there was no point in risking injuring the animal by sliding in the thickening mud. They plodded on for several minutes, the lashing rain almost blinding him, but the sky rumbled and the hair on his neck began to rise. He could tell that there was little time to delay before the full force of the storm unleashed itself upon them. Damn it! Where was she?
He dug his heels in his mount’s sides. He didn’t want to be out in the open when any lightning struck. Praying that she had already found shelter they picked up the pace, but he was already too late. The sky suddenly split in the distance. A bolt of lightning ripped the air in two. A crack of thunder hit at the same time, and for a second his ears rang with the sound, but there was another noise in the background that had his heart rising into his mouth. Was that a scream?
“DAISY!” He yelled as loudly as he could, but the wind whipped his shout away. No one answered him. Perhaps he had simply imagined the cry of fright, but then his stomach flip flopped and a strange shiver ran up his spine. The sort of sensation that had always happened to him when Daisy was in trouble, even as a child.
Biting back the panic that began to rise, he encouraged his horse onwards. Unlike Bernadette who fought every instruction, the animal beneath him instantly obeyed his command. A well trained beast, no doubt about that, but the stallion lacked personality. Not that the horse’s personality mattered. In fact, he far preferred the dependable stallion right at that moment in time. Now all he needed was to find Daisy and his world would be right again.
Another bolt of lightning fizzed through the air. Closer this time, with the thunder almost deafening right behind, but Pierce could see the forest at last. The risk of being fried outweighed any possible injury to the horse and he leaned forwards, encouraging the animal into a run.
“Come on, my steady one. Now is the time to discover how sure footed you can be. Let’s find some shelter and hope Daisy and Bernadette have had the good sense to do the same.”
Chapter Eleven
The Demon Drink
Daisy shivered almost uncontrollably. The cottage might be dry inside, but her hair hung dripping down her back and her clinging, soaking clothes had become more than a little cold. She tugged on the cuffs of her jacket but it became stuck halfway down her arms.
She shrugged her shoulders to no avail. She turned her body and tried pulling out one arm. The material clung tenaciously to her shirt as she strode about with her arms flapping at her sides, reminding her of one ridiculous night when Robert had given her a re-enactment of how a penguin walked on land. But this time she didn’t laugh.
“Stupid, idiotic, blasted ridiculous, lousy, bloody whore of a coat! Grrr!” She finished as she pulled and twisted her body violently, shrugging her shoulders again and feeling tears of frustration fill her eyes as the garment refused to shift.
“Let me help.”
She screamed in surprise and spun around, her arms still flapping uselessly at her sides. With wet hair plastered to his forehead, and dripping puddles as he moved, Pierce strode towards her.
“What are you doing here?” Jacket forgotten, she stared up at him.
Pierce walked around her and took hold of her riding coat. He tugged it down, freeing her arms at last.
“Were you trying to imitate a penguin?” He came back around her as he spoke, but his words didn’t match the look on his face, and he didn’t wait for any answer. “Better?” His attitude remained calm, his voice low, gravelly, almost dark as she released the tension in her shoulders.
Daisy remained silent. Thoughtful. She knew that tone. It was one she had heard several times in her youth. Usually in the immediate aftermath of him saving her life. Which had happened on more than one occasion. If you counted her near drowning after falling from the rowing boat, racing headlong for the open quarry, and dangling precariously twenty feet above ground in an ancient oak tree. Pierce was annoyed. More than annoyed. He was furious. Worried perhaps? The corner of her mouth twitched u
pwards. A lightness filled her heart, but she shrugged nonchalantly. So perhaps she shouldn’t have ridden out when any fool could see that a storm was brewing, but she hadn’t left the house in weeks. She wasn’t about to let him lecture her on what she could or couldn’t do.
“Better for being out of that coat? Yes, much. Thank you.” Arms crossed over her chest, she rubbed her hands up and down her sopping shirt sleeves trying to raise some warmth.
Fighting an almost overwhelming desire to take her in his arms and shake her for her stupidity, but hug her in relief at that same time, Pierce backed away from her and turned to look around the cottage.
He wasn’t sure he would have ever found the place on his own, but on entering the forest, his mount had suddenly shown the spirit he had previously lacked, and taken charge as they made their way along a narrow trail. Ten minutes later the grey stone cottage came into sight amongst all the greenery.
Bernadette stood tethered beneath the empty wood shelter at the side. She had snorted as Pierce rode up and slid from the saddle. His own mount tossed his head and nudged the grey as if to ask her to move over, which she obligingly did.
He hadn’t bothered to knock on the cottage door. He knew Daisy would be inside, but the sight of her jumping about and muttering, arms trapped inside her still dripping jacket, had him biting back the smile that curled the corner of his mouth. Drat the woman! He had been worried out of his mind and here she was dancing a jig while cursing fit to make a sailor blush.
But now she was out of the coat and the Lady of the manor once again. He saw her shiver and surveyed the cottage again. A single room with a small table and two stools at one end, and a surprisingly wide, blanket covered bed at the other. Simply furnished, but dry. With some kindling set in the fireplace and logs at the side. Daisy’s teeth began to chatter at the same time as he felt a shiver of his own. Unsurprising given they were both dripping water on the floor. He lifted a tinder box from the mantelpiece and soon had flames flickering in the grate.
Crouching to add a log or two he swivelled to Daisy, about to tell her to come closer, but his breath left his body as he looked up. She stood not a yard away from him, her hands outstretched and already appreciating the heat. But it wasn’t her hands that caught his attention. Nor her curling tendrils of wet still hair. It wasn’t her sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks or even her trembling bottom lip.
It was her shirt that arrested his gaze. Or rather the flesh he could see beneath it. His eyes widened at the sight and his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. Clearly wearing no chemise, did she even know that her dripping, and now completely transparent white shirt, clung to her body like a second skin? Her full breasts strained against the translucent fabric and his dry mouth suddenly watered. Did she have any idea that the chill had tightened her rosy nipples into lusciously beaded, beyond tempting peaks?
Clearly not, for as evident as they were, she made no attempt to cover herself. Pierce shifted and stood up straight, quickly turning to face the fire as every drop of his blood raced to his groin and his breeches became uncomfortably tight. He gripped the mantelpiece, his knuckles turning white. Dear Lord! Her look of innocent temptation had nearly unmanned him. He had always known that she was beautiful, but beautiful hardly described what he had just seen. The woman was a goddess!
Daisy moved closer to the fire. She might be rid of the dripping jacket, but that hadn’t helped warm her skin. Now she stood shivering as Pierce lit the fire. It seemed an age before the swirl of smoke became a flame, and even longer before Pierce added any substantial amount of wood. She breathed a sigh of relief, as the flames grew a little higher and the air a little warmer.
“What are y, you doing h, here?” Her teeth chattered as she spoke.
Good God! Was she completely oblivious to his concerns for her health and well being? Did she really think that he wouldn’t come after her as soon as he discovered her foolhardy plan? Pierce counted to ten and took a deep, calming breath. If this was how she wanted to play it, he would join in her game. He couldn’t tell his true reasons for following her for fear of unleashing her ire. And it wasn’t as if Daisy was a bad horsewoman. On the contrary. She was the best he had ever seen. Instead of shaking her silly and confessing his undying love, he poked the fire again and shrugged.
“Much the same as you, I would imagine. Just giving the Duke’s horse some exercise. Poor beast has been cooped up long enough. Didn’t think the storm would break so fast.” He glanced out of the window. Rain dripped steadily through the canopy of trees and the thunder still rumbled overhead.
Daisy nodded and sucked in her trembling bottom lip. For a mere second she thought she had seen worry written upon his brow. Had desperately hoped that he might have come to rescue her from the foul weather. But he hadn’t. He was merely doing his job in the stables and exercising the horses.
Disappointment stabbed her, though why, she had no idea. Pierce was a friend, that was all. And he was only her friend because of his association with her brother. But whatever she knew, however much she told herself that it was best to have him in her life as a friend than not at all, the realization that he hadn’t come to rescue her, ripped her heart in two.
Praying that he hadn’t recognized her moment of weakness, she lifted her chin stubbornly.
“Neither did I. A bolt of lightning hit the ground only a few yards in front of us. I swear I could feel the tingling on my skin. Bernadette reared up in fright. Almost had me off her back, but I managed to regain control.”
If Pierce hadn’t been holding onto the mantle he thought his knees might give out. The thought of finding her broken on the rain drenched ground, fired fury through his heart. She had no right to do this to him, had no right to make him sick with worry. She didn’t want him. Didn’t need him. She had wanted Robert. And though the man might be dead, she had him still. He chanced a glance over his shoulder. He had thought it the day before, but standing in her transparent shirt and snugly fitting breeches confirmed that nothing of the baby yet showed. A baby that she should want to love and protect, not endanger its life when she was being reckless with her own.
Anger coursed through him. The hand not hanging onto the mantelpiece fisted at his side.
“God damn it, Daisy! You could have broken your neck.” He couldn’t hold his fury back.
She let out a harsh laugh.
“With all that mud? No, the only thing I might have br, br, broken was my pride.” Her teeth chattered together as she shivered again.
Pierce spun away from the fire, too furious and concerned to laugh with her.
“Is there anything to drink in this place? Anything to warm you.” He glanced around the room.
Daisy almost cried out, ‘you!’ Instead she simply nodded towards a small wooden cupboard that sat beside the bed.
“Robert used to keep a bottle of brandy in there, just in case he was ever caught in rough weather.”
Pierce strode to it and peered inside.
“Looks as though he was intending to spend some time here. There are two bottles.” He lost no time in taking out the nearest and two glasses.
Daisy glanced at the second unopened bottle that remained in the cupboard. The missing bottle from the household accounts? She scolded herself for believing Musgrave’s words about the housekeeper. The man was clearly stirring up trouble before he left. She looked back at Pierce pouring generous measures, and shook her head.
“I d, d, don’t think that’s a g, g, good idea.”
Pierce shoved the glass into her hand.
“Stop arguing and get it inside you. If a bolt of lightning didn’t kill you, I am sure a small glass of brandy won’t.” He threw his drink down his throat.
Daisy huffed a laugh.
“I su, su, suppose not.” She threw her drink back too. And promptly gasped for air as she gulped like a fish. “It is m, mmm, most warming,” she managed to splutter out after taking a few deep breaths.
Pierce shook his head and grinned a
t her antics as he took her glass and poured them both another.
“One more, though maybe more slowly if you are unused to it.” He tossed back another. His nerves and his temper had been severely tested.
Daisy nodded and sipped at the fiery liquid. Warmth spread through her with every swallow, its effects so different from the champagne she had once tried.
She only recalled a few of the events leading up to that embarrassing experience. Just two glasses at her coming out ball and everything had begun to swirl, and not only upon the dance floor. A laughing Lucas had ended up carrying her to her room before the evening was half over, and she had spent the next two days in bed unable to lift her head from the pillow. She had vowed never to touch a drop of the evil brew again.
But this was brandy. Not that she had ever tested the truth of his words, but Lucas always swore by its medicinal effects. Robert too. It apparently calmed ones nerves, warmed you if chilled, and settled your stomach after a heavy meal. And with the way it was making her feel right now, she was quite prepared to believe everything she had ever heard.
“Better?” Pierce stood beside her.
Her tongue felt odd in her mouth. It twisted strangely as she tried to say her words.
“A liggle.” She blinked rapidly and shook her shoulders. “I mean a little. The sclavour is most soothing after the in, initial shlock.” She giggled.
Pierce put his glass down and stared at her.
“Are you all right?”
She gave herself another shake and concentrated hard on her words.
“Just the chill getting to me. Can’t seem to st, stop my teeth chat...tering.” She finished the brandy and held her glass out for another. “Perhaps one more and I shall feel completely b, better.” At least she now had control over her tongue.
“Maybe you shouldn’t. You have to think of...” Pierce stopped as her expression became furious.
“For goodness sake. I am not a child. I am sick to death of everyone telling me what or what not to do. You men drink bottles of it at a time. I cannot believe one more glass of brandy is going to hurt me any more than the first two.” She waved the glass about in front of him.
A Fragile Chain of Daisies: Flowers of the Aristocracy (Untamed Regency Book 4) Page 14