Loving The Lost Duke (Dangerous Deceptions #1)(18)

‘Shall we see what they can do?’ Cal asked as they turned in through the Uxbridge Road gate. Almost on her nod the bays broke into a controlled canter. ‘All right? Hold on to my arm if we’re swaying too much for you.’

It was tempting and would probably be far more comfortable than clenching her fingers around the thin side rail, which is what she had been about to do. Sophie slid her fingers under Cal’s arm and curled them into the crook of his elbow. He was warm and solid and she could feel the movement of his muscles as he controlled the pair with small movements of his fingers.

‘They are behaving beautifully.’ And you drive like a dream. Which was very attractive, she acknowledged. A man performing something physical with skill was bound to be so. Her imagination slid treacherously towards what other physical skills he might have.

Stop it, she told herself. This outing was doing nothing for her acceptance that the Duke really could never be more than an acquaintance. You are not what he will be looking for. Dukes want pure, well-bred brides. With the emphasis on pure, which I am not. Which was ridiculous, but then Society and men made the rules, not the young women caught up in them.

‘Would you like to take them?’ Cal reined in the pair who dropped from their canter down to a walk and then to a halt.

‘Drive them? Me?’

‘You have got good hands,’ he said, as though she assumed he’d be nervous that she was cow-handed. It not did appear to have occurred to him that she might be terrified of driving this swaying, fragile vehicle and two unknown blood horses.

And that, of course, was an unspoken challenge that could not go unanswered. ‘If you are sure, then thank you, Cal, I would love to drive.’

She took the reins, letting the pair settle and get used to the pressure coming from a slightly different angle. Cal handed her the whip and she eased the reins, clicking her tongue in encouragement as they moved off. ‘It is easier to balance when I have the reins,’ she said, surprised.

‘You know what is happening, so your body is ready for the movement,’ he said, cheerfully ignoring the fact that he had just referred to a lady’s body. Mama would have kittens, Sophie found it refreshing. It was also rather… stimulating that he was thinking about it, even in the context of driving.

Her hands must have done something on that thought and the bays began to trot.

‘All right?’ Cal sounded perfectly unconcerned at the increased speed.

‘Wonderful!’ She would like to canter, but that would be foolish, this first time. She had just caught the thought, was telling herself firmly that there wouldn’t be a second time, when a rider on a chestnut gelding, who was crossing at right angles, reined in abruptly, then trotted down the track towards them until the gelding was almost nose to nose with Cal’s pair. Faced with the options of running him off the track or stopping, Sophie stopped, fuming.

Beside her Cal straightened in the seat. ‘Cousin. What in Hades do you think you are doing?’

‘What am I doing?’ It was Ralph Thorne, she realised. ‘What are you thinking of, giving the reins of that lethal equipage to Miss Wilmott? That is no vehicle for a lady – and a pair, for Heaven’s sake. I would never dream of handing the reins of my carriage to her.’

‘Then she probably finds driving with you a dead bore,’ Cal drawled. ‘Which is no doubt why she is driving with me and not you.’ The air was suddenly crackling with the unspoken threat of violence.

Sophie clenched her teeth on the questions she knew she must not ask. Had Cal known she regularly drove with Ralph and that was why he asked her? But why, unless he wanted to make his cousin jealous – and why would he want to do that? Men… she could knock both of their heads together just now.

‘I happen to be sitting right here and I am quite capable of answering for myself, thank you, gentlemen.’ They both looked at her as though she was a juicy bone they had begun to fight over and then, engrossed in their antipathy, had forgotten was actually there. Sophie stifled a mad urge to giggle. ‘If I had received your invitation first, Mr Thorne, I would have been delighted to accept it as I always find our drives together most entertaining.’ She resisted the temptation to jab Cal in the ribs with her elbow, just in case he hadn’t caught that. ‘As it was, the Duke asked me before I received your note and I am equally delighted to be driving with him and most flattered that he should allow me to take the reins of his very well-behaved pair.’



Cal bit the inside of his lower lip to stop the smile that would, doubtless, have Ralph off his horse and at his throat, thinking it was directed at him. Touché, Miss Wilmott. ‘Both a gracious lady and a diplomat,’ he observed.

Beside him there was a low growl. Well, yes, he was being patronising and he probably deserved that reaction, but it was Ralph he wanted to inflame, not her. At least, not in this way. The thought of Sophie inflamed with another kind of passion altogether had him hard with wanting in a flash of heat. Hell.

‘If you will excuse us, Mr Thorne, I really do not want to keep the horses standing,’ Sophie said crisply. At least she was annoyed with both of them.

Ralph touched his whip to the brim of his hat and turned the chestnut of the track, cantering away without a backwards glance.

Sophie let the pair walk on, a rather less tidy manoeuvre this time as her tension communicated itself to the horses. ‘Are you – ’