Never Courted, Suddenly Wed (Scandalous Seasons #2)(13)

Duke jumped up and proceeded to dance in circles about Sophie, clearly believing she and the earl played some kind of game.

Christopher spared him a single glance, then shifted the whole of his attention to Sophie. “Don’t be silly, Phi. Let me ascertain whether there is a break.”

She shook her head with such vigor that her already loose chignon tumbled free, and sent curls tumbling down her back. “There is no break, Christopher.”

He lowered his voice. “Really, Phi? You’d rather make your way through Hyde Park with a broken ankle than accept my help?”

“You mustn’t call me Phi.” She stole a sideways glance at the voracious spectators who’d converged upon them yet again. “You are creating a scene.”

Christopher arched a single brow. “I think you moved well beyond a scene when your holy terror of a dog went racing through the park and nearly unseated me from my horse.” Either her dog was a good deal less intelligent than she’d given him credit for or in desperate need of attention, for the faithless pup nuzzled his head against Christopher’s lower legs and gazed up at him with wide, adoring chocolate brown eyes.

So much for being a loyal pup.

She tried to look at Christopher objectively. Odd, she’d never noted how his lean, muscular frame towered over her by more than a foot. The tan hue to his skin indicated he was a man comfortable with the sun on his person. Goodness. A startled squeak escaped her. She fanned herself. Why, Christopher was…Christopher was…

“What is that look?”

Handsome!

“What is what look?” she asked, a touch too quickly. She probed her head with the tips of her fingers. Surely she’d hit her head in her fall. There was no other suitable explanation for her sudden awareness of Christopher as a far too handsome gentleman.

“You look like you swallowed a plate of rancid kippers.”

Sophie remembered herself and dropped her hands back to her sides. “Aren’t all kippers rancid?” she mumbled.

A bark of laughter slipped past perfectly sculpted lips, and seemed to startle him as much as it did Sophie.

Christopher swept her into her arms as though she weighed no more than one of the pups Duke had sired on the mangy dog who called the kitchens home. No minor feat considering Sophie’s plump form.

Sophie gave her head a clearing shake. She’d not been injured in her earlier fall but surely she was still foxed from the prior evening’s indulgences. There was no other explaining this odd breathlessness at Christopher’s strength. But, how had she failed to notice the specks of gold and green dancing in his hazel eyes until this moment? Or his lithe power and the olive coloring that bespoke his Roman roots? He possessed the thickest black hair and though unfashionably long, he pulled it back at the nape of his neck, putting Sophie in mind of a rogue pirate.

“Madness,” she muttered aloud.

“Phi? I say, are you all right?”

No. She rather believed she wasn’t. Not if she were studying Christopher with a woman’s eyes.

Desperate to place much needed distance between Christopher’s broad, muscular chest and her too-fast beating heart, Sophie gave him a discreet shove. “Put me down. Do you hear me?”

“Oh, I heard you, Phi. If you aren’t careful, all those watching will also hear. Furthermore, the last thing I need is for my father to discover I’d abandoned you to your own devices, even if it is entirely your fault that you’re in this condition. You’ll have to suffer through this humiliation.”

“Hmph.” Sophie settled against his chest. She directed her gaze to his crisp white linen shirt to keep from noticing the fascinated stares of the lords and ladies they passed.

Christopher stopped alongside his black mare that chomped away at a bush. He set Sophie down with the care he might have shown a priceless treasure, and mounted his horse. Then, leaning down, he scooped her up into the spot in front of him.

Her maid Lucy descended over the rise. She gasped and all but sprinted to Sophie’s side. “Miss Winters!”

Sophie nodded toward her pug who barked wildly at Christopher. “See to Duke.”

Lucy’s mouth fell agape when Christopher kicked the horse into motion and raced off.

“My maid…”

“I trust can find her own way home,” he whispered against her ear. His breath, a blend of coffee and citrus tickled her skin.

Sophie held her form erect. As Christopher’s enormous black beast carried her closer and closer toward home, her mind spun. She could only imagine what the scandal sheets would read. The Incorrigible Miss S.W. and her unruly dog nearly killed the ever-charming Earl of W.

She bit down hard on her lip. Oh, how she hated proving her brother and mother correct. They always expected Sophie to cause some scandal or another and here she’d gone and made quite the scene. No one would care that Duke’s leash had snapped. Nor about the geese on the lake that had spooked the skittish pug and sent him hurtling toward Christopher’s enormous black mare.

All anyone would see was that Sophie had once again fulfilled everyone’s very low expectations of her.

“Phi, you can rest against me.”

She hesitated a moment, and then relaxed, allowing him to support her. “Geoffrey is going to be livid.”

“I’d imagine that is an understatement,” he drawled.