The Unexpected Duchess (Playful Brides #1)(63)

Lucy breathed heavily, laughing. The wind had pulled some of the pins from her hair, and the strands covered her eyes momentarily. She looked back to see Derek’s face and wiped at the strands of hair in her eyes.

“No!” she called as Derek’s larger, faster mount pulled astride and ahead of her just as they passed the barn.

“I win!” he shouted.

Lucy couldn’t stop her laughter. “You cheated!” she breathed, pressing her hand to her belly.

“I did not.”

“I know, but I am a very ungraceful loser, Your Grace.” She laughed and laughed. “I cannot believe you bested me.”

He was laughing, too. As he maneuvered the horse around to face her, their eyes met. They both were panting and laughing and Lucy self-consciously put her hand to her hair to push the unruly strands back under her bonnet.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had such a close call,” he admitted. “Thank you for a most enjoyable ride.”

Lucy finished tucking her hair behind her ears and into her hat. She nodded. “Don’t worry, Delilah,” she whispered to the horse, patting her neck. “I’ll get you a bucket of apples yet.”

They both walked their horses to a stop and dismounted. When the grooms caught up, Derek motioned for them to take the mounts. The servants grabbed the reins to continue to walk the horses after their hard ride. They trailed off in the opposite direction.

“Would you care to go for a walk?” Derek asked Lucy.

Her stomach did a little somersault. She nodded. “I’d like that.”

Derek removed his hat, and they took off down a trail through the meadow past the barn. The wind still whipped through Lucy’s hair. She had to hold her bonnet to the top of her head with one gloved hand.

“You’re quite an accomplished horsewoman, my lady.”

She laughed. “Would you please tell that to my father if ever you should meet? He refuses to believe it still. He won’t let me ride astride and refuses to allow me to go on the steeplechases outside the village.”

“You cannot go?”

“Oh, I go, all right. Father just doesn’t know about it. I’d rather do it with his blessing, of course.” She grinned unrepentantly.

Derek grinned back at her. “Why does it not surprise me that you defy your father?”

“It shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows me at all,” she replied. “Least of all Father, yet he continues to be baffled by my behavior.”

“I’ll tell him how accomplished you are,” Derek said.

Lucy nearly stopped short. What was he implying? That he did intend to meet her father one day? The thought made her a little giddy.

Derek led the way over a fallen log. He helped Lucy over it by taking her hand. “Does your father get along with your cousin?”

“Garrett? Oh, they tolerate each other, and Father’s resigned to the fact that Garrett will inherit the estate and the title one day, but I wouldn’t say they ‘get along.’”

Derek nodded. “Yet you’re close with your cousin?”

“Garrett loves to tease me and say I’ll be an old maid living under his roof forever. And I tease him back and say he’ll need me to be his maiden cousin to run his household because he’ll never find a lady willing to put up with him.”

Derek’s face went sober for a moment. “You don’t think you’ll marry?”

Lucy swallowed. How had the conversation turned to her marriage all of a sudden? She shook her head. “Oh, Cass says she’ll help me find a husband. We have an agreement of sorts.” She looked away self-consciously. “But truthfully, no. I doubt I’ll marry. I’ve yet to find a man who isn’t”—she cleared her throat—“intimidated by me.” She needed to change the conversation and change it immediately. It had all become much too serious and much too about her.

“What about Berkeley?” Derek asked, his voice low.

And there was the question Lucy had been dreading. “What about him?”

They walked beneath a willow tree and Lucy pushed her slippered foot against the trunk, hoping against hope that Derek would drop the subject. No such luck.

“I thought you two were—”

“Enough about me,” she said, shaking her head. “Tell me, how did you become a lieutenant general? Especially at such a young age?”

He smiled at that. “Am I so young? Sometimes I feel as if I’m one hundred years old.”

“You certainly don’t look one hundred.” Now, why had she gone and said that? She blushed and looked away. Oh perfect. Now she was a blusher. He’d turned her into a blusher.

He grinned at that. “Why, thank you, Miss Upton.”

She brushed at his sleeve in a playful manner before gulping and snatching her hand away. His arm was solidly muscled. A vision of the muscled abdomen she’d seen the night he climbed up to her window flashed before her eyes. She shook her head. “I’m serious. How did you go about becoming a lieutenant general?”

He scrubbed a hand across his face and looked off into the meadow as if contemplating the matter for a moment. “I was raised in a military family.”

She picked her way along the base of the tree, holding up her pale yellow skirts. “You were?”