The Diabolical Baron (27 page)

Eyes shining, Jessica nodded enthusiastically. “Yes,
please!”

As they cantered across a meadow several minutes
later, Jessica threw back her head and laughed in sheer exhilaration. She knew how unwise it was to savor the
company of the man by her side, but in affairs of the
heart she had never been wise in her life. If she chose
to enjoy now and suffer later, it was no one else’s con
cern. She put Calpurnia through her paces, delighted
by the mare’s smooth gaits and powerful response.
“Shall I put her at a few fences, my lord? I want to see if she can jump as well as she rides.”

Without waiting for an answer, she turned her
mount and headed for the nearest hedge, bounding
over it with two feet to spare. Jason followed, thinking
that few sights could improve on watching a beautiful
woman on a beautiful horse. It occurred to him that al
most the whole of his relationship with Jessica had
been conducted on horseback.

She had pulled up on the other side of the hedge,
beaming happily. “I swear this little beauty could out
run and outjump that big heavy brute you’re on. Not
that Caesar isn’t a good fellow in his way,” she added
soothingly.

“That’s coming it a bit strong,” he snorted. “There isn’t a mare born who could outrun this stallion.”

Jessica looked disdainful as she effortlessly con
trolled Calpurnia’s curvetting. “Possibly Caesar could
make a creditable showing if he wasn’t carrying so
much weight. But since he is, I’ll stand by my state
ment,”

Provoked by the slur on his favorite, Jason answered
with a dangerous glint in his eyes, “Would you care to
put that to a test?”

“Certainly. Pick your time and your course.”

“I choose right now. As for the course ... are you familiar with the giant oak in the western sheep pasture?
It’s about two miles from here over mixed country.” Jason considered adding a wager to the race but de
cided against it. He still hadn’t recovered from his last
foolish bet. He added, “Any route will do as long as no
crops are damaged.”

“Done!” With a last flashing smile, Jessica whirled
her horse around and was gone over the next hedge
before Jason had Caesar properly in hand. He cursed admiringly as he put the stallion at the hedge she had just jumped. The wench certainly didn’t let any grass
grow under her feet! He knew he had an unfair advantage; she couldn’t possibly know his land as well as he
did. There were three potential routes but the flattest
was blocked by a thick tangle of woods and the short
est was split by a narrow but very deep ravine.

Jessica was already out of sight as he topped the first hill, so he urged Caesar into a full gallop. Delighted by
the order, the giant black horse flew over the countryside.

Two-thirds of the way to his goal, Jason still hadn’t
seen a sign of his opponent. She couldn’t have had that
much of a lead; was she on a different path? She must
know enough to avoid the woods; they had skirted
that area the morning before.

An icy finger touched the back of his neck and sent a
chill down his spine; did she know about the ravine? Coming from this side, a stone wall had been built
along the edge to keep livestock from falling. It would
appear a simple jump to a rider coming on it unaware.
Though an expert horse and rider could cross it, it
would be sudden death to anyone unprepared. In
Jason’s lifetime, two hunters had died there; new riders were always warned and watched when they first hunted the area.

Abandoning the race, he cut Caesar right over a hill
that would give him a clear view of the route that ran
to the ravine. His heart froze when he saw the rider
flying toward the deceptive stone fence, her small figure nearly flat along the mare’s gray neck, her flaming
red hair the only bright note in the scene.

“
Jessica!
” He shouted at the top of his lungs as he set
Caesar down the dangerous hillside, willing her to hear him and pull up. Uttering a quick prayer that
Caesar wouldn’t put a foot in a badger hole, he con
centrated on avoiding visible obstacles as he crashed
down the hill at a suicidal pace, barely aware of stinging branches from the scrubby trees.

He was less than a hundred feet behind her when he
burst onto the path, but she was only yards from the
stone fence. He called out again and saw her glance
back briefly before she launched Calpurnia upward
over the barrier. Time slowed almost to stopping as
they floated . .. over . .. hanging above the impossible
ravine for a frozen eternity, then landing safely on the other side.

Jason’s panic barely registered relief before being
washed away in a flood of fury. Beyond reason, he set
the tiring Caesar at the fence, lifting them over the
ravine by sheer force of will. Jessica had pulled up the
mare and was waiting with a puzzled look on her face
as he thundered up to her, drawing the stallion up at the last possible moment, then reaching out to grab
Calpurnia’s bridle.

“Are you insane?” he raged. “That is the most dan
gerous spot on the estate. Two men have died there!
Have you no sense at all?”

Surprised, Jessica gave him a hard stare from her
suddenly cool green eyes. “But you see, we made the
jump quite handily. Do you think I would risk your
horse’s life?”

“I’m not worried about the damned horse! You
haven’t been here long enough to know your way
around. You could have been killed!”

Barely holding on to her own temper, she said
through clenched teeth, “You forget, Lord Radford, I
had nothing to do for the last fortnight but explore
your land. I know perfectly what this ground is like.
Was the great sportsman hoping for my ignorance to
improve his chances of winning?”

“I don’t worry about being defeated by paper-
skulled females! But I am your host, so if you are going
to kill yourself through your own stupidity, don’t do it
on my land!”

Bidding good-bye to the last shreds of self-control, Jessica exploded with all the frustration that had been building in her for the last two weeks.

“My safety is none of your concern! I knew exactly
what I was doing. Neither the horse nor I was in any danger. What right have you to rail at me like a fish
wife?”

Goaded beyond sense and discretion, Jason let go of
her bridle and wrapped one arm around Jessica, half-
pulling her across his saddle. “This right!” he said grat
ingly, before crushing his lips down on hers. His anger
disappeared as rapidly as it had come and he released
his own reins, wrapping both arms around her and burying one hand in her tangled auburn hair. She had
jerked violently at his first touch, but now she clung to
him, her warm mouth as urgent and demanding as
his.

“Oh, Jessie, Jessie,” he breathed into her ear. “I
thought you were going to die right in front of my eyes
and I couldn’t bear it. I’ve been fourteen years in hell,
and with you gone I would have spent the rest of my
life there. Better to have thrown myself into the ravine
after you.”

Caesar shifted uneasily, nearly unbalancing them
both. It occurred to Jason that his sporting acquain
tance would never believe that he, the great horseman,
was foolish enough to make love to a woman when
they were both astride spirited horses.

He shifted Jessica’s weight upright, then dis
mounted, securing the reins of both mounts to a convenient branch. As she slid wordlessly into his arms, he saw that his peerless, indomitable Jessica was crying. He studied the drowning emerald eyes, open and
vulnerable as when she was seventeen, and began
kissing each crystal tear. Her body shuddered against
his as he ran his hand down her long back. She started
to break away, so he forbade his hands to wander and
held her against his chest until her movement stilled
and she rested her head against his shoulder.

“Why did you leave me, love?” he said softly.
“There wasn’t a day in the five years after that I didn’t ask myself what I had done wrong.”

She raised her head to look at him, her control still fragile. “It was because of my own youthful foolish
ness, Jason.” She drew a breath shakily. “I have often
thought that youth is greatly overrated. The pain that is given and received without intending, the lack of
understanding, the unintentional crimes against the
heart
...
A thousand times I wished I could go back,
but it was beyond mending.”

Her breath caught as she looked back over the years;
then she continued, “At least I am being given the
chance to answer for my wretched behavior.”

She pulled away from his embrace and sat with her
back against a nearby log, patting the place beside her.
Jason lowered himself where she indicated, taking the
opportunity to put his arm around her. As she leaned
her head back against him, he prompted, “What do
you mean about your foolishness? All I could imagine
at the time was that you were set on a title or a fortune,
but when you married neither, I had to accept that I
never had really known what you wanted.”

She smiled ruefully at him. “I wanted what every ro
mantic young girl wanted.” She paused to organize
her thoughts, then said, “You knew my father, didn’t
you?” He nodded and she asked, “What manner of
man was he?”

Jason cast his memory back, then answered, “A
charming wastrel. Delightful company, held his liquor well and his cards badly, completely selfish.”

Jessica looked pleased at his perception. “Exactly so!
You obviously took his measure. He could be quite af
fectionate with his daughters when he remembered
our existence, and he would indulge us when it cost
him nothing, but he looked on us primarily as a source
of revenue. He had inherited an easy competence from
his father, Lord Westerly, but he had gambled it away
by the time I was five. My mother died soon after,
worn out by the effort of keeping the household going.
My older sister, Emily, was left to raise me and juggle
the accounts. My father would be off with his grand
friends. Now and again he would send some money
when his luck was in. We managed.”

She drew in a deep breath and continued, her eyes
fixed on the grazing horses. “Emily was a lovely girl;
Caroline much resembles her. She caught Sir Alfred Hanscombe’s eye and he offered Papa a large settle
ment in return for his consent to a marriage. Emily loathed him and begged Papa to refuse, but he just
laughed and said every girl needed a husband and Al
fred was as good as any.

“I lived with them after the marriage—there was no
place else for me. Sir Alfred’s infatuation didn’t last
long, so I watched my sister dying before my eyes—
withering away from neglect, casual cruelty, and
beastly selfishness. After Caro was born, she just gave
up. It wasn’t the birth that killed her—it was the lack of love.” There was a hard edge in her voice as her
story went on.

“Caroline and I lived with one of my father’s sisters until Sir Alfred married Louisa a year later. Louisa is
not a very warm woman but she believes in her duty
and she brought Caro back to her father’s home. I
would have kept her if I could, but I was only a child myself. For the next few years I was shuffled around
among various relatives. Lady Hanscombe would
have me sometimes—she considered it only fair that Caroline should know her aunt. Every year or so my
father would pop in for a visit wherever I was stay
ing.” She laughed bitterly.

“He was quite pleased at my progress. He said I was
turning into a rare beauty and would fetch a fine price
in the Marriage Mart—that he wouldn’t settle for less
than an earl, and he’d not be surprised if I ended up a
duchess. He said any man would be ‘proud to possess me.’ That I would be an ornament to any position.”

Jason drew his breath in sharply as he began to un
derstand where her story was leading. She turned to
look at him now, her lovely face intense with memory.
“I swore I would never follow the path he was choos
ing for me. That I would marry only for love, and I
didn’t give a tinker’s dam for wealth or position.”