Victor was quite sure they had an audience, and no doubt Hudson and the other men had a good view through the trees. But Victor didn't mind in the least. Juliet was finally his.
And she'd been absolutely right that first night they'd met. Whatever challenges they would face in life as a married couple, if she was his wife, they would find joy.
He would bet on it.
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Heather B. Moore is a USA Today bestselling author. She writes historical thrillers under the pen name H.B. Moore; her latest are The Killing Curse and Breaking Jess. Under the name Heather B. Moore, she writes romance and women's fiction; her latest include the Pine Valley Novels. Under pen name Jane Redd, she writes the young adult speculative Solstice series, including her latest release Mistress Grim. Heather is represented by Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
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Shropshire, England
June 1805
"You're still here?" Sherborne Alexander Rowley III swung a leg over his horse and jumped off, landing crouched in the mud before the animal had come to a full stop.
Young Eli Linfield glanced over his shoulder then resumed his work, knee deep in a posthole. "I am. Though you won't make it to your eleventh birthday, if you keep up stunts like that."
Sherborne grasped the reins and led his horse through the large puddle to the other side. "That was nothing. Last month I jumped from the school roof."
"Mmm," Eli mumbled, both skeptical of Sherborne's bragging and jealous as well. He didn't have a particular desire to jump from a roof, but he thought boarding school sounded exciting-a lot more exciting than preparing posts for a gate in the south pasture. "I wasn't talking about you breaking a leg. It's your boots and breeches that'll be the end of you. Your mum's going to see you thrashed sound for ruining them." Eli knew from sorry experience how averse Sherborne's mother was to any sort of messes or untidiness.
Sherborne shrugged. "I'll just say old Pegasus threw me."
"No, you won't." Eli got a leg up and hoisted himself out of the hole. "Pegasus is old, and you say something like that, they'll get rid of him for sure."
"Then maybe I'd get a better horse to ride." A grin formed across Sherborne's freckled face. "I should definitely say that."
"I'll tell your father you're lying."
"Why should he believe a common farm boy over his son? Why are you still here, anyway? You're not sick anymore."
"Maybe I like it here." Eli looked away, uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation and ruing the day, several months past, when he'd mentioned his private quest to Sherborne. He might have found the answers he'd been searching for since then, as well as a comfortable enough situation, but that didn't mean it couldn't be snatched from him if he didn't keep his part of the bargain.
"You like digging fence holes?" Sherborne laughed out loud as he watched Eli struggle to lift the heavy post into the hole.
"Nothing wrong-with hard work," Eli panted between breaths. Never be ashamed of who you are. Times like this it became hard to remember that and to keep the promise he'd made to his mother, that he wouldn't be ashamed. Ever. "Bet you can't lift one of these yourself," he said.
"Course I can." Sherborne took the bait easily, sticking out his chest, blond head held high as he strode toward a second post that lay on the ground.
Eli watched him struggle to right it for at least a full minute or two before walking over to help. "When you're eleven you'll be able to get it by yourself."
"Right." Sherborne nodded. "You're older. That's why you can lift these."
Rather than picking up the post where it was, Eli rolled it closer to the hole, then lifted the far end, using leverage to tip it in. From there it was almost easy to push it upright. "Older and wiser." He dusted his hands on the front of his trousers.
"Not that much older," Sherborne grumbled. "You're not thirteen yet."
"Next month I am." Eli picked up the spade and began shoveling dirt into the hole around the post. "But you're not eleven until the fall."
Sherborne shrugged. "So? The oldest doesn't win anything."
Not this time. "You're right." Eli forced a smile. He wasn't going to allow this encounter-or any other-to upset him. Sherborne didn't deserve that kind of power. "You'll never be older." I'll never have a father the way you do. "But you might be stronger someday. If you want a chance at that, you ought to try working once in a while." He pushed the handle of the spade toward Sherborne.
Sherborne caught it easily and began shoveling dirt into the posthole that would brace the new gate. "When I left for school after the holiday, I didn't think I'd see you again. You seemed well."
"I was." Eli wondered uneasily if Sherborne would complain to his father about him. They'd gotten on well enough over the winter holiday, when the weather had been too wet for Sher to go outside much. He'd seemed to enjoy Eli's company then, grateful for someone to play chess or read with to pass time on the long, dreary days.
"Your father allowed me to stay here."
Sherborne frowned. "But weren't you going to find your father? So you wouldn't have to work anymore?"
Eli stooped to pack the dirt tight around the post. "That was foolish. My mum was right. Better to let well enough be."
"I'm sorry," Sherborne said, sounding like he meant it and perhaps even regretting his earlier taunts. "I would've liked to have you at school. We had a jolly time together over the holidays."
"We did." Eli's mouth lifted in a smile once more. "We can enjoy your summer holiday as well. Once I'm done with my tasks for the day, I'm free to do as I please."
"What pleases you? What do you do around here?" Sherborne had stopped working after only a few shovelfuls of dirt.
Eli moved to his hole and took over the task that was apparently below the Earl of Shrewbury's heir. "I go swimming." He turned toward the small pile of dirt as a distant flash of color caught his eye. Mid-scoop he stopped and looked up, following the bob of pale blue as it crossed the green meadow. "That pleases me."
"Where do you go?" Sherborne asked.
"Same place nearly every day." Eli continued following the blue rider, noting, as she grew closer, that today her rich brown hair-not dissimilar to the chestnuts he loved to collect and roast each fall-was unbound and bounced along with her, shimmering and pretty down her back and around her face. "She never rides on Sunday, of course. And not when her family is away. But the past month I've seen her almost every day, riding the same path around their property."
"What?" Sherborne sounded perplexed. "What are you talking about?" He walked over to Eli and passed a hand in front of his face. "I was talking about swimming, but you're talking about and looking at-a girl?"
"Not just any girl," Eli said. "That's Baron Montgomery's youngest daughter. Emily." He added the last softly, then lifted his hand at the exact second she raised hers, and each waved vigorously.
Sherborne squinted his eyes in the direction Eli was staring. "How can you be sure? Aren't there a lot of Montgomery girls? All girls and no boys, I think Father said once."
"There are two," Eli said. He knew all about the Montgomerys, as well as the other families nearby. Eating with the servants below stairs had its benefits. "Emily rides more than her sister." Eli sighed inwardly as Emily reached the point on the trail where it turned away from him and headed north. "I'm going to marry her someday."
Sherborne choked out a laugh. "No, you're not. You can't."
"Can too," Eli said, horrified that he'd inadvertently spoken the thought he'd harbored for months. Once said, there was nothing to do but defend it. "I can marry who I want. My father did."
Sherborne's brows rose. "Fat lot of good that did you. He left you and your mum."
Eli's fingers clenched around the spade handle. "Never mind my father. I'm not him. I can marry who I want, and I'll stay with her, too."
Sherborne shook his head as he stepped in front of Eli so they were facing one another. "You can't marry a Montgomery, because she's a Montgomery. Her father's a baron, so she'll have to marry a gentleman-someone titled. Like me." Sherborne glanced over his shoulder as he added the last, as if he wished to look at Emily himself now that the possibility of their eventual marriage had occurred to him.