Lord Melvedere's Ghost Read Online Free Page B

as she passed its head, and moved to
stand beside its saddle. The beast was so big that she couldn’t see
over its back, and its feet were so massive that they looked like
dinner plates. She jumped when the animal snorted in derision and
bent its neck to stare at her.
    Within
seconds Jamie hefted her into the saddle and Jonathan was placing
her fingers around the reins.
    “ Don’t do any sudden movements with these. Don’t jerk them
around because they are in his mouth, see? You will hurt him and he
will object,” Jonathan warned, checking her stirrup closest to him
before turning and checking his own horse.
    Cecily
sat frozen in place and turned panicked eyes toward Jamie, who
studiously ignored her as he tied a saddle bag into position and
turned to his own horse. She daren’t move. She daren’t speak. The
horse coughed and she was certain she was going to end up on the
hard, cobbled floor. Her fingers were clenched so tightly on the
strips of leather she wasn’t entirely certain that they wouldn’t
break under the pressure. She swallowed and closed her eyes on a
silent prayer as the horse ambled into motion behind Jonathan. She
daren’t look back at Jamie, and couldn’t bring herself to open her
eyes and stare down at the passing ground. She was so high up that
she felt sick again, and she wasn’t usually a sickly
person.
    “ You can open your eyes now,” Jamie suggested gently. “It is
going to be very difficult if you can’t see where you are
going.”
    Cecily’s
eyes snapped open and she turned to stare at him as he moved
alongside her on the main road out of town. “Jonathan is right,
don’t make any sudden moves on his mouth and you will be fine. Sit
still and let him do the work. Relax a little because he knows what
he is doing. A word of warning though,” his voice dipped gently and
he placed one gloved fingertip beneath her chin to tip her head
upward to face forward. “Don’t look down. If you look down at the
ground as it passes you are likely to fall off. Keep looking
directly ahead because that is the part the horse struggles to see.
Look for any potholes or anything that can trip him up and navigate
around them, like this. See?” Jamie turned his horse this way and
that and watched as Cecily copied him. Nodding in approval he
turned to look at Jonathan who had twisted in his saddle, a look of
silent warning on his face.
    All
humour immediately left Jamie’s face and he turned cold and hard.
Mentally running through his stock of weapons, he studied Jonathan
carefully and caught the silent hand signal his colleague had given
in warning.
    Danger
was afoot.
    He tried
to keep the concern from his face and remain as normal as possible,
but he could sense Cecily watching him closely. Luckily Jonathan
had given the signal so Cecily wouldn’t notice, but Jamie had seen
and understood, and was aware that his colleague was warning him of
something dangerous further along the road. Jamie glanced over at
Cecily and shot her a winning, overly bright smile, feeling
decidedly relieved when she blushed and averted her gaze. Once free
of her scrutiny, he turned to study the area around them and
consider their options.
    He
immediately saw what Jonathan had noticed. At the farthest corner
of the field to the right of them, the backside of a horse pocked
out from behind the hedgerow. Although there was only one, and it
could only be a horse standing grazing in a field, it was highly
improbable given that cows were also in the field running beside
the road. The area was almost too quiet, as though waiting for
something to arrive – or happen. The gut instinct Jamie had relied
upon throughout his many years with the Star Elite, was warning him
that Jonathan was accurate in his assessment that they were facing
danger. The horse belonged to someone, and it was more than
conceivable that someone was lying in wait for them. To ignore it
was putting all of their lives in danger.
    At a
single glance, nobody would