Snowbound With The Baronet Read Online Free Page A

“Then you shall have to walk. So I suggest you make an effort to keep your seat.”
    “Hold on to me,” Cassandra urged the girl. “I have a good grip on the horse’s mane.”
    Not good enough to keep them both from sliding off the beast’s back if it moved at anything faster than a sedate walk. But she had no intention of betraying her doubts to Imogene Calvert.
    The lady’s fear overcame any reservations about being too familiar. Miss Calvert threw her arms around Cassandra’s waist and locked them there by stuffing her hands into either end of her fur muff.
    When the horse took a lurching step forward, Imogene Calvert emitted a choked cry and plastered herself tight against Cassandra’s back. At least it provided a little warmth, as did the body of the horse beneath her. She would have given anything for a hot brick under her icy feet, however.
    The driving snow stung her face like an endless series of pin pricks. Her nose began to run but she did not dare relax her hold on the horse’s mane to wipe it. Instead, she sniffed as quietly as she could, hoping Sir Brandon would not hear and assume she was weeping.
    As the snow swirled around them and darkness descended, Cassandra prayed they would not stray from the road. If they did, their party might wander in the empty downland until they all perished. Though she could no longer make out the shape of Sir Brandon leading the horse, she heard him now and then address an encouraging word to the creature. Even when he did not speak, she sensed his presence and took courage from it.
    They could not have met again under worse circumstances. Relations between them could never be anything but strained and awkward. Yet part of her still warmed with gratitude to have seen and spoken to him again after all this time. Even if she dared not tell him any of the things that were in her heart.
    Was Lady Cassandra Whitney as brave as she seemed?
    Brandon mulled over that question as he trudged through the deep snow in the fast-fading light. Or was she simply too proud to show her fear?
    If the latter, then her behavior was a form of deception—something he had long abhorred. He’d grown up in a family where appearance was all that signified no matter what corruption festered beneath the carefully cultivated surface.
    He would never have blamed the lady for rejecting his proposal. That was her prerogative after all and the dukes of Norland were considerably above a mere baronet, no matter how great his fortune. What offended him was that Lady Cassandra had misled him about her feelings, giving him false hope of winning her.
    Fuelled by the heat of righteous indignation, Brandon’s pace sped up and he became far less conscious of the biting cold.
    “How much farther must we go?” Imogene wailed. “Are you sure we are still on the road?”
    His cousin’s questions jolted Brandon back to their present predicament with jarring abruptness. Could he answer either one truthfully without reducing Imogene to a state of frenzied panic?
    Before he could contrive a way to satisfy both his compulsive honesty and the practical demands of the situation, Lady Cassandra answered his cousin in a soothing tone. “We must be a good deal nearer to some place of shelter than we were when we set out. I am certain we are still on the road. I can just make out a hedgerow to our right. Can you?”
    After an uncertain pause, Imogene replied, “I believe I can. Yes I can. Oh, thank heaven!”
    Silently Brandon echoed that sentiment. As long as they followed the hedgerow, it would keep them on the road which would eventually lead to some habitation, even at their present plodding pace.
    For a moment he forgot the anguish he had suffered at the hands of Lady Cassandra Whitney. Instead he could have kissed her for calming his cousin and reviving his spirits. Even if she acted braver than she truly felt, perhaps that was not such an inexcusable deception under the circumstances. Hadn’t he done the same