The Sherbrooke Bride - Catherine Coulter [54]
Alex remounted, swinging herself up easily with the help of Fanny’s thick mane. She headed the mare back onto the road. She had to be watchful. Douglas could turn back and she could run right into him. She kept the mare close to the edge of the road, ready to turn her off into the trees in an instant.
The rain continued, relentless and colder by the minute.
Fanny tired and Alex slowed her to a walk.
She would have missed him if she weren’t being so vigilant.
CHAPTER
10
HE CAME OUT of the trees like a black shadow, yelling like a madman, Garth rearing up on his hind legs, Douglas big and frightening on the stallion’s back. He got the stallion under control in a few moments, hauling him sideways, effectively blocking the road.
He smiled at her, an evil smile. “Got you,” he said, satisfaction and rage mixed in his voice.
Alexandra pulled Fanny to a halt and simply sat on the mare’s back, looking at him. “I tried,” she said quietly. “I truly did, but you know, I couldn’t bear to remain in the trees, hiding and growing colder by the moment. I was listening for you, that’s why we were going so slowly, I was listening for I feared you would turn back and I would run into you. But you are very smart, aren’t you, my lord? Very cagey. You simply lay in wait for me.”
He remained silent, just looking at her. She thrust her chin into the air.
“I am not going back, Douglas.”
“You will do precisely what I tell you to do, madam.”
“You make no sense. You don’t want me. Is it your plan to humiliate me further? Do you wish to accompany me back to Claybourn Hall, a rope around my neck, perhaps, and hand me back to my father? To announce that I am worthless, that I am not deserving of your consideration? I had not guessed you to be so cruel.”
Douglas frowned. His rage was justified, certainly it was. And she was putting him on the defensive, making him sound a veritable monster. He was a man, educated, fluent, well stocked in his brain, and yet, she was doing him in. No female had ever before managed it, but she was doing it quite nicely. He wouldn’t stand for it. He would stop it now.
“Come along,” he said. “We’re going back to Northcliffe Hall.”
“No.”
“How do you intend to prevent me from dragging you back? Perhaps you’re making ready to come after my guts with a rake again? Well, no matter what you’re considering as a weapon, you will not try anything. Not this time. I will tolerate no more of your violence. You will obey me and you will be quiet, no more of your disobedience. Come along now.”
“No.”
Alexandra whipped Fanny around and dug her heels into the mare’s fat sides. In the next instant, a bolt of thunder rang out, making the earth tremble, making the trees beside the road shudder. Then there was a thick flash of lightning, ripping through the rain and darkness, white and jagged. It struck a maple tree.
Alex jumped, nearly losing her seat. She twisted about on Fanny’s back and watched, so astonished and terrified, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. The lightning struck a thick branch at its base. The branch snapped, sending plumes of smoke into the air, and it slammed downward onto the road, not a foot from Garth’s front hooves. The stallion, maddened with fear, screamed, twisted about, and entangled himself in the thick limbs and leaves on the maple branch.
Douglas didn’t have a chance. He was thrown, landing at the side of the road. He didn’t move.
Alex screamed, loud, shrill, terrified. She was at his side in an instant, kneeling over him, trying to protect him from the slashing dense rain.
He was still. She found finally the pulse in his neck. It was steady, slow. She sat back on her ankles a moment, staring down at him. “Wake up, damn you, Douglas!”
She shook him, then slapped him soundly.
“Wake up! I won’t have this! You do not play fairly, not at all. You hold me here because you are helpless. It is not well done of you. No, I can’t leave you like this. Wake up!”
He didn’t move. His eyes remained closed. Then she saw the blood seeping