She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “But I told you I wanted to be alone.”
“And I told you not to leave the castle without an escort.” He matched her challenging glare and stood his ground.
“Well,” she said, looking away. “I can’t ride.”
He retrieved a small stool close by and set it down on Ghost’s left side. He didn’t need it. After years of riding the warhorse, he knew how to grasp the horse’s mane and mount in a single leap—which was what he did now. Once on Ghost’s back, he held his hand down to Miss Darling.
“You might as well take it,” he urged with a wide-eyed smile. “Don’t tempt me to chase you.”
She hesitated another moment, hugging herself and eyeing the stable exit. But instead of taking his second option, she held up her hand. He leaned down and closed his fingers around hers and hefted her up and into his lap.
She landed with a slight thud that rattled Gray’s senses. Behind her, he shook his head as if to clear it. “Where to?”
“To the Gable’s, then please. I’d like to see Will and let him know I’m alright.”
“He doesn’t need to know that.”
“Iwanthim to know. Look, you offered to escort me to where I wanted to go. I want to go to the Gable’s house and say goodbye to Mrs. Gable and thank her for caring for my needs when I came here. If you refuse to take me, I’ll return to the castle and leave without you at another time.”
He said nothing but grasped fistfuls of Ghost’s mane and jerked his hips forward, unwittingly grinding them into Miss Darling’s bottom. When she turned to send him her deadliest glare, he offered her no response, though his insides were twisting, his blood scaling his veins.
“It’s inevitable in our situation,” he said evenly.
“What’s inevitable? That you’re going to touch me intimately again? I suggest you don’t. I’m not adverse to sinking my fist into your groin.”
He grimaced and shoved her away just enough to make her hold on tighter to his arms. He wondered as he rode her to the Gable’s holding as she’d requested, what had come over him. How was his iron resolve deteriorating so quickly? When he realized, after riding through the forest, that she hadn’t let go of his arms, he pulled away and then closed his arms around her.
“I won’t let you fall,” he promised, leaning down near her ear.
When he finally felt her relaxing against his chest, he leaned down again, just a bit closer to her. “Miss Darling, tell me about Mrs. Blagden, the one who gave you the key.”
Chapter Ten
Aria closed hereyes and clung to the marquess. Did his red coat smell like pine, or was it the forest all around her? She couldn’t think straight with his arms around her while he rode them bareback on his horse. If death had a color, it would be the color of his horse. But the thunderous pounding of her heart convinced her that she was very much alive. Perhaps more alive than she’d been since her accident.
Sitting between his hard thighs was bad enough; thrusting his hips forward to get his mount moving nearly melted her all over him. He hadn’t apologized. He’d promised, once again, not to let her fall. Was he so quick and agile that he could stop her from bouncing right out of his lap, or so strong that he could catch her in a grand jeté?
“Miss Darling?”
And the husky tone of his voice when he called her Miss Darling made her belly flip.
“You were about to tell me about the woman who gave you the key.”
“Was I?” she challenged. How much should she tell him? His reaction the first time he’d heard of Mrs. B. wasn’t a good one.
“After my mother left,” he told her, leaning over her to speak close to her ear so she could hear him over the wind and his running horse, “my grandmother took over raising me. Sometimes when I looked deep into her eyes, she seemed infinitely older than a grandmother should be. She left when I was almost ten. Before she left, she gave me the key you now have in your possession.”
Aria turned to give him a disappointed stare. Really? “It’s the key you want.”
“What?”
“Is the key what this is all about?” When he continued to gaze at her, not understanding what she meant, she clarified, “It’s one of a kind, solid gold, and it can transport someone through time. Whowouldn’twant it?”
“Me,” he answered dully. “I had it in my possession and I never once tried to use it or even take it from its place to look at it.”
“Ha!” she mocked. “So, you’re telling me you had the key all this time and you were never curious about the door it belonged to? And that your grandmother is who—? Mrs. B?”
“You can be perceptive when it’s spelled out exhaustively for you, lady,” he drawled out, moving away from her.