Jasmine, still elusive, cantered around the paddock, a string of grooms and Daniel trying to corner her.
“Ye take your bloody stallion and get out,” Cameron bellowed. His voice was hoarse, the beast inside him no longer contained.
Pierson, incredibly, still defied him. “If the stallion goes, you don’t get Jasmine.”
“Take her off, then. Get your f**king horses out of my sight!”
“Cam.” Ainsley tried to hurry to him, but her feet were too slow, her voice too soft. “No, don’t lose Jasmine.”
The grooms moved to let her through, the men furious, but not at her. “You all right, my lady?” more than one asked.
“Yes, thank you.” Her voice was breathless. “Cam.”
“Ye haven’t even bothered to ask if my wife is all right.”
“She shouldn’t be out here at all,” Pierson said. “Women belong in bed, not the stable yard.”
Cameron’s fist flashed out, and Pierson fell backward into the coach, his face bloody. Cameron slammed the carriage door, and the coachman leapt up to the box, quickly turning the vehicle.
The carriage’s hurrying wheels sprayed mud over Cameron, but he turned back to Ainsley, not noticing. As Pierson’s carriage moved toward the drive, Angelo managed to maneuver the stallion into his cart. A groom shut him in, and Angelo climbed out to head for the field to round up Jasmine.
“Cameron,” Ainsley said as Cameron’s arms came around her again. “You can’t lose Jasmine. You love that horse.”
“I almost lost you. Pierson can go to hell.”
“But Jasmine. She doesn’t want to go with him.” Ainsley felt reaction setting in, her mind seeing again the black horse’s body and hooves swerving to crush the life out of her.
Cameron caught her as her legs gave way. He swept her up into her arms and carried her swiftly to the house, past the servants who’d rushed out to watch, and up the stairs to Ainsley’s bedchamber.
He set Ainsley down on her chaise near the fire, and she waved a weak hand in front of her face. “When did my life become so dramatic?”
“When you agreed to marry me. It’s confounded cold in here.” Ainsley’s large bedroom had a fireplace, not a stove, and Cameron further ruined his shirt by shoveling more coal onto the hearth.
The fire built, and the room warmed until Ainsley was sweating. Or maybe it was the heat of delayed shock.
“Don’t go,” she whispered.“I’m not going anywhere, love.”
“But Jasmine.” Ainsley’s teeth chattered. “She didn’t mean to. They were just being horses. I was standing in the wrong place.”
“Ainsley, shut it.”
Cameron trickled water from a large pitcher to its basin and wet a towel. He tugged Ainsley’s torn gloves from her and began wiping her dirt-streaked hands. The water stung where her palms had been sliced by her fall.
“Your hands are just as filthy,” Ainsley said. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and started to laugh. “And so is my face. I look awful.”
“Hush now.”
Ainsley heard voices outside the door. Two maids and a footman came in with a tub and ewers of steaming water, though Ainsley didn’t remember Cameron sending for them. Just as well he did. The mud in the stable yard, plus her scrambling journey over the door into the empty stall, had left her coated with dirt and horse leavings.
She’d have to speak to Cameron about installing taps in his house—the maids had to haul water up the back stairs. It was too far for them, really. She tried to break away from Cameron to help them, but he held her back.
“Hurry before it gets cold,” was all he said to them.
The splashing of water sounded heavenly. The maids quickly filled the tub, and then all the servants filed out, including the lady’s maid who’d tried to stay to undress Ainsley. Cameron closed and locked the door behind them.
Ainsley tugged at the buttons of her riding habit, but she couldn’t manage to open one. Cameron turned her around to face the roaring fire and undid all the buttons himself.
“You’re growing quite skilled at that,” she said.
Cameron peeled the broadcloth bodice from her back and rubbed her bare wrists. “You’re too cold. Are you sure you aren’t hurt?”
“A few bruises, I think.”
“More than a few.” Cameron loosened her corset and pulled it off, hand going to the tender spots on her back. “But these are from your rescue. Nothing broken, thank God.”
“Thank God and Angelo. Very clever of him to climb through to that stall from the one beyond.”
She’d seen the pulled-away partition between the stalls, the board walls made to be moved in case Cameron needed one large stall instead of two smaller ones. Ainsley had noted this absently while Angelo had helped her to her feet, the significance not really dawning on her.
“I’d kiss him,” Cameron said. “If it wouldn’t make both of us sick. But he will get a huge rise in wages.”
“He’s told me about the canal boats his family lives on,” Ainsley said. “I’d love to see them. I’ve never been on a Romany canal boat. Or any canal boat for that matter. Not something for a lady to do, I’ve been told.”
“I will take you to his canal boat, and we’ll have his family glide us from the Thames to the Avon and back again, but after I get you warm.”