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be curious about the workings of his. She shook her head to erase that foolish idea—it was probably a sin just to imagine such a travesty—then shook her bottom to make sure she had shaken off as much as she could before rising from the crouching position behind the tree and readjusting her drawers, chemise, infernal corset, and overdress.
    Isabella ran the short distance to meet up with her fellow travelers, spurred on by her girlish enthusiasm for the first full day of her new life.
    ***
    Javier fought the image of a crouching Sol (damn her for not giving him a real name to fondle in his brain) with her bare bottom peeking out from beneath the layers and layers of fabric. God help him; contemplating the turn of that ass had already taken up far too much of his time, and he had only been awake for two hours.
    She was a spectacular horsewoman, at least. He did not have to worry about her hampering their aggressive pace. No one spoke while they were on the move, but the few times they stopped to water the horses and eat their small rations, the four of them agreed that they need not overcomplicate their plans. She looked the most like Javier, dark and aristocratic, so they decided she would pretend to be his younger sister who was being taken to live with a cousin in Aveiro, should anyone on the road inquire.
    “A man in a coat like that would never let his sister wear a dress like this.” Isabella gestured to Javier then back to herself. She was still holding the last hunk of stale bread that had served as her lunch clenched in her fingers.
    Sebastián smiled. After a few hours together, he was already beginning to enjoy the company of this impertinent young woman who knew just what to say to unhinge the authority of his best friend.
    “What do you mean by ‘a coat like that’?” Javier asked with a bit of petulance. “This is a perfectly serviceable cropped riding coat.”
    Isabella and Sebastián shared a conspiratorial smile.
    “What? It’s a simple blue coat.”
    With that, Marco joined in making fun of his friend. “A simple coat, Javi, really? Is that why it took your tailor in Madrid four weeks to get it right?”
    Javier scowled at all of them. “Enough. One well-made coat is worth many of lesser quality. That is a known truth.”
    Isabella finished chewing the last bits of her bread, licking her fingers for every stray crumb. She looked up to see that Javier’s frown had deepened. She straightened her features back into seriousness and looked squarely at this challenging man. “I agree completely. The same known truth applies to one well-made dress… that an older brother like you would surely provide for his dependent.”
    Marco and Sebastián started laughing.
    Javier looked at them like the traitors they’d become over the past few hours of traveling with this unsettling girl. Their laughter died down and he turned back to face her.
    “Surely, you are not suggesting that I purchase a dress for you when we arrive in Aveiro?”
    “Oh!” Isabella smiled as if the idea had never occurred to her and delighted her, clasping her hands together. “How kind of you to offer!”
    He opened his mouth to protest, but Isabella forced him to hold his silence by continuing her speech at a rapid clip.
    “But of course I could never accept such an… intimate… gift from a gentleman not of my acquaintance, regardless of this charming ruse you have all agreed to enact on my behalf. No. I have my own… resources. I was just hoping that we might find a jeweler interested in acquiring them. And then I will purchase my own dress.”
    Javier was looking at her with more interest now. “Jewelry, you say?”
    “You sound a bit too avid for my taste, sir, but if you must know, yes it is. And before you suggest it, I did not steal it. It is well and truly mine.”
    Her face clouded with the realization that her father was willing to sell her—there was no point in being euphemistic about it—for a few primitive