Read The Belligerent Miss Boynton AND The Lurid Lady Lockport (Two Companion Full-Length Regency Novels) for Free Online Page B

the little brat to stay where he'd put her. Just as he was preparing to mount and go in pursuit of her, he was confronted by the burly innkeeper and a young girl who kept screeching, "There 'e be—there's the bounder what tried to lope off with the pretty miss. Stop him, Da! Break all his nasty bones! Box his ears!"
    Jared warily eyed the approaching mountain—holding his arms out straight in front of him as he prudently took refuge behind his horse. "Hold on there, innkeeper. I don't know what your daughter was told, but that girl is my sister. She ran away from school with some young fop, and I was bringing her home before she could ruin herself. Now you've let her escape."
    He could see the doubt creep into the innkeeper's eyes and stepped out from behind his mount to press home his advantage. "Now see here, my good man," he continued placatingly, "do I look the sort of man who must steal himself a woman?" He smiled broadly as the innkeeper ran his eyes over the immaculately dressed figure now in front of him.
    "No-o-o," the man pronounced uneasily at last.
    Jared expelled his held breath in a rush. He might be a strong man himself, but he wasn't stupid—and the innkeeper was as tall and broad as a barn door. "That's right! Of course not! Amanda was always a mischievous hoyden. I quite understand your daughter falling under her spell, but I assure you she is not the first to tumble for one of Amanda's tall tales. But please, if I wait much longer she will have escaped again and you, good sir, will be responsible for her possible ruin."
    The girl took that moment to intervene, curse her and all of her sex. "Don't believe him, Da. Oi know milady wuz tellin' the truth! Besides, 'e wuz goin' to lope off without payin' us our due."
    "No, he ain't, Betsy!" The innkeeper's hands bunched into great fists once again, and Jared hastily pulled out some coins and offered them. Satisfied at last, the big man stood back to allow Jared to lead his horse into the yard, where he swung himself into the saddle and then spurred his mount forward into an immediate gallop.
    Before he had traveled more than a few yards the saddle suddenly slipped to one side, the stallion reared in fright—and Jared found himself seated on the muddy ground.
    His breath was knocked out of him for a few moments and as he sat there, shaking his head to clear it, he saw Betsy's plump feet planted in the dirt front of him.
    "Oh, that wuz a good trick her ladyship pulled on you, that it wuz. A right fine one, the ladyship is," she chortled—and Jared raised his eyes to see the gold bar pin that had so lately been on Amanda's dress being lovingly fingered as it rested against Betsy's ample bosom.
    "Yes," Jared gritted out from between clenched teeth, rising slowly—and not without some discomfort—slapping his hindquarters free of dust. "She's a rare handful the ladyship is, isn't she?"
    The ostler had trouble rounding up the frightened stallion, and it was several minutes before Jared was again ready to leave, was more than ready to leave. "Read her out proper, my lord, when you find her," the innkeeper advised, his hand raised to give a bracing slap to the horse's rump.
    "Read her out, is it? I'm going to throttle the brat!" he called over his shoulder, convincing the innkeeper that the girl well and truly was his sister, and Jared was gone.
    But the "right fine one" had a good thirty minute head–start on him, damn her ingenious hide.
     
    #
     
    Amanda pushed her horse for a solid half-hour, and then settled down to a more leisurely pace, thoroughly enjoying being on horseback again, even if she'd been forced to ride sidesaddle. As she rode along, thoughts of the insufferable Lord Storm being held prisoner by an irate, pitchfork-brandishing innkeeper—or lying in a puddle after being unceremoniously dumped by his horse—kept a happy smile on her lips.
    She was in familiar territory now, and could soon take to the fields, where not even Jared Delaney would