You Only Love Twice by Elizabeth Thornton Page A

whose face was redder, hers or Lucas’s. He stood stock-still for a moment, darted her an uneasy glance, then bared his teeth in a pathetically false smile. “Some other time, Millie,” he said. “My friend and I were just leaving.”
    He grabbed Jessica’s arm and propelled her to the rear of the building. “We’ll go out the back way,” he said curtly. “Perry has his curricle waiting.”
    Jessica was sorely tempted to put up a struggle, but her memory of the last time she had struggled with this man was still too vivid for comfort. Humiliated beyond words, she allowed him to have his way.

CHAPTER
5
    P erry had positioned the curricle close to the back door and was standing by the horses, holding them steady. Lucas didn’t give her time to climb into the curricle, but swept her up in his arms, tossed her in and sprang up beside her. When he had the reins in his hands he said, “Perry, mount up.”
    Fuming, Jessica watched as the nice young man who had greeted her effusively on her first day in Chalford quickly mounted Lucas’s great black stallion. Perry Wilde obviously found the situation humorous. His eyes were twinkling and he was grinning even more broadly than the barmaid in the taproom. Millie Jenkins, she thought, and sniffed.
    “This should give us a semblance of respectability,” said Lucas, and ignoring Perry’s disbelieving laugh, he flicked the reins and urged the matched chestnuts through the arch that gave onto Waterside Street.
    There were no houses on the other side of the street to block Jessica’s view of the river Thames, and she had aglimpse of punts and barges bobbing on the water, and on the near bank, children feeding the swans. Then her view was obscured as Perry nudged his horse into position, close to her side of the curricle. She had time to give him one long, aggrieved look then she clutched for the side of the curricle when Lucas suddenly sent his team flying toward the Oxford road. Their pace was so furious that everything flew by in a confusion of hedgerows, cottages and the occasional vehicle and rider. Nor did Lucas slow his pace until they had turned off the main thoroughfare and into the approach to Hawkshill. Here he drew rein.
    “My thanks for the loan of your curricle, Perry,” he said. “Why don’t you go on and I’ll meet you back at the house?”
    “What?”
    “I’ll meet you back at the house,” said Lucas pointedly. “I’ll return your curricle to you then.”
    “But I want to talk to Jess.”
    “You can talk to her later, after I’ve had my say.”
    “But—”
    Lucas snapped, “What I have to say is for Jess’s ears only. Now, go away.”
    Perry’s face flushed to the roots of his blond hair, making him look very young, and Jessica felt a wave of indignation on his behalf. She’d learned a great deal about Lucas and his family in the last three days, courtesy of old Joseph who had struck up an acquaintance with some of Lucas’s tenants, and she thought that it was a pity his tenants could not see their master now. Just why Lucas Wilde was so well liked was a mystery to her.
    Lucas gave a crooked half smile. “Perry, I have an apology to make to Jessica, and it’s going to be difficult enough without you listening in.”
    It was an olive branch of sorts, and Jessica did her part to help Perry save face. “And I,” she said tartly, “have a few choice words I wish to say to Lucas.”
    Perry grinned. “All right, all right,” he said. “You’veconvinced me. I’d only be in the way.” With a cheery wave, he wheeled his mount and trotted off.
    As soon as Perry was out of sight, Lucas turned on her. It was the moment she had been waiting for, too. Eyes snapping, she cried, “You have no right to treat me like this. This is an abduction, that’s what it is.”
    “I didn’t hear you screaming for help when I smuggled you out of the Swan. You should never have gone there.”
    “How was I to know it wasn’t what it seemed?”
    “You