This Way to Heaven (3 page)

She glanced out of the window at the leaden sky. It would snow soon – having been born and bred in the valley, she recognised the signs.

Mary now wished that she had been brave enough to speak to the Earl this morning. She was desperate to try and explain that George was not being insolent or rude
–
just stubborn.

And how she wished that the Earl would meet some nice sensible lady while he was in London and find some happiness again.

Surely then he would not be so hard to approach with estate problems?

*

Jasmina woke early, washed and pulled on the long leather riding trousers she had brought with her from her home in America.

She packed some essential toiletries and a change of clothing into her small overnight case, which could be fastened on the back of her saddle. The rest of her luggage could be sent over the following day.

Jasmina was only too aware that her cousins at the Debbingford Parsonage were not very well off.

She was certain there would not be many occasions where she would need a ball dress!

She ran downstairs and called ‘good morning' to the three maids who were already hard at work polishing the great wooden staircase.

They bobbed their heads to her as she passed and Jasmina wondered to herself if she would ever get used to the different approach the servants had in England.

Reid appeared as she hurried across the hall towards the door that led out into the stable yard.

“Will you be taking breakfast, Miss Winfield?”

“Oh, no. Please tell the cook not to bother on my account. I'm sure my cousins will give me a good lunch and I don't like riding when I have just eaten.”

Reid appeared startled out of his usual impassive expression.

“Riding, Miss Winfield? I thought you would be taking the carriage – ”

“Oh, no,” Jasmina remarked airily. “I agreed with the Duchess yesterday that I would ride to Debbingford. I will need a horse and, as you know, the Duke has kindly bought one for me.”

Reid looked concerned.

“But the weather is about to change, Miss Winfield. It will snow heavily before the day is out.”

Jasmina tossed her head, her golden curls dancing as they tried to escape from the heavy leather cap she had pulled over them.

She had no doubt that any snow Yorkshire could produce would be but nothing compared with what she was used to at home.

And what was twenty miles? Just a short trip!

The stable block was already busy in the cold early morning light.

The lads were brushing down the yard and the horses had all been groomed and stood, their heads over the doors of their stalls, watching the yard with interest.

Jasmina approached the new horse with a sense of excitement. She knew his name was Lightning and he was a shiny black with a white star on his proud forehead.

She patted his velvety nose and admired the fine shape of his head.

The young stable lad looked startled when Jasmina asked him to saddle up Lightning.

“But, miss – ” he began. “We don't know yet what he be like to ride. The groom who delivered him said he had could be mischievous like.”

Jasmina laughed, her beautiful face radiant with her enjoyment of life.

“Please don't worry. I am quite certain I'll be fine. I intend to ride him over to Debbingford this morning and it will give me a good chance to test out all his paces. The Duke told me that there was a fine leather saddle ready for the new horse, so please get him ready immediately.”

“But the snow, miss!”

“It hasn't started to fall yet! I will be safely indoors in Debbingford by the time it does.”

*

The Earl of Somerton drove out of the castle, down a steep hill and out into the narrow winding lane that led to the main road.

He cast a quick look up at the sky.

He was certain that snow would fall tonight and a lot of it if he were not mistaken.

There was indeed a sullen leaden look to the clouds hanging so low above the distant moors that they seemed to be touching them.

The cold bleak day suited the Earl's mood.

He had no desire to travel to London, but equally no desire to stay in Yorkshire for Christmas.

He felt as though he was spending his waking hours existing, finding things to do to keep busy.

He knew his friends wanted him to enter Society once more, but he could not force himself to do so.

All the glittering scene of dances and balls, Ascot, Henley, theatres, none of it seemed real to him any more.

It was as if on that fateful day two years ago, the day his sweet childish Millicent had died, he had slammed a door on the life he had once had and this dark existence was all that was left.

Savagely his suppressed feelings getting the better of him, he pressed down hard on the car's accelerator and the powerful car roared forward.

Spinning the wheel he steered around a sharp bend too quickly and then yelled in horror.

A young girl on horseback was in the middle of the road. The animal, a huge black beast, was rearing and at the sight of the car it tried to bolt.

Even as the Earl stopped the car with a screech of brakes and leapt out, he knew that whoever the rider was, she was handling the animal magnificently.

But those were not the words that came tumbling from his mouth.

“
You little idiot!
” he shouted. “What the heck do you think you are doing? Do you want to get yourself killed?”

And as he strode towards her, his face was dark with anger.

CHAPTER TWO

Jasmina laughed loudly as she struggled to control Lightning as he skittered across the path, tossing his head and chomping on his bit.

She was enjoying her journey to her cousin's home in Debbingford in the next valley. Lightning was certainly a marvellous ride, fast and strong.

The beautiful saddle of fine pale leather the Duke had purchased for her was extremely comfortable although strange in shape compared to the American saddles she was used to back home in Missouri.

Then the stupid stallion had spooked when a small rabbit ran across his path.

Just as she had been about to get Lightning under control, a great black and silver car came roaring round the bend and it took all her skill as a rider to stop her mount from bolting.

She was still struggling to quieten him when a man jumped out of the car, shouting at her, his face dark with anger and grabbed hold of the bridle.

“
You little fool
! Who on earth put you up on such a powerful animal? Get down at once!”

Jasmina gathered the reins tightly in her hands and tugged the bridle away from the dark-haired stranger who was glaring up at her in a passion of fury.

“Please stop shouting at me! You are only making the horse more anxious.”

“Why, you're an American!”

Jasmina now circled Lightning, her voice calming him until he stood, quivering slightly, but under control – for the moment.

“Yes, sir, I am indeed from the United States where we would consider it a sin to drive so fast on a narrow road where people could well be out riding!”

The Earl frowned.

It was not often that he felt at a disadvantage, but this beautiful, slim, blue-eyed girl was staring down at him from astride the big stallion with an expression on her face that told him she thought he was the one in the wrong.

“Are you going to dismount, madam?”

Jasmina gazed down at her protagonist.

He was tall and broad-shouldered, the cut of his suit telling her that he was a wealthy man even if the Rolls Royce had failed to do so.

But wealthy or not, his orders barked out in that rude fashion were most unwelcome.

“Certainly
not
, sir. I am in complete control and I would be grateful if you would stand out of my way, so I can continue my journey.”

The Earl's frown darkened even more.

“Madam, there is no way I can possibly allow you to ride off on that animal. He has a malicious expression in his eyes. I have seen it before on rogue horses. You will not be safe.”

Jasmina tossed her head in sheer annoyance, bright golden curls escaping from beneath her riding cap.

“I do thank you for your concern, kind sir, but it is misplaced. I have been riding all my life. I know exactly what I am doing and your assistance is not required!”

The Earl felt his temper snap.

The picture flashed into his mind of another strong-willed young girl – one who had tried to jump a fence that was too big for her mount, even though he had begged her not to do so.

Millicent
–
his poor little wife.

He could still hear her laughing as she attempted to make her horse obey her commands and her cry as she was thrown – to lie lifeless on the ground.

Jasmina gasped as the man standing by her stirrup reached up and she saw he was about to pull her from the saddle.

Was he a madman?

She suddenly realised that dense woods surrounded the road. It was a lonely and isolated place and no one would see if he attacked her.

But Jasmina was no shrinking violet.

When other girls would have screamed for help, she gritted her teeth and without hesitating dug her heels into her mount's sides and tightened the reins.

Lightning reared up and whinnied, his black eyes ringed with white and his flashing hooves just missing the man's head.

Then Jasmina turned him, urging the powerful horse into a canter away from the man and his car. Lightning needed no encouragement.

Mud spattered from his hooves as he pounded away down the track into the shelter of the woods.

The Earl swore under his breath as he watched the girl on the big black horse vanish from sight.

He wondered if he should drive after her.

He was sure the horse was a rogue and not safe for anyone to ride. He could see that the American girl was a good equestrienne, but would that be enough to keep her from harm?

He shivered as a gust of freezing wind blew in from the hills above his castle and tipping his head back gazed up into a sky that was heavy and sullen with snow clouds before striding back to the Rolls Royce.

If he could not reach the main road in the next ten minutes, he knew the pass over the moors would be closed probably for days and the valley would be cut off from the outside world.

He understood this winter weather only too well. Once it came in from the North and East, the snow settled on the hard Yorkshire ground and drifted in the wind.

Part of him knew that he should follow the girl and make sure she was safe, but, as he glanced at the slim black briefcase on the seat next to him, he realised that he must take these important papers to London. They were vital for the talks that were to take place in Whitehall in the New Year.

‘Well, no doubt Miss America is nearly home by now – wherever home might be or else she's tipped into a ditch!' he muttered to himself.

He started the engine and drove away, refusing to admit how startling and unsettling the incident had made him feel.

Memories of Millicent and her tragic accident came crowding in on him yet again, and the sparkle that his encounter with the blonde rider had brought back to his eyes vanished as he felt the weight of a familiar black depression settle on his shoulders.

*

Jasmina slowed Lightning to a walk, glancing back over her shoulder to make quite certain that the dark-eyed stranger had not followed her in his car.

What a very odd man!

The passion and anger in his voice and on his face had left her strangely disturbed.

She could still see those piercing dark eyes gazing up at her. Admittedly they had looked angry, but they had also held an expression of great sadness.

‘I declare I expect he has some poor wife at home, who has always had to put up with that bad temper of his,' she conjectured. ‘I pity her with all my heart. I for one could never marry a man with such a bad nature!'

Jasmina tossed her head again.

She had most decided views about who she would marry one day.

She knew she would only link her life with a man for love because it would have to be forever.

She had known too many friends who had travelled to England with their inheritance in order to marry some impoverished Duke or Earl and help rebuild his rundown estate.

Well, that certainly was not going to happen to her. ‘
No way
,' as Jeremy, her old groom would say back home.

Fancy being faced with that bad-tempered man and being told he was your future husband!

She could feel her heart beating faster than usual and her forehead was hot even though the temperature had fallen dramatically in the last few minutes.

Jasmina gazed up at the sky just as the wind began to sweep icily down the track from the hills and the first fat flakes of snow began to fall.

‘Oh jeez, the weather's changing, just as Reid said it would. We had better hurry up, Lightning. We need to get to the Parsonage at Debbingford and
fast
!'

She came to a fork in the track and hesitated.

The signpost said she should ride straight on, but surely if she cut downwards into the valley, she could ride round the lake she could see and then straight up the hill to the pass?

That would save a good five miles and she would be in Debbingford inside twenty minutes.

The wind whistled shrilly as she turned Lightning off the beaten path, but she ignored all her misgivings.

She was from Missouri and she was used to riding in bad weather.

There was no chance she was going to meekly trot home and confess to the staff of Harley Grange that she was not as strong and resourceful as an English girl!

She pulled a waterproof cape from her saddlebag and slid it over her head. It would help keep her dry.

Urging Lightning into a fast walk, Jasmina did not look back and therefore failed to see that her wallet with her passport, money and all the letters of introduction the Duchess had given her, had been pulled out of her bag with the cape and now lay at the side of the road, being swiftly buried under inches of snow.