Page 77 of A Remarkable Rogue

“Just a bit.” Not even half a foot, but enough that this time, the shaggy pony might actually jump. “If you’re going to be a proper dragoon, sir, then you need to learn to ride your mount across all kinds of terrain and all kinds of jumps.”

“How high?” Nate detected a trace of nervousness in Robbie’s voice.

“Eventually, higher than your head.”

The boy’s eyes grew impossibly large at that.

“But for today,” Nate assured him, “I don’t think we should worry poor Aggie about jumping that high.”

Behind them, the pony munched on a daisy. The yellow flower dangled from the side of his mouth when he raised his head to look at them.

“Yes,” the boy agreed, his face suddenly serious with relief. “Aggie needs to work up to it.”

“Wise man, Robert.” Keeping a serious expression on his face so he wouldn’t reveal his amusement, Nate tousled the boy’s hair. “Now, mount your horse, and do it from the ground the way I taught you.”

“Yes, sir! Like a real dragoon.”

Nate nodded. “There are no mounting blocks in the middle of a battlefield.”

Robbie laughed and ran back to Aggie, who heaved a great sigh as the boy approached but stood perfectly still as Robbie scrambled gracelessly up the side of the saddle and found his seat. He pressed his heels into the pony’s sides as Nate had instructed and practiced guiding the Shetland with just his heels back into a slow circle toward the jump.

Sydney rose from her blanket and brushed her hands down her skirt. The borrowed blue dress hung shapelessly on her, but Sydney could have worn a burlap sack and Nate would have thought her stunning…except that she was shaking in it. He could see the emotion dripping from her all the way across the lawn where he stood.

“Captain Reed.” She started toward the stables. “Might I have a private word with you, please?”

Christ.She was angry that he’d raised the jump, and now he was going to get an earful about unnecessarily endangering the boy, although how anyone could be endangered on that lump of a pony he had no idea. He’d seen sleeping lambs less docile than that woolly beast.

But instead of rolling his eyes, he felt a happy tug at his heart because she was fussing over Robbie. He knew then that Sydney was never going to let the boy go, that she would open her life to him and be a loving, smothering mother. The good mother she’d claimed she didn’t know how to be.

He forced back a smile. “Yes, ma’am.” With a call toward Beasley and Miss Jenner to keep close watch on Robbie as the plodding pony circled the lawn, he fell into step behind her.

When they reached the stables, she hesitated and glanced around.

He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just… In here.”

She opened the feed room door and led him inside, seeking extra privacy despite Robbie being on the far side of the stable yard and out of hearing distance.

“I saw how you were with Robbie.” She closed the door behind them. Her hands were still shaking. “When you were showing him how to ride and jump.”

He frowned. “If you think I wasn’t teaching him properly, then—”

“No.” She pressed herself against him and fisted his waistcoat in her hands. Her eyes glistened. “I think you were simply marvelous.”

“Sydney,” he whispered tenderly at the unexpected compliment.

“Kiss me,” she ordered, although her words emerged as a soft plea.

“Gladly.” He lowered his head and captured her mouth beneath his.

***

Sydney leaned into his embrace to show him with her body what she couldn’t say with words. That he was the most amazing man she’d ever met. That his kindness toward another man’s son left her trembling. That as she’d watched the two of them together, she knew she was in love with him. She didn’t want to be, yet she was—helplessly, hopelessly in love.

She slid the tip of her tongue across his bottom lip to coax him to open to her. When he did, she plunged inside to experience all of his kiss, to imprint on her mind the deliciousness of him.

She shivered as his hands caressed her and touched her lovingly through her borrowed dress.