Intrigue

CHAPTER ONE

CARON’S honey-blonde hair streamed out behind as she clung to the runaway horse. As the forest grew denser branches tore at her hair and clothes. She was forced to lie low on the mare’s back and could feel the moist heat of the animal’s sweat-lathered body, could almost smell the fear that pulsed through the scared creature with every pounding step, ears well back, stride long.

Her throbbing heart threatened to rob her of breath, her knees, pressed into the animal’s sides in a supreme effort not to be thrown, ached with the constant pressure, her arms ached, everything ached. And nothing she could say or do stopped the mare’s thundering hoofs.

The man came from nowhere. A giant of a man who took in the scene in one fleeting glance, throwing himself at the horse, hanging on to the halter, pitting his strength against that of the racing animal. Black hair he had, black and curly, that was all Caron noticed. He spoke to the animal as he was half dragged, half ran beside her, words that meant nothing to the girl on the horse’s back and yet miraculously soothed the rampaging beast.

Within seconds of the man’s appearance the mare slowed and stopped and Caron felt the tenseness go out of the animal, yet her own fingers refused to let go of the mare’s mane, every bone in her body locked.

‘You can get down now.’

The curt tones filtered into her haze of shock but although Caron looked at the stranger she was still unable to move.

He gave a snort of anger and with his hard-fingered hands spanning her waist he lifted her down, dumping her on the floor with as much ceremony as if she were a sackful of potatoes.

Caron’s legs threatened to buckle beneath her; only by reaching out and supporting herself against the furious man did she manage to stop herself from falling into an ignominous heap at his feet.

There was no compassion in him. Within seconds he had pushed her savagely away and ruthless anger blazed out of eyes that were an intense shade of blue, followed swiftly by the cutting edge of his voice. ‘You do realise your stupidity could have killed that horse?’ Not a word about herself! ‘If you’re not capable of handling such an excitable animal you shouldn’t be riding.’

Caron could not believe that this man was condemning her so absolutely. Did he not care that she might be shaken, that she had probably been more scared than the mare who was now contentedly cropping grass a few yards away? That she could have killed herself, never mind the horse? What sort of a man was he that he could think more of the animal than he did her?

‘I am an accomplished rider,’ she told him coldly. ‘It wasn’t my fault that she bolted.’

‘But yours that you hadn’t the experience to control her.’ His harshly riven features turned his face into planes and angles. He would have been handsome if he weren’t so tough-looking. Frown-lines were gouged in his brow, deep slashes from his hawk-like nose to a grim mouth that defied any sort of description. ‘And why aren’t you wearing a hat?’

The full intensity of his censuring blue eyes seared painfully through Caron as she faced him. His powerfully muscled body was clad in close-fitting cords and a check shirt, sleeves rolled back to reveal sinewy arms and bulging biceps.

She felt disinclined to tell him that it had been a moment of impetuosity that had made her jump on the horse and ride bare-back across the moor. It had been an exhilarating, thrilling ride, she had felt at one with the animal, until Sandy, named after the colour of her coat, had reared for no apparent reason and then charged as though all the hounds in hell were after her. Unable to stop her headlong flight, Caron had concentrated all her attention in hanging on.

‘What I do is my business,’ she declared aloofly, knowing she ought to thank him for stopping the horse but finding it difficult to be gracious when he was so obviously angry. What on earth was wrong with the man that he behaved like this?

‘Have you far to go? Do you intend riding the horse back?’

Or had she lost her nerve? It was a third, unspoken question and Caron felt a prickle of annoyance. ‘Of course I shall ride her back.’ What did he think she was going to do, walk?

‘She needs rubbing down, and soon, or she’ll catch cold,’ he told her crisply. ‘You’d best go now. Do you make a habit of riding without a saddle? It’s a very dangerous practice and it’s a wonder it hasn’t made you sore.’

‘I like to feel the horse beneath me,’ Caron retorted at once. ‘Come on, girl.’ She patted the horse and looked around for a suitable boulder or tree-stump. Normally she would have taken a running leap and hauled herself up, but she felt such an action would be too undignified in this man’s presence.

Without a word the stranger linked his hands to form a stirrup and also without speaking Caron stepped on to them and swung her other leg over the horse’s back.

‘Maybe I should come with you?’ His tone was deep and gruff and only slightly less fierce, and his eyes still blazed with a very real anger. ‘I don’t like to think that this beautiful mare might take fright again.’

Always the mare, never her, thought Caron bitterly. This man certainly did have a thing against women. ‘It was a one-off thing, I’m sure,’ she countered. ‘You really have no need to worry.’

He nodded curtly, their eyes meeting for a few explosive seconds, until Caron pressed her knees into Sandy’s sides and the horse moved obediently forward. ‘Thank you for your help,’ she called belatedly over her shoulder, catching a glimpse of him standing there, tall and forbidding, his blue eyes narrowed enigmatically.

She rode the mare sedately back to the stables, all the time her mind on the stranger. His attitude had been severe to say the least and yet there had been something about him, something in his compelling blue eyes, that made him difficult to forget. He was a charismatic man, the sort once seen, never forgotten.

By the time she got back the horse had cooled down but there were still traces of sweat on her body and John frowned as Caron rode into the yard, wanting to know why she had been riding his mare so hard. ‘You ought to have more sense, Caron.’

‘It wasn’t my fault,’ she defended hotly. ‘Sandy took fright and bolted. I’ve no idea why, I didn’t see a thing, but I certainly couldn’t stop her. We went for miles and miles.’ An exaggeration perhaps, but that’s what it had felt like.

‘Where were you exactly?’ asked John thoughtfully.

Caron told him and he went quiet. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘Do you know what happened?’

Her brother lifted his broad shoulders. ‘It’s a tale I’ve heard; I never really believed it, but maybe there is some truth in it after all. Over a hundred years ago a horse was supposedly shot on the moor and ever since has haunted the area, panicking any horse that happens to pass over the exact spot. You were lucky to be able to stop her. I’ve heard of horses running until they drop from sheer exhaustion.’

‘I didn’t stop her,’ confessed Caron. ‘A man appeared in the forest and hung on to her like grim death.’ Maybe he was a ghost too!

‘What man?’ frowned John.

Caron shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea. He didn’t give me his name. He was very big and strong and had black curly hair and a surly face. You should have heard him tell me off. He said I shouldn’t be riding if I couldn’t handle the horse.’

Her brother suppressed a smile. ‘I think I know who you mean. He lives in an old stone cottage on the edge of the woods. It used to be a holiday cottage, but hasn’t been used for a long time. He hasn’t been there very long and keeps himself very much to himself. No one knows anything about him. He’s very much a mystery man.’

‘They’re not missing much,’ scorned Caron. ‘He actually seemed more concerned about Sandy than me.’

‘He wasn’t to know that you’ve been riding horses almost as long as you’ve been walking. Jump down and I’ll get one of the lads to see to her. Go and rest for a while. You look very shaky yourself.’

Shaky wasn’t the word, thought Caron, as she mounted the stairs to her room. She felt absolutely exhausted. But she wasn’t sure whether it was because of her experience with the horse or meeting the mysterious stranger. She could not get him out of her mind. She kept seeing the fierce blue eyes in a savage face and a powerfully built body that had the strength of a horse, and it irritated her that he should have made such an impression. Since Karl she’d had no interest in other men.

Caron and John Lorimer looked nothing like brother and sister. She was small and blonde with dancing green eyes whereas he was tall and serious with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He was the elder by five years and had bought this riding stable in Southern Ireland after the break-up of his marriage two years ago. A sprawling house went with it, an office added on at the back. There was a huge yard and purpose-built stables and tack-room, and beyond it the paddocks where the horses were kept most of the time.

Their parents had once owned a large farm in Dorset in England, and by far the best way of getting around it was on horseback. Caron was as skilled a rider as any man but she had never encountered anything as spooky as when Sandy took fright. It had scared her almost witless, though she would never have admitted it to the stranger.

When her father died suddenly Caron’s mother sold the farm and moved to the Scilly Isles to live with her sister, and Caron moved to London, thinking it would be more exciting, but it hadn’t worked out like that. She had trained as a secretary but had never really enjoyed the city and when the advertising company for whom she worked was taken over and she was made redundant she thought it an excellent opportunity to pay her brother a long-promised visit. She was even hoping he might find her a job.

She had been here for over two weeks now and as John had his full quota of staff there hadn’t been very much for her to do, so when the next morning one of his stable-girls reported in sick Caron was delighted to help.

She was leading a string of novice riders when she saw him again, the man with the curly black hair! He was striding along, hands pushed deep in the pockets of his well-fitting corduroy pants, his face dark and broody. A hesitant smile curved her lips, but he refrained from even acknowledging her and strode straight past, back ramrod-straight.

It was very evident that he had intentionally ignored her, because in this country of warm-hearted people even strangers spoke. Caron felt a flare of anger at his rudeness, though his attitude did not surprise her after the way he had behaved yesterday. As her brother said, he was a man who liked to keep himself very much to himself.

Disturbingly, though, he refused to go out of her mind. Caron was the sort of girl who hated mysteries, who always needed to know the whys and wherefores of everything, and she knew that she would not be satisfied until she had found out what his name was and what he was doing here.

It had become her custom to go out for an early morning canter and the next day she deliberately chose a route very close to where she had met the man in the woods. Almost at once she saw him striding along, deep in thought. Caron slowed her horse at his side and he looked at her for an instant, then turned his head away without the slightest sign of recognition.

‘Good morning,’ she called with determined cheerfulness. ‘Isn’t it a lovely day?’ She was not going to give up without a jolly good try.

But still he did not speak, marching onwards, telling her without words that he had no wish for her to be a part of his life, that he wanted her to go away and never speak to him again.

Caron kept pace with him for a few yards, knowing she ought to leave well alone, but still filled with an insatiable curiosity that she knew wouldn’t easily leave her.

He wasn’t as tall as she had first thought, probably just over six feet; it was the breadth of him, and the power he seemed to emanate, that had made him seem like a giant. He had a long, easy stride, almost a loping gait like an animal’s and she could imagine muscles rippling beneath the casual clothes he wore so handsomely. Never in her life had she been so intrigued by a man.

‘You’ll be pleased to know that the mare’s all right,’ she called down. She wasn’t on Sandy today, she was riding a chestnut gelding who obeyed her every command. ‘She didn’t suffer any ill effects.’

Still he ignored her and Caron knew she was wasting her time. Nevertheless she tried once more. ‘My name’s Caron, what’s yours?’

Again a stony silence and in defeat she trotted the pony away, her head held high, resisting the urge to look back. Had she done so she would have seen the black-haired man looking after her, his blue eyes narrowed into an assessing frown.

Caron had a neat, dainty figure which belied a tomboyish trait. With her long, straight blonde hair, which she usually wore brushed back at the sides, the front falling into a soft fringe, she looked the sort of girl every man wished to protect. She had an almost porcelain complexion and rarely wore make-up, her green eyes were wide and thick-lashed, her nose flared slightly and her mouth was wide and generous.

For the rest of the day she determinedly pushed all thoughts of the stony-faced stranger from her mind. What was the point in filling her thoughts with a man who had made it abundantly clear that he wanted to be left alone?

When her brother asked her to fetch some provisions from the village store she was not even thinking about him, and it came as quite a shock to see the black-haired giant waiting in the queue to be served when she turned to leave the shop.

His expression was as saturnine as ever and he did not even see her! He saw no one. He went about with his eyes and mind shuttered to the outside world. He was like no one else she had ever met and Caron’s determination to get through to him revived.

She lingered, studying the contents of the shelves, not moving until he was ready to go out of the shop, then seeing to it that they both reached the door at the same time.

Totally preoccupied with his thoughts, he was unaware of her until they collided. He looked at her sharply and recognition dawned in the piercing blue depths of his eyes, but with little more than a surly apology he strode on his way.

Caron hurried after him. ‘Wait a moment. Can’t we walk together?’

The look he threw her was one of complete intolerance and without a word he quickened his steps.

Although Caron felt hurt by his rebuff she was not ready