Read Online A Flight To Heaven by Barbara Cartland - Free Book Online Page B

pushing on as fast as he could, as the faint scent of home was drifting towards them and he wanted to be safely there as much as his Mistress.
    For a moment Chiara thought she had outwitted her pursuers, but then a great shout went up from the road.
    “I see her! Look, her white horse, over there in the field!”
    Then the thud of hooves came crashing over the muddy ground and Mervyn Hunter’s thoroughbred raced up alongside Erebus.
    “Whoa, there! Stop I say!” he shouted out and he reached down from his saddle and caught the reins out of Chiara’s hands, tugging on them so hard that Erebus was dragged off balance and he staggered and fell to his knees.
    Chiara was flung over his head and hit the ground so hard that all the breath was knocked from her body.
    “I say. Is she all right?” Lord Darley cantered up, leaping down from the saddle to kneel beside Chiara.
    “That brute threw her!” Mervyn Hunter exclaimed, throwing the reins at Erebus’s head. “Get away! Be off with you!”
    Erebus limped away across the furrows.
    Chiara wanted to call out to him to come back and that he had done nothing wrong, but she was struggling to breath and could not speak.
    “My poor sweetheart!” Mervyn Hunter leant down from the saddle. “Can you lift her up to me, Lord Darley?”
    Chiara felt herself being lifted high in the air and then Mervyn Hunter’s strong arms went round her, holding her in front of him as his tall horse bounded across the fields towards Rensham Hall.
    Night was finally falling as they clattered under the echoing archway that led into the stable yard.
    Lady Fairfax was standing in the yard, surrounded by servants carrying lanterns.
    “Oh, my darling!” she cried out, her face pale in the flickering light. “Thank God they have found you!”
    Chiara had recovered her breath, but his arms still held her in a vice-like grip, perched in front of him on his tall horse.
    “Mama, I am so sorry. I did not mean to be out for so long. I intended just to ride around the Park – ”
    Jonah now came up to them leading Erebus, who had found his way back across the fields to the stable yard.
    “Ah, ha, there is the culprit!” Mervyn Hunter said, holding Chiara so tightly that she felt the vibration of his deep voice against her.
    “What happened?” Jonah’s face was puzzled. “The little pony always brings you safely home.”
    Chiara was about to explain that Erebus had been doing exactly that, until Mervyn Hunter made him fall, but she was interrupted.
    “God knows what might have happened if we had not been there!” he snapped. “The beast was completely out of control.”
    Lady Fairfax gave a little cry of horror and pressed her hands to her face in horror.
    “My poor sweet daughter!” she muttered.
    Lord Darley jumped down from his horse and came over.
    “Lady Fairfax, please – don’t be distressed. See – all is well. She has not been hurt.”
    He then took Chiara’s hands and helped her to jump down from Mervyn Hunter’s horse.
    “Mama, I am really quite all right,” she began, but Lady Fairfax was looking at her with alarm.
    “What is this horrid thing?” she asked, touching the tattered coat Chiara was wearing.
    “A gentleman gave me his coat, Mama.”
    “A gentleman ?” Lady Fairfax shook her head in disbelief. “But this is just a dirty old rag!”
    Chiara was about to explain about her encounter with the dark-haired man in the elegant morning suit, when Mervyn Hunter spoke again.
    “Perhaps Lady Chiara has been paying a visit to the raggle-taggle gypsies!” he sneered, “she certainly managed to give us the slip for quite some time. Was by chance this ‘gentleman’ of the Romany people?”
    “I – don’t think so – ” Chiara hesitated.
    She could not place the dark-haired man’s foreign accent she had liked so much, but she was quite certain that no Romany would have worn an immaculate morning suit.
    “Promise me, my darling, that you will never go off like that