directly in her path.
"You bloody little reckless fool! Do you have no care for either yourself or your horse? She could have easily caught a hoof in a rabbit hole out there and broken a leg, or thrown you and broken your neck. Though by my first impression, the former would surely be the greater loss."
"How dare you lecture me, when you were in pursuit!"
"The difference is after ten years of riding that heath, I know every warren on it. You don't! Besides the fact that you ran that poor broodmare ragged. You can't ride a horse like that that's out of condition!"
"But Jeffries said I could take her out for an airing, and she loved every minute of it!" Charlotte replied.
"Because she was born to run, and you asked her to! A game little mare like that would run herself to death before quitting!" Charlotte cast a guilty look at Amoret's body, now coated in sweat and white lather.
"When the boys here exercise, they take their mounts for a light hack. That's a sedate trot and easy canter, not all out and hellfor-leather. A horse that's out of condition must be brought along easily, not worked too fast or for too long. You need to retrain the horse how to carry herself and strengthen her with light exercise, short gallops, short sweats, and regular rough offs, lest you destroy her legs."
"But that's not how you were riding!"
"It's my job to run the cracks, the ones who are already properly conditioned and ready to run. Did they teach you nothing where you came from, lad? And what is your name, anyway?"
"I'm not a lad ," she retorted, pulling her cap from her head, "and my name is Charlotte. Pray excuse me; my horse requires cooling."
For days following the incident, Charlotte feared that Robert would betray her to her uncle, but after a se'nnight of agony, Robert had not spoken a word. His behavior was puzzling. With caution, Charlotte resumed her rides, but to her consternation, Robert began to appear every morning on the heath.
With her breath catching and her pulse racing, she had run. Run
from any promise of friendship or love. But before long, she looked forward to their meetings with a fluttering heart and unexplained anticipation. Their morning rides became an exhilarating game of chase that Charlotte relished with sheer abandonment. For these few hours each day, Charlotte could take flight from her otherwise tightly controlled universe to share together this freedom and world without boundaries.
Over time, this unspoken, nameless attraction between them continued to blossom, refusing to dwindle or fade, though they had little opportunity to foster or nourish it. Slowly and patiently, Robert's sheer persistence in the chase had revealed his heart, and Charlotte came to realize the nameless thing between them was love.
Four
TRIAL BY FIRE
Woolwich Training Grounds, December 1742
C aptain Philip Drake swaggered down the line of crimson-coated new recruits, scrutinizing the would-be troopers with cynicism. Callow young men, barely off their mother's teat, with visions of grandeur in the King's Horse, he scoffed.
At barely three-and-twenty himself, the young captain was one of over sixteen thousand Englishmen who had joined the British Army as part of the Pragmatic alliance to defend the territories of the new Queen of Austria after a French and Prussian invasion of her territories.
George II, wearing dual crowns as King of Britain and Electorate of Hanover, headed the alliance, but acting more to secure his own German electorate than to honor the treaty with Austria.
The vast majority of British recruits desired nothing more than to fight Britain's age-old Gallic adversary. Although they had little concern for the threat to Hanover, French dominion across the face of Europe was another thing altogether.
Philip Drake was among this number and had purchased a commission with a small inheritance received on his twenty-first birthday. He had joined the
"You bloody little reckless fool! Do you have no care for either yourself or your horse? She could have easily caught a hoof in a rabbit hole out there and broken a leg, or thrown you and broken your neck. Though by my first impression, the former would surely be the greater loss."
"How dare you lecture me, when you were in pursuit!"
"The difference is after ten years of riding that heath, I know every warren on it. You don't! Besides the fact that you ran that poor broodmare ragged. You can't ride a horse like that that's out of condition!"
"But Jeffries said I could take her out for an airing, and she loved every minute of it!" Charlotte replied.
"Because she was born to run, and you asked her to! A game little mare like that would run herself to death before quitting!" Charlotte cast a guilty look at Amoret's body, now coated in sweat and white lather.
"When the boys here exercise, they take their mounts for a light hack. That's a sedate trot and easy canter, not all out and hellfor-leather. A horse that's out of condition must be brought along easily, not worked too fast or for too long. You need to retrain the horse how to carry herself and strengthen her with light exercise, short gallops, short sweats, and regular rough offs, lest you destroy her legs."
"But that's not how you were riding!"
"It's my job to run the cracks, the ones who are already properly conditioned and ready to run. Did they teach you nothing where you came from, lad? And what is your name, anyway?"
"I'm not a lad ," she retorted, pulling her cap from her head, "and my name is Charlotte. Pray excuse me; my horse requires cooling."
For days following the incident, Charlotte feared that Robert would betray her to her uncle, but after a se'nnight of agony, Robert had not spoken a word. His behavior was puzzling. With caution, Charlotte resumed her rides, but to her consternation, Robert began to appear every morning on the heath.
With her breath catching and her pulse racing, she had run. Run
from any promise of friendship or love. But before long, she looked forward to their meetings with a fluttering heart and unexplained anticipation. Their morning rides became an exhilarating game of chase that Charlotte relished with sheer abandonment. For these few hours each day, Charlotte could take flight from her otherwise tightly controlled universe to share together this freedom and world without boundaries.
Over time, this unspoken, nameless attraction between them continued to blossom, refusing to dwindle or fade, though they had little opportunity to foster or nourish it. Slowly and patiently, Robert's sheer persistence in the chase had revealed his heart, and Charlotte came to realize the nameless thing between them was love.
Four
TRIAL BY FIRE
Woolwich Training Grounds, December 1742
C aptain Philip Drake swaggered down the line of crimson-coated new recruits, scrutinizing the would-be troopers with cynicism. Callow young men, barely off their mother's teat, with visions of grandeur in the King's Horse, he scoffed.
At barely three-and-twenty himself, the young captain was one of over sixteen thousand Englishmen who had joined the British Army as part of the Pragmatic alliance to defend the territories of the new Queen of Austria after a French and Prussian invasion of her territories.
George II, wearing dual crowns as King of Britain and Electorate of Hanover, headed the alliance, but acting more to secure his own German electorate than to honor the treaty with Austria.
The vast majority of British recruits desired nothing more than to fight Britain's age-old Gallic adversary. Although they had little concern for the threat to Hanover, French dominion across the face of Europe was another thing altogether.
Philip Drake was among this number and had purchased a commission with a small inheritance received on his twenty-first birthday. He had joined the
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