CHAPTER FIVEThe Duc raced ahead of Marcia and, as they pulled in their horses, she was laughing.
She had no idea how lovely she looked with her eyes sparkling, her cheeks flushed and her golden hair rioting over her head.
She turned to him and said,
“I am not going to say ‘the best horse won’, because I think your stallion is already very pleased with himself.”
“And I suppose you are thinking the same of his owner,” the Duc remarked.
“But of course!”
Looking towards the château in the distance, she added,
“How can you be anything else when you possess so much of everything? But, as my Nanny always warned me, ‘pride comes before a fall!’”
“I think mine said something similar,” the Duc nodded, “but it would be churlish not to tell you that you ride better than any woman I have ever s
