Ellie Pride by Annie Groves Read Free Book Online Page B

squabbling amicably as a backdrop, Ellie picked up her first egg.
    Childishly she held her breath a little as it rolled down the hill, only letting it out when she saw that the egg had gone a respectable distance andremained unbroken as it lay in the small dip in the group that had trapped it.
    ‘Ah-ha. That is good, but I believe I can do better,’ Gideon boasted.
    He had seen the look of smouldering female resentment that Ellie had given Nancy, and it was that rather than any desire to win the egg-rolling race that was responsible for his high spirits. Ellie had been jealous!
    Carefully, Gideon reached for his first egg.
    ‘No, you can’t do that,’ Ellie reproached him firmly, as he gently threw the egg several yards before it dropped to the ground and rolled with great speed down the hill.
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘It’s against the rules.’
    ‘What rules? I haven’t seen any rules,’ Gideon protested, mock innocently.
    He loved the way Ellie’s eyes darkened with emotion, the way she threw herself so wholeheartedly into everything she did. Was she herself aware of the passionate intensity of her own nature or had her mother succeeded in hiding it from her beneath the smothering strait-jacket of ladylike behaviour she imposed on her?
    ‘Gideon’s egg has gone further than yours, Ellie,’ John sang out.
    Ellie reached for her second egg, giving Gideon a challenging look of determination.
    This time it was Connie who was dancing up and down in excitement as they watched Ellie’s second egg roll triumphantly past Gideon’s.
    ‘Right!’ To John’s delight Gideon immediately took up a very determined male stance, rubbing his hands together lightly before picking up his own second egg.
    Once again Ellie discovered that she was holding her breath whilst willing Gideon’s egg not to match the distance achieved by her own.
    Judiciously, Gideon mentally measured the distance from where he was standing to where Ellie’s egg lay.
    ‘Come on, Gideon,’ John shouted. ‘You can’t let her beat you. She’s a girl.’
    She certainly was, Gideon acknowledged, trying not to let himself think about the way the bodice of Ellie’s dress moulded the soft curves of her breasts.
    There was something distractingly enticing about the demure, daintily pleated neckline against her throat. And as for that enchantingly ridiculous nonsense of straw and ribbons she was pleased to call a hat – did she have any idea just what she was doing to him when she looked up at him from beneath its brim, or when he looked at her and could see only the straight sweetness of her nose, and the full promise of her mouth?
    If he allowed her to win, John would never let him hear the end of it, but if he beat her…He too was holding his breath as he watched his egg roll down the grassy slope.
    Just a few feet short of her own, Gideon’s egg came to a stop. Exhilarated colour warmed Ellie’s face. She started to turn towards Gideon and thenstopped as out of the corner of her eye she saw Rex, John’s pup, suddenly rush past her in pursuit of the egg.
    ‘No…he mustn’t touch it!’ she cried out, but Gideon, guessing what the pup had been instructed to do, was already lunging down the hill. Angrily, Ellie followed him, whilst Robert Pride firmly held John back, demanding that he recall his errant accomplice.
    The pup had already reached the egg, which he had picked up, but the moment he saw Nemesis in the shape of both Gideon and Ellie bearing down on him, he dropped it and headed back to his master.
    The egg, given fresh impetus, rolled happily forward, quickly overtaking the others, before dropping out of sight into a small hidden grassy dip.
    ‘Oh no!’ Ellie cried out hotly, and then gasped, as she suddenly lost her footing and pitched forward.
    Immediately, Gideon turned to try to help her, his arms wrapping protectively around her, and somehow ended up also slipping on the steep slope. Body to body they followed the path of the egg and,