Quick, Amanda by Reckless Read Free Book Online Page A

not amusing, damn you." The Veiled Lady struggled to calm her mare. The beast was reacting
    nervously to the emotion in her rider's voice. "I do not know why I ever started this."
    "Neither do I," Gabriel said. "Why don't you try explaining it to me?"
    "I thought you were another sort of man altogether," the Veiled Lady said accusingly. "I thought you
    were a true knight who understood about things like quests. You may recall that when I first wrote to
    you, I mentioned the possibility of an important venture. But you were completely unresponsive to my
    initial inquiries."
    "Hardly surprising, considering all I had were a couple of cryptic letters from an unknown woman who
    asked me if I wanted to play knight-errant. When I ignored those, I found myself dueling with the lady for
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    every medieval romance I wished to acquire. The entire experience was extremely irritating."
    "I told you, I wanted to create a mystery that you would wish to solve."
    "You achieved your goal, madam. But the mystery is still not entirely solved, even though I have seen
    your face. I don't know your name."
    "And you are never going to discover it," she assured him. "I am finished with this nonsense. I shall
    pursue my quest by myself. I find I do not need or want your help, after all. Good night, my lord. I
    apologize for bringing you out at midnight on a fool's errand."
    The Veiled Lady abruptly gave a signal to her mare. The horse leaped forward at full gallop and tore off
    down the moonlit lane.
    Gabriel waited a moment before following at a more sedate pace. He could hear the mare's hoofbeats
    pounding away in the distance, but he made no effort to catch up to his quarry. He did not want to
    overtake her, but merely keep track of her until she was safely home. He had a fairly good notion now of
    where she was going.
    A few minutes later he rounded a bend in the lane and saw that his hunch was correct. He sat watching
    from the shadows as the Veiled Lady and her mare turned into the drive of the massive country house
    belonging to Lord and Lady Amesbury.
    From the number of carriages in the lane, it was apparent the Amesburys were holding one of their
    famous house parties this weekend. Music and light poured from the open windows of the great house.
    Lady Amesbury never invited less than a hundred guests to her affairs.
    It was obvious his Veiled Lady had slipped unseen away from the ball to keep her midnight rendezvous.
    It would have been easy enough to do in that crowd, Gabriel thought. Most of the guests were no doubt
    roaring drunk by now. She would not be missed.
    It was clear that there was no simple way to learn the identity of the Veiled Lady by finding out who had
    attended the ball tonight, Gabriel realized. The guest list would include a number of the important people
    of the ton and most of the local gentry.
    Gabriel was not disappointed. There were other ways of learning the name of the lady. But first he had
    to attend to the small matter of recovering The Knight and the Sorcerer. He turned his stallion around and
    cantered back up the lane.
    Chapter 4
    Twenty minutes later he brought the stallion to a halt in the trees near Nash's cottage. He was not
    surprised to see that a light still burned in the window.
    He secured the stallion to a branch and made his way through the woods to the small barn at the rear of
    the cottage. When he opened the barn door, a horse whickered softly in the darkness. He saw the vague
    outline of an equine head as it turned toward him.
    "Easy, lad." Gabriel left the door open so that a shaft of moonlight lit the interior of the barn. He walked
    over to the stall. The horse blew softly and thrust its head out over the gate.
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    "You've had a busy night of it, haven't you?" Gabriel took off his glove and stroked the horse's damp
    neck and shoulder.