Ransom My Heart by Meg Cabot Read Free Book Online Page B

promised. Besides, she was a year older and wiser now. And this time, she would be in control. She’d be expecting him, and she’d be prepared.
    Taking up Violet’s reins, she urged the mare well ahead of the traveler and his servant, and hastily, but with practiced care, made the preparations.

Chapter Four
    H ugo wasn’t certain how much longer he was going to be able to abide his squire’s incessant whining. First about the girl in the inn, and now the fact that his horse didn’t have the strength of Hugo’s and needed a rest. Hugo himself had selected Peter’s mount, and knew that the animal was as sturdy as his own, though not as highly trained. No, it was Peter who wanted to rest, though it was only just past midday and the weather fine, and they had been riding for only a few hours. What had Hugo done in this life to deserve the torment this sniveling youth was putting him through? Couldn’t the lad keep his mouth shut and let them ride in peace?
    â€œMy lord,” the boy called, from some distance behind. “My lord, hold up. We haven’t had a bite to eat since Leesbury and I’m near faint with hunger—”
    Hugo rolled his eyes. The boy’s appetite, like his love of chatter, was insatiable.
    â€œThere’s bread and bacon in your pack,” Hugo growled, in his most menacing manner. “Gnaw on that awhile.” Hopefully, the youth’s mouth would be too full for conversation. Or, Hugo considered, brightening a bit, he might choke to death—
    But they were entering familiar ground at last, and Hugo could not stay irritated long. Here was the grove where he had bagged his first stag some twenty years earlier, there the copse where he’d first laid Fat Maude, some ten years later. They were still a good two days’ ride from the manor house, but it was two days of territory that was as familiar to Hugo as the back of his own hand. Ah! It felt strangely good to be home after a decade of fairly aimless wandering.
    When they came to the turn in the sheep track that led to the rock formation that towered above the Spring of St. Elias, Hugo hesitated. The spring was a delightful place for a dip. Many a boyhood summer had been spent hunting in these hills, and the spring was where Hugo and his brother had bathed, learning to swim in the deep pool, and learning to dive from the towering rock outcroppings above the spring.
    No longer tended by the church, St. Elias having fallen out of favor some fifty years back when water from his spring failed to cure a single leper, the pool was overgrown and desolately beautiful in its remoteness. Wildflowers flourished in the crevices of the gorge, and the branches of the trees that grew twistedly out of the rock skimmed the water’s surface. It was a perfect place for a swim after a hot and dusty ride—and that’s precisely what Hugo decided his charge needed.
    Of course Peter had other ideas.
    â€œGo for a swim?” he echoed, in disbelief, when Hugo imparted his plan. “What, me ? Born and raised in London I was, don’tforget, my lord. What do I know about swimming? Couldn’t swim a stroke to save my life!”
    â€œHow fortuitous,” Hugo rumbled, quite audibly.
    â€œI mean it, my lord. I’m happy to water the horses while you swim, but you won’t catch me jumping in for a dip. Besides, what would I want with a lot of icy cold spring water? It’s just turned May, sir, not July. There’s quite a distinct nip in the air—”
    There wasn’t, but Hugo wasn’t in any mood to argue. Slipping from the saddle, Hugo grasped his mount’s bridle and steered his horse first toward the rocky prominence that towered above the spring, so that he could gaze on it fully and see whether it had changed overmuch in the ten years since he’d last seen it. He left the boy grumbling behind him, and slipped through the fresh green grass alongside the