| NOBELS | BRIDGERTON

15 | RACING HEARTS & LATE NIGHT READING

     OPHELIA RODE ON a spare horse behind Antony and Benedict, her brothers behind her. She remained silent until she noticed that the men were heading to the right.

"Where are they going?" Ophelia asked, moving closer to the Bridgerton brothers.

"Toward our camp, I believe." Antony replied.

"There are tracks going off to the left. Look." She pointed out. "In the moss, you can see the cloven shape. If we go to our camp now, we may miss our quarry entirely."

Antony looked back her, a small look of disbelief on his face. "Let us stay with the group. If we find nothing, I shall offer myself up for your target practice."

"Perfect target." She joked lightly.

Their ride continued in silence as the two tried to find something to start a conversation. Then they both attempted to speak at the same time.

"When did you-"

"It is a rather-"

The two fell in silence again but Ophelia decided to answer his question, knowing what it was. "My father used to take my brothers hunting often. When my mother was busy with other matters, I would join them."

"Then it seems you'll manage quite well."

The girl sighed. "Perhaps, I have only held a gun twice."

Antony looked at her. "Twice? But Miss Edwina mentioned you shot more birds than your brothers?"

"I have, I happen to have great luck." She smiled, then she paused. "Lord Bridgerton?"

"Yes?"

The simply stared at each other, Antony waiting to see what Ophelia was about to say, until he was called by Benedict as they reached camp. The man then sped off to catch up with his brother, leaving Ophelia alone.

They left the horses at the camp and began, on foot, to find the stag in the forest. Ophelia walked beside Thomas with a gun on her shoulder, it was not the same as the gun she had held only twice before but in reality she didn't expect to be shooting anything any time soon. 

The girl fell slightly behind her brother as she neared a large branch in her path, Antony noticed and walked over, offering his hand. "Do you still believe we have lost our prey?"

Ophelia ignored his hand, hitched up her skirt and stepped over the branch, showing off her leg by complete accident. "I believe that deer prefer the edge of the forest. This is much too open out here.

"Uh, yes, well." Antony stuttered lightly. "Perhaps you are right, but we should carry on. Certainly there'll be other deer on other paths. They do not always keep together. And if there are not, then-" The man stopped when he realised that the girl had disappeared. 

Antony eventually found the girl, she was kneeling down behind a large fallen tree, her gun aimed at something. 

"Miss Hall." Ophelia shushed him but he only continued to speak. "Are you quite serious? You cannot just go off like that with your gun."

"Would you be quiet?" Ophelia snapped.

"Suppose it is rather like you, leaving everyone behind."

"No one wishes to hear what you think you know about me."

"I do not need to think. I know. From the moment I saw you last season, it was obvious the rules are meaningless to you."

Ophelia groaned. "You and your rules."

"Perhaps if you had not been out again the other morning, we might not have been put into such a difficult situation."

The girl finally looked at the man. "Exactly which difficult situation are you referring to?"

"Your-" He paused. "The other morning."

"When I was stung?"

"After which you put my hand to your bosom."

She scoffed. "To show you I was unharmed. You were overcome."

"Indeed I was not." He argued.

"You then looked at me."

"You looked at me!"

"Not the way you did."

"And how exactly did I look?"

She gave him the same look he had given her. His jaw clenched at the sight. He was holding back. There was a rustle among the bushes which made the two look away from each other and towards the greenery.

"There is something there." She mumbled, putting the gun into place as best as she could with this new model.

Antony watched her movements. "It'll signify little if you mean to hold your gun in that way."

"I have not used this model."

"Evidently." He moved slightly closer to her, placing his arms around her to hold onto her arms and guide her into the correct placement.

Her heart began to beat faster as she felt his hand drift over hers, his face right beside her own. She could feel his breath against her ear, she looked at his in the corner of her eyes. The two stared at each other. Only breaking when they heard a voice.

The two quickly joined the group, running into Benedict who smirked playfully. "There you two are. Well, you better rejoin us before the rain ends our pursuits."

The hunt group managed to make it back to Aubrey Hall before the rain began to pour down on them. The girl got a bath and changed into her night gown as the storm continued. Ophelia hated storms, always had, since she was a child. She tossed and turned for a few hours before she decided to do something to distract herself.

She left her bed, a candle in her hand as she made her way to the library. She though that a book would help distract her, and she had read all of her others. She scowered the shelves and eventually found a book she had not read and surprisingly it was Romeo and Juliet. She heard the door open and turned to see who it was.

"Antony." She said, it seemed she had a habit of calling him by his first name when they were alone and not angry with each other.

"I did not mean to startle you." He replied. "I saw a light and thought I might have left a candle lit."