The Earls lie or a scoundrels promise

Let us mourn the men we were

                  

Chapter 9 - Let us mourn the men we were, and welcome the men we are

Blake watched the horseman race across the fields, had watched with a strange enthusiasm as the lad bobbed up and down on the back of the beautiful grey beast, He had tried to stop his eyes straying to the round behind. He was going mad, but something was disturbingly familiar about that behind. And he had waited until the lad had stopped at the top of the hill and removed his cap, letting an abundance of mahogany brown hair fall to his back. And then it made sense.

'Elizabeth'

he muttered, a smile caught his lips, which  would be permanent now.

He was In-fact a she, and she was dressed in men's clothing, astride a horse, shocked again? When would she stop surprising him?

Blake had ridden all the way from London and was taking his horse to the stable when he decided to go for a wonder. He'd seen the lad riding skilfully, pushing the horse harder and harder across the land and instantly knew something was familiar. He had been confused at his attraction, his body's traitorous reaction which had initially worried him to say the least.

His body knew her before his mind had. He watched her jump down and pat the horse once more. Her breeches clung to her legs, thighs and bum and it was the most arousing thing he had seen. She wore a shirt tucked in and it was loose over her shoulders exposing creamy flesh. He was hard at the sight of her.

He had distanced himself from her after what happened at the ball. He didn't regret it but he stayed away while trying to figure out what on earth he was doing, Searching for an answer when he didn't even know the question.
He shouldn't have let himself go there, he portrayed the scoundrel for the world but he wasn't that. He had promised to leave her virtue in question, not actually take it for himself. He lost his mind when he was with her.

He hadn't not thought of her for one hour since, he wondered where she was, what she was doing and if she was thinking of him. The one thing he knew, was he had missed her.

He had waited for her to return from the study that night, but as soon as he saw her enter the room, that flush gracing the apples of her cheeks, the glossy sheen of her skin, the sated look of her eyes, he knew, he had to leave. He thought it would be impossible to be near her and not give away what had happened between them. He had to go so there was no chance of that.

He had waited the three days until he could travel down to her home for the week long house party before her sister's wedding. And it had been  just short of torture. He wanted to write to her but he couldn't find the right words.

He had ridden hard to get here as soon as he could, earlier than the others, and what should he discover, that the woman he's been thinking of for 3 days was riding around her estate dressed as a man.

He laughed.

Just when he thought he had her figured out, he finds her in breeches and a cap. She was amazing, unpredictable and he wanted her, more than any other woman before.

Liza 4791 - Blake -1

But it was more than just wanting her body, he wanted her in every sense. He wanted to be the reason she laughed, wanted her to come to him when she needed comfort. He wanted to protect her from whatever she had been running from that first night they met.

It hit him like a brick wall, he wanted her always... It felt as if the last 3 days he had spent telling himself otherwise had been more than wasted. He had been trying to convince himself otherwise, because of own stupid selfish ego, worried what it would do to him if she chose to leave still, when truthfully he wanted to marry her.