Bened did not like to think that a young woman with poor eyesight who set out alone to hunt her brother down was the most sensible one in the family. “You cannot continue riding about the countryside alone looking for people who may have seen your brother or for a trail of stars in the dust.”
When the man put it just that way, it did sound idiotic, which annoyed her. Primrose searched for a mature, sensible way to defend her actions. It was, by all the rules of society, indefensible. No lady of good birth should ride about England unaccompanied, unchaperoned. The need to find Simeon and to flee her aunt’s many plots had allowed her to ignore all that. Facing this big, calm man who expected her to explain herself, it was suddenly not so simple.
“Someone had to find Simeon. He is needed back at Willow Hill. Badly needed.” She turned to her horse, intending to mount and ride away before he could press her for more answers.
“Then we will find him.”
“We?”
Primrose watched him smoothly mount his large black gelding. A part of her wanted to thank him for offering to come with her, repeatedly and loudly, but she resisted the urge. This concerned her family and her future. It was not right to place her burdens on the shoulders of a complete stranger, no matter how broad those shoulders were.
“Yes,” he said, looking down at her with those calm silvery eyes and then nodding toward her horse. “Mount up, m’lady, and we shall hunt down that brother of yours.”
“This is not your trouble, Sir Bened,” she said, even as she mounted her horse. “This is all part of a familial contretemps and you must not feel compelled to get tangled up in it just because you have a chivalrous nature.” She frowned at him when he laughed.
“Chivalrous, am I? That opinion would amuse my kin. Nay, m’lady, I am but a man who has too long worked at watching over others. You need watching over whether you wish to admit to it or not. I am also very, very good at following a trail and need no stars in the dirt to do it.” He leaned toward her to add quietly, “I am also very good at knowing when danger and an enemy draw near. I have a strong feeling that you may be in need of those skills, m’lady.”
“I truly want to say I do not need them but”—Primrose sighed—“it would be a lie, I think. I have not much enjoyed traveling about alone, either. ’Tis not accepted anywhere. And, I am not Lady Primrose, you know. Just an honorable, so you do not need to keep saying m’lady.”
“Easier than saying m’honorable.”
Primrose laughed. “True, so just say miss.”
He nodded and took the lead as they rode back to the road. Bened would have preferred riding through the woods but he hoped he might find her brother’s trail on the road. What he really needed was more information from her and a sedate ride along a road would make talking easier. Bened was certain there was more to her hunt for her brother than a need to tell him about their father’s death.
“You say your brother is very noticeable,” he said. “In what way?”
“He dresses in a way to catch the eye. Some would call him a fop or a dandy but he never goes quite that far. Simeon does love color though and lace. He is also, well, pretty. Women would notice him were he to dress in rags. He has a face that looks both softly beautiful and yet manly. Brilliant blue eyes and what some call guinea gold hair, which is long, thick, and has soft waves in it. I have watched perfectly sensible women go all foolish over him more times than I can count. If I did not love him so much, I would probably want to kill him for so outshining me.”
Bened laughed. “I have kin like that.”
“I do not understand why he left his friends as he did, not even telling them where he was going.”
“One does not always tell one’s friends everything. Mayhap it concerned a woman.”
“It could be as simple as that yet he would have told them enough so that they would have guessed why he was being so reticent. They have all known each other since the cradle, are as close as any brothers could be. They were almost worried by the time I left them for they had begun to realize how little they did know.”
“And they just allowed you to ride away alone? None of them offered to be your guard? Just how old is your brother?”