Chapter One
Her auburn locks flying in the breeze, Juliet rode the stallion across a wide meadow and into the trees at the edge of the estate’s vast borders. There was honeysuckle in blossom, with traces of Sweet William, and the fresh scent of springtime fir filling the air. The dew which had sparkled during the early hour when her ride began was now dried away by a warm sun. Only a few soft cotton clouds dotted the blue sky.
The sunshine barely filtered through the thick grove of trees. She saw the fence line of the property beyond the brook where the stallion drank. A quick burst of energy, and the fine animal with her on its broad black back could fly over that boundary. Did she dare take off over it and liberate herself from the confines of the estate? How many times she’d dreamed of flying over that fence, and finding a life in some exciting place beyond the world she knew.
Her life choices were so very few, and she was daunted by the lack of knowledge of those other worlds. Only in books had she tasted the air of great cities, and the wide open expanses of other places. She could hear the choirs of Rome in her head, the sound of British soldiers marching, the flutter of sea gulls at the shore, the cries of street merchants selling their fine wares in bustling cities. But only in her mind.
Now, only on the stallion did she feel any freedom at all, did she really wonder if she could transport herself into the great scary unknown.
It must have been nearly ten o’clock by the looks of the sun. She stared into the sky, toward the flaming ball that could always be felt but never really seen. That was the way her heart worked. She felt things but could rarely stare them in the eye, face to face.
She’d be missed by now; yet the morning was too glorious to miss, and later in the day when she sat by her window, she would remember her early morning flight with an affectionate thrill.
The stallion with Juliet on its back pulled up to the great gate of the stone stable. Both were out of breath.
As she feared, her guardian, Mr. Terrell, stood in the courtyard with two grooms, their expressions of
