Chapter Nineteen
November 16th, 1808
Whiteoaks, Wiltshire
Icarus accepted the invitation to dine at Whiteoaks before the ball, and when Matlock urged him to come riding beforehand, he found himself agreeing to that, too. Matlock seemed almost as determined to look after him as Miss Trentham was. Was he such a pathetic-looking creature, that everyone must need watch over him?
Icarus decided not to answer that question.
He rode over to Whiteoaks beneath a bright, pale sky. The big gray only tried to unseat him once.
He hacked around the park with Matlock and the Adonis, Miss Trentham, and a burly young baronet. They trotted through a bare bluebell dell, cantered under the great oaks, jumped a stream, and indulged in a brief gallop along a lane hedged with hawthorn. Icarus was conscious
