My Lady Miriam Part 4

"Winwood? What is it?” she paused, waiting for an answer, “Winwood, we must carry on!” She cried anxiously.
“Winwood?” Miriam asked loudly after her mother, but could hear only the sound of an awkward cough of their driver. She sighed again and said to her Mama with a comforting pat on the arm,
”Nothing for it Mama, I’ll go out and see what it is.”
“No, no dear! It might be dangerous! Stay here, let Winwood deal with it!” She shook her head,
“We are no safer in here than out there.” Miriam saw her mother’s eyes open wide and smiled reassuringly, “Indeed Mama, you have such a wild imagination! I am sure it is just a hunting party or some such thing. Stay here for a moment.”
But before she could reach for the carriage door handle, it flew open. She found herself staring into the eyes of a masked gentleman. They stared back clearly, coldly and with fierce determination. She fearlessly stared back with a raised eyebrow and said confidently and with a charming smile many could not resist,
“Can I help you sir?”
She stepped out of the open carriage as the masked man stepped aside, and saw only the one man and his horse.
“As to your question, yes you can help me.” His voice was irritatingly familiar; she stared curiously at him, trying to place it, but he merely stared at the large purse she held in her hand loosely with a strange, cynical smile.
“Your trunk, I believe has some artefacts of some value, I will be taking possession of them. You’ll excuse me.” He started to walk behind Miriam; she frowned but did not turn around as she replied,
“I’m afraid you might be terribly disappointed, sir for there are no—” She was interrupted suddenly as her oddly-shaped purse was snatched from her hands. She uttered a gasp of fright but managed to maintain her countenance as she frowned intensely at him, waiting for some explanation of this strange behaviour.
“You are in possession of my gun I believe, which was unfortunately misunderstood as a gift. I’m sorry to retrieve it, you must forgive me, but I judge you will endure tolerably well without it.” Her eyes grew wider as he finished his sentence, and she looked at the gentleman compellingly. With brows raised she asked, without so much as a tremble in her voice,
“An unusual sort of amusement is it not your Grace?”
He smiled sardonically at her but did not answer. Instead he walked to his horse, placed the gun in the saddle bag and as he returned the purse gently to her hand his eyes smiled with an unusual softness. Miriam’s was entirely baffled, how could this man be so abominably rude on one occasion, stop her carriage and steal what was rightfully his on another and yet be so intriguing? His calm, dry, and sarcastic humour was odd, yet how he was able to achieve such gentleness and warmth was bewildering to her. However he had arrested her attention, she was still aware of the fact that he was stopped her carriage and exhibited some exceedingly ungentleman-like behaviour.
“You do know Sir, that should this unfortunate story—circumstance by mere chance disclose itself you would at a Non-Plus.” She said icily.
“You’ll find that I am never at a Non-Plus. Your story would indeed be an outrageous one! I’ll say good-day to you.” Miriam’s eyes flashed with anger, she turned her face away, not wishing that—that man! to see her anger. How provoking he was! How he treated her like a child! She muttered darkly to herself.
He walked away, and mounted his horse easily without looking back at her. But before he rode off however, he looked down at her and said with a twinkle in his eye,
“I suggest to you that you return to your carriage before your horses run away. My groom is too busy to spend his time searching for lost animals!”

Sorry this one is so short! More will be coming soon!
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