A Token of Love

9

     Everyone was at the estate early. It was the last day of the party and today was to celebrate Daniel and Maddie's upcoming wedding. Stella was hosting a country party like the one Matthew, and Maddie experienced when they made a trip to the colonies. She had always wanted to host one, now was her chance. She had warned everyone to dress comfortably and not in bulky clothing so they could enjoy the games of the day.

Her first game was a three-legged race where she paired couples together then tied their legs together with string and set them on a race. It was Lucas and Abigail who won that race, only because the others were not able to work together. Her next game switched up partners. It was egg toss. She had the couples draw names for their partners. Maddie was paired up with Mr. Carlton the village shopkeeper. To everyone's surprise, they won the toss. The old man strutted around teasing all the young men about how they should be ashamed to let an old man win.

The men were challenged to a pie-eating contest and to everyone's surprised the thinnest man at the event. The party went on like that for the rest of the day until the big contest and which was a ribbon race. This was the one contest she was not sure she should be doing but it was in for an ounce why not a pound? She decided to go ahead with the race after all they would be within sight of the picnic after. It was not like there was anyone there she did not trust. But she did have an overwhelming feeling of pending doom. Stella passed out the ribbons to the young ladies, each one different but close enough to throw off their sweethearts. She had each young lady place her ribbon on the pole on the outside of the racetrack where the men would snatch the ribbon to find out whom they would be spending the rest of the day with.

Daniel committed to memory Maddie's ribbon color was bright yellow, the color that matched her dress. There was one other girl who had a yellow dress, but he was not sure what color ribbon she had hopefully not yellow. He wanted to spend the day with Maddie. They had ten years to catch up. Lucas knew he needed to get Abigail's ribbon he was not so sure they would be married since he could not get her to move to London. This would be the perfect opportunity to convince her they belong together. The men lined up their horses at the starting line. Lucas, who was sitting on his horse next to Daniel wished him luck. He knew of several men who were determined to spend the day alone with Maddie. A few of them Lucas did not approve of. He was sure Daniel would not either. The tension of the starter pistol going off was tensioned filled. They had a few false starts and so the eagerness of the riders grew. When the pistol finally went off and the men urged their horses to the finish line.

Daniel considered himself a good horseman, but Nicholas Sheffield raised horses both he and his wife were excellent horsepeople. He did not have a chance. He hoped if he had to lose out to someone Nikki would be someone he would lose to. The man was so in love with his Duchess he would not consider doing anything improper with Maddie. He was not so sure about the other men in the race. Maybe Lucas seemed to want nothing bad to happen to Maddie.

Nikki was able to get Eden's ribbon. He would have a lovely day with his beautiful wife. Possibly they could cross something off his wife's list of places she wanted to make love. She had an adventurous appetite for lovemaking, she had made a list of all the places she wanted to make love to him. He remembered the night their families found out they had secretly married they went out to the lake on his estate and were caught by his twin sister. Who had a similar list to Eden, something he had never wanted to know. They had been best friends, so it did not surprise him. He had to pat himself on the back he was living in Paradise since marrying Eden.

When the race had finished, he had come in the tenth and Lucas well he barely finished his horse threw him. Someone had placed a burr under his saddle and the hoses reacted and Lucas landed on his arse. Neither man got the ribbon they wanted Daniel would be spending his day with a young village girl Violet Summers. She seemed to be a nice girl, but she hardly said a word. He wished he had brought a book so he could at least read. Lucas was not happy with who Abby got it was a young man from the Village Seth Burris the local groomer.