Accidentally Alluring

By Kathryn Kaleigh

A mishap. A charm. And a kiss.

 

The Amiraults and Beausejours lived less than two miles apart for nearly a century. Did anyone expect the latest generation NOT to couple up and link the two for generations forever?

 

Freshly returned from finishing school, Jade Amirault may have newly acquired skills designed t

• Language: English
• Publisher: KST Publishing Inc.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088278437

Kathryn Kaleigh

Kathryn Kaleigh is a bestselling romance novel and short story writer. Her writing spans from the past to the present from historical time travel fantasy novels to sweet contemporary romances. From her imaginative meet-cutes to her happily-ever-afters, her writing keeps readers coming back for more.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Jade Amirault

October 1855

North Louisiana

It was a crisp cool morning. One of those days when the sun promised not to singe the air and the wind blew in the right direction. One that kept the stale odor of the Mississippi River at bay, bringing instead the sweet scent of fall foliage.

The field was dotted with clusters of wild purple lavenders and other clusters of wild yellow daisies with black centers.

Early morning mist hung low over the ground, glimmering in the early morning sunlight. Like magic.

I took my horse, Astor, a fine solid white Arabian that came from thoroughbred stock, bred by my father, into a gallop to the top of a ridge and stopped. A mix of purple and white flowers dotted the land below, ignoring the wooden split-rail fence boundary. A narrow dirt road, little more than a path really, wound its way along the grove of oak trees that belonged to the Beauséjour family.

A dragonfly touched Astor’s nose before disappearing behind us. A flock of grey geese landed on the fence and spilled onto the ground mostly on the other side like a blanket fluttering gracefully onto the ground.

On my left, cotton fields stretched endlessly to the river. Their bolls had burst open with a million white blooms covering the land like fresh fallen snow. That section of land belonged to my family, the Amiraults.

I adjusted my skirts around me. I wore my favorite emerald green riding habit and a simple, but elegant bonnet tied beneath my chin. My lady’s maid, Mary, would let me out of the house in no less. If she knew I was out riding alone, she would go into an apoplectic fit. Fortunately, she wasn’t up yet and far as she knew, neither was I.

It had taken no more than a smile to convince the stable boy to saddle my horse and I was off. Between my family and the Beauséjour family, we owned a thousand acres as far as the eye could see.

Astor shook her head, reminding me that we needed to get back, but first we had something to do.

I nudged her into a gallop, down the rolling hill, straight for the fence. She knew exactly what we were up to.

My hair came loose and flowed behind me as we raced toward the fence, sailing smoothly over.

As we landed, though, there was a flutter in the grass that brought Astor to an unexpected stop. She instinctively reared up, and since I was sitting sidesaddle, I summarily slid off the horse’s back and landed on the ground. My breath left me in a whoosh.

I just lay there, stunned, unable to move, watching the white puffy clouds drift past.

No one knew where I was.

Going out like this had been a bad idea.

A very bad idea.

CHAPTER 2

Henri Beausejour

It was in my nature to be up early and I liked the solitude that went along with it.

Since I was almost always the first person up in both my family and the neighbors, the Amiraults, I had plenty of time for contemplation.

The Amiraults weren’t actually neighbors. They were more. We’d grown up less than two miles from each other. We had even shared a tutor.

It was rather interesting. The Amiraults had three boys and two girls. We had two boys and three girls. Our ages, however, were scattered all over the place.

I sat on my horse in a grove of oak trees not far from the arbitrary property line. Arbitrary since no one paid it any mind. And looked out across the field, covered with early morning mist.

It was quite lovely.

A great heron sailed gracefully out over the field and dropped to the ground.

It was time to pick the cotton and prepare for the winter.

My horse twitched his ears and picked up one hoof, then the other.

What is it boy? I asked, patting his neck. My horse, Wanderer had been with me since I was a child.

He shook his head.

I looked out across the field toward the bluff. And there sitting at the top of the bluff on her white horse was Jade. Skirts in a color befitting her name surrounded her. She made quite a vision from here, sitting on her horse, high above the mist.

Five years younger than me, Jade was like a little sister. She had been off at finishing school, so I hadn’t seen her since January. Nine months.

I hadn’t expected her home until Christmas, but Jade was predictably unpredictable.

When she trotted down the rolling hill and nudged her horse into a gallop across the field, I knew what she was about.

Even nine months at finishing school couldn’t tame Jade Amirault.

As she flew toward the fence that I knew she was about to jump, her bonnet flew off her head, held on only by the ribbons around her neck.

She sat her horse, tall and gracefully as the horse sailed over the fence.

A beautiful jump as much as I hated to admit.

Then something went wrong. Her horse stopped abruptly and reared back, sending Jade to the ground.

The horse, traitor that he was, didn’t even seem to notice.

In the second all this took place I, too, was flying across the field toward her.

I jumped off my horse and ran the rest of the way toward her, kneeling beside her.

What happened? I asked, instinctively checking her for broken bones. Can you move?

Stupid sidesaddle, she grumbled as she sat up. Stupid horse.

I tried not to laugh, but I was overwhelmed with relief.

At my involuntary chuckle, she narrowed her eyes in my direction.

Astor better have a good reason for this, she said.

There was a snake in the grass, I said, not knowing for sure that was what had happened, but it was quite likely.

Startled, she looked around her, tugging her skirts close.

I’m sure it’s long gone, I said.

You should look for it.

Indeed I should. Being the gentleman that I was, I stood up and looked around in a half-hearted effort to find the snake.

I’m more concerned about you, I said, kneeling next to her again.

It’s my pride that’s wounded, she said, with a pretty pout. As her almost brother, her pout was wasted on me. Or at least it should have been.

Her cheeks were flushed with the cool sting of the wind.

Jade had always been the prettiest of the sisters, but since she was also the oldest of the three, that was to be expected. The others were still in the early stages of development and had yet to reach their potential.

But not Jade. She’d only been gone for nine months, but that finishing school had done its job. Even with her sitting inelegantly on the ground, I could tell that there was something different about her. Perhaps it was the way she held herself.

And the Jade I knew, wouldn’t have known how to pout, much less how to pout in such a way as to stir a man’s heart.

Fortunately, as her almost brother, I was immune to any of the feminine wiles she had learned at school.

Come on, I said, let me help you up.

I stood and held out a hand. She put her gloved hand in mine and moved to stand up.

Ow, she said. Ow. Ow. Ow. Then she fluttered gracefully back to the ground.

What hurts? I asked, crouching beside her again.

My ankle, she said.

Let me see.

She shot me a scathing glance.

You might recall that I am a doctor and it is my job to examine sprained ankles.

Surely as a doctor, you have more important things to do, she said, looking away, her cheeks flushing prettily.

Alright, I said, getting to my feet and turning to walk to my horse.

Wait, she said.

I smiled before I turned around. I wouldn’t leave her stranded here, of course. But I had made my point.

She needed me.

And somehow, even though she was injured, I found it oddly invigorating.

CHAPTER 3

Jade

Why did it have to be Henri Beausejour? Why did he have to be the one to come to my rescue?

Henri was the middle child of my neighbors and one of my almost siblings. We weren’t related by blood, but we may as well have been.

Our fathers had grown up together after our grandfathers had sailed from France together. The story was they had met on the ship and, after a tussle over a girl, had become fast friends. Neither one of them had ended up with the girl.

They both swore they were better off as a result.

Although we had grown up together, I hadn’t spent a whole lot of time with Henri.

He was not only five years older, but he had gone away to medical school, returning just as I was coming of age.

He had always been the most handsome of his brothers. Not that I had noticed. He was, after all, almost my brother.

I’d always had a little crush on him, but I would never breathe a word to anyone about it.

And now he wanted to put his hands on my ankle.

The pain when I stood was almost unbearable, to the point that I really didn’t care what he did as long as he made it stop hurting.

But, fresh out of finishing school, I felt obliged to at least pretend some level of protest.

This particular situation had not been in any of our textbooks or lectures.

If you fall off your horse in the middle of a field… and your neighbor, whom