Under the heiress facade

Nicholas had gone from second place to last in the second race, and he wasn't sure he could recover from it.

He took the horse for a lap around the meadow and grumbled angrily, "Don't want to be the commander, huh? It's been a while since you rode on horseback? You could at least pretend to be rusty! Women are liars!"

He then lashed out at Shaun and Samantha, "And don't even get me started on you two! You went on and on about how you didn't want to be the commander, but oh, you two were sly! You didn't have to make me put my guard down. If you wanted to be commander so badly, just say so!"

Hera tried to explain, "Would you believe me if I said muscle memory kicked in after I took the horse for a couple of rounds?"

Samantha piped up, "For the record, I really don't want to be the commander of the trip. I was only trying to catch up to Hera and didn't realize how fast I was going."

"Curse my competitiveness," Shaun mused, clicking his tongue. He cast a thoughtful look at Bernard and drawled, "What happened back there, Bernard? It isn't like you to be slower than Samantha." He was definitely amused by Bernard's loss.

Bernard fell silent. He had been careless and too focused on beating Nicholas. But he didn't mind how the race turned out. He steered the horse toward Hera and said, "I figured I'd cut you guys some slack for going easy on Hera."

Shaun rolled his eyes. He had no comeback for that.

Nicholas, on the other hand, was stumped. Despite his effort, he was made the butt of the joke.

Night gradually fell, and the five of them led the horses back to the stables before they returned to their lodging house.

"Well, as the rules stipulate, Hera is now officially our commander for the trip. We'll go along with whatever plans you have, Hera," Nicholas said.

Hera truly didn't want to be appointed as commander, which was just another way of addressing an over-glorified tour leader. She would have to plan the itinerary, book the group's lodgings, make meal arrangements, and do all that miscellaneous work.

and let someone else do

them, a bright idea crossed her mind. She announced, "In that case, we'll leave

at her, unable to wrap his head

the six of them had a humble farmer's fare for dinner before

and turned in

gone according to his plans, he should be sharing a tent with Hera by the lakeside now. But

from what he

this went on, the trip would become a honeymoon trial for Hera

refused to let that happen. It was time he

move and bolted upright in bed,

was

against

scrolling through her

ет

bathroom stopped, she quickly set

UN

programming on the nightstand.

but her acting skills were not. She

Bernard emerged from the

set of