A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,6
not required to provide a match and a suitable dowry?”
Mina felt her color rise. “You are insolent, my lord. My father asked for no such favor!”
“Now don’t go back to being all formal,” he sighed. “Did you not address me as brother earlier?”
“I will never do so again,” she said angrily. “You do not deserve the title.”
He smirked. “Well, then let us get around this obstacle by calling one another by our given names, at least whilst we are the two of us alone. I will be Jeremy and you will be Mina.”
She glared at him across the carriage as he took another liberal swig from his flask.
“And just how do you propose to serve up this husband for me?” she asked caustically.
“I have someone in mind, Mina,” he admitted. “Someone who... shall we say, wants something from me?”
“You are indebted to him?”
“Not exactly.” He shrugged.
“What should compel him to offer for a relative stranger then?” she asked with mounting ire.
“Oh, he will make no such offer,” he chortled.
“If he does not offer then the whole thing is impossible!” she pronounced with some feeling of relief.
“We shall turn up at his doorstep, then send for a parson and a veil, dear sister. He will speak the vows, though I will need some private conversation with him beforehand.”
She stared at him open-mouthed. “You are joking, my lord.”
“Jeremy,” he corrected her.
“Jeremy, I think you have run quite mad!”
“I have never been more serious in my life; my dear Mina, I assure you.”
She had to break off her words as the carriage which had been climbing a slope, came to an abrupt halt.
Lord Faris twitched the curtain and gazed bleary-eyed out of the window. Mina peered past him but could make out precious little for it had grown dark and blustery outside. In the distance loomed a solitary and lonely looking inn. Mina bit back an exclamation of annoyance for she had thought they were to reach their destination before nightfall, not put up at yet another roadside tavern.
Jeremy reached up with his silver-topped can and hit the roof three raps. “Make for The Harlot,” he called.
The Harlot? Surely, she had misheard him. “Do we make for that inn?” Mina asked in dismay.
“We do,” he said thickly and turned his empty flask upside down.
“Are we staying the night there or are you simply stopping to refill your flask?” she asked coldly.
“You’d best learn to curb that tongue, young lady,” he said, wagging a finger at her. “Or I very much doubt married life will be easy for you.”
Mina glared at him, but his eyes had drifted shut and did not open them again until the carriage came to a halt. For a moment he gazed about him, blinking as though unsure of his surroundings. “Do my ears deceive me, or can I hear fisticuffs?” he asked before darting with a bound from the carriage.
Mina leaned forward to peer out of the open carriage door. There was certainly a raucous crowd in the vicinity. Whoops and yells and jeers could be heard from what sounded like a very rough and ready bunch. They did not sound at all like the sort of people you would wish to meet on a dark night. She craned her neck out until she could see the coachman.
“Where are we?” she asked.
He did not answer, simply pointed wordlessly to the swinging inn sign with his whip. Mina glanced up and saw an inn sign of a busty woman with plunging neckline and the name The Merry Harlot proclaimed over her tumbled, blowsy curls. Drawing her cloak closer about her, Mina hastily retreated inside the carriage.
The public inns they had frequented along their journey had been respectable hostelries that kept good tables and comfortable beds. She had thought Lord Faris liked his comfort far too well to stay anywhere disreputable. This place, however, was of an altogether different caliber. She could only suppose he had gone in search of more alcohol to fortify his plunging spirits.
Ten minutes later, she was dismayed to see Lord Faris striding across the courtyard toward her, holding a pewter tankard in one hand, and a shapely blonde in the other.
“Here she is, Ivy my love,” he proclaimed, wrenching the door back open. “Come, Mina, show yourself. I have one here who would fain take a look at you.” He turned back to the blonde. “I assure you Mina is no shrinking violet.”
Ivy threw back her head and laughed heartily, though Mina failed to see the