Lady Rosabella's Ruse - By Ann Lethbridge Page 0,40
Travenor?’
She glanced up. ‘I’m sorry. Did you say something?’
‘I was wondering if you would like me to unroll the carpets?’
He looked sorry, caring, as if he’d like to help. There was nothing he could do.
She shook her head with a brief smile. ‘The carpets would have been taken up long after we left.’ She squared her shoulders as she thought of the task in front of her. ‘It isn’t here. I’ll leave the back-door key with these others in the kitchen. I won’t need it again.’
Stanford must have seen her distress, much as she tried to hide it, because he gave her an encouraging smile. ‘We could try the other rooms again. I don’t think we’ll be leaving here tonight.’
She stared at him aghast. ‘Not leave?’
‘I told you, the bridge is down.’
She had to leave. Grandfather would arrive in the morning. She could not be found here with Stanford. ‘We will go around by the lane.’
‘We could try,’ he agreed. ‘But it’s a three-mile walk and, if you hadn’t noticed, it’s raining cats and dogs. Who is to say that the lane isn’t flooded? There are three bridges between here and The Grange according to the map I saw.’
‘Three miles? How can it be? It takes fifteen minutes to walk here through the woods.’
His lips thinned as if she’d called him a liar. ‘I assure you it is. The lane goes around the woods to the village, just as the lane to The Grange goes around the fields in the other direction to the village. There is no lane between the two houses apart from the path through the woods and, as I mentioned, the bridge is down.’
‘Well, there is no need to be unpleasant about it.’
He took a step towards her, as if he’d like to shake her, but he’d forgotten the low ceiling. He banged his head. ‘Blast.’
The shock on his face made her giggle. The small laugh released some of the pressure on her chest. Got her mind working again, instead of going around and around in the same old circle.
He gave her a sour look, rubbing his forehead, then he grinned. ‘Trust me, it is a three-mile walk.’
She sighed. ‘Oh, I believe you.’ Well, of course she did. If anything could go wrong, it did. ‘Then we had best get started.’
He shook his head. ‘No. Not in the dark in a raging storm.’ As if to confirm his words, a thunderclap reverberated through the house, making her jump. It grumbled into silence, leaving the sound of rain beating against the roof. ‘We will light a fire, get dry and set off at first light.’
Spend the night? ‘What will people say?’
His jaw dropped. ‘What people?’
She twisted her hands together. ‘The owner is due here tomorrow. That is why I came again tonight. What if he finds us here in the morning?’
He glanced down at the hem of her gown, mired in mud and the dust from the floors. ‘We will leave at first light. Long before anyone is on the road.’
‘If you are too fine to get a little damp, I will go by myself.’
At that moment her lantern winked out, leaving only his alight.
‘Good luck in the dark,’ he said. ‘Unless you know the whereabouts of a supply of oil.’
Negotiating a country lane would be hard enough with a lantern when there wasn’t a storm. To do so on a night like tonight would be foolish.
‘Very well, but we will have to leave the moment it is light.’
‘The instant, I promise. Let’s get downstairs to the kitchen before my light goes out. I noticed a stack of wood on the hearth in the kitchen. We can light the fire.’
‘So now you want to light a fire.’ She huffed out a breath.
He looked down at her and there was a strange expression on his face. He hesitated, then smiled his devil-may-care smile. ‘After you.’
She hurried down the stairs to the kitchen. In short order they had kindling on the fire and a merry blaze. But there weren’t many logs and they would soon burn through them.
‘I’ll fetch some of that coal up from the cellar while you get out of those wet clothes,’ she said.
He nodded. He looked a bit demonic in the light from the fire, all axe-hard angles and shadowed hollows. Not scary, though. Just terribly wicked. Her stomach gave a funny little lurch.
‘Now there is a suggestion I never thought I would hear pass your lips.’
Uncomprehending, she blinked. Then his words made sense and