Tempting the Footman (House of Devon #5) - Lauren Smith Page 0,45

the driver asked.

“We’re looking for a Mr. . . .” Mr. Sherman looked at Venetia uncertainly.

“Mr. Adrian Montague,” she supplied.

“Mr. Adrian Montague. Is he on your coach?”

At Sherman’s question, the figure sitting atop turned around. It was Adrian. Her beautiful footman, his face white with shock.

“My lady?” he gasped.

“Oh, Adrian! Please do come down. We must speak.”

“I cannot. I’m bound for London. Lord Devon terminated my employment.”

“I know, but it doesn’t matter. Please come down from there.”

Adrian gave an apologetic look to the coach driver as he climbed down and removed his valise from the back of the conveyance. He looked between her and Mr. Sherman in concern.

Mr. Sherman raised his hands. “I am here on a mission for love, but I am not in the way, I assure you.”

The driver called out, “Oi! You staying or coming with us?”

“He’s staying!” Venetia called back and waved the man away. For a moment she feared that Adrian would reject her words, reject her, but she had to trust that he loved her as she loved him.

“I am?” Adrian asked with heart-wrenching uncertainty.

The rain lessened a little. Venetia shivered, and Adrian removed his cloak and put it around her shoulders. His scent enveloped her, and she couldn’t help but beam at him in relief. She’d found him. He hadn’t vanished.

The coach driver shrugged and pulled away, leaving Venetia, Mr. Sherman, and Adrian with only one horse between them.

“Heavens, how are we to get back?” she asked.

“You’ll ride,” both men insisted. Venetia considered arguing, but she saw the resolve on their faces. There would be no arguing with them.

“Very well.” She was lifted up into the saddle. Mr. Sherman took the reins and led the horse. They had walked only a few minutes when another coach approached them, this one with Venetia’s family crest emblazoned on it.

“Lady Latham sent me for you, my lady!” the coachman said. “She didn’t want you to get wet.” The driver chuckled as he looked at the already soaked trio.

Mr. Sherman turned to Venetia as she slid out of the saddle and into Adrian’s arms. “You and Mr. Montague need some time alone to converse. I shall ride back to the house ahead of you.”

Venetia caught his hand. “Mr. Sherman, you are a fine gentleman. There is a woman out there for you, a lady deserving of your noble heart.” She smiled at him, and then with a grin she added, “But it would be best to keep her far away from your sister when you find her.”

Mr. Sherman laughed heartily. “Never has truer advice been offered. I wish you all the best, Lady Venetia.”

“I wish that for you as well.”

Mr. Sherman left, and Venetia turned to Adrian, who had opened the coach door for her. She quickly climbed inside, and he followed.

“Venetia, why did you come after me?”

Adrian gazed at the woman who held his heart in her hands as she climbed inside the coach. She’d come for him, but why? Had she learned of his firing and convinced Lord Devon to reinstate him? Yet Mr. Sherman had said this was a mission of love. He wasn’t trying to be deliberately obtuse, but sanity had to tamp down on the rising swell of hope within him. She couldn’t be here for him, and yet . . .

He climbed inside the coach after her. “Venetia, why did you come after me?”

“I know that what I’m about to do is completely out of the normal way of things, but I believe you would not ask, so I must.”

“Ask what?” He studied her face, the way she looked so nervous and excited all at once.

“I came so that I could propose to you. Adrian, will you honor me for the rest of the days of our lives by marrying me?”

Adrian wondered if he’d fallen from the top of the coach and hit his head. He must be dreaming.

“I . . .”

Venetia’s face reddened. “Heavens, if you don’t want to, I understand, but I had thought that . . . Oh, I am silly, aren’t I?”

She looked humiliated, and Adrian’s reactions finally caught up with him. He reached across the seat to her, clasping her gloved hands in his. “The answer is yes. Yes to anything you might ever ask me,” he replied, fighting off waves of powerful emotions that threatened to sweep him away.

She brightened with fresh hope. “Yes?”

“Yes, my heart, yes.” He had no other words to tell her what lay in his heart, but yes was enough for