Damn. While he had been quietly congratulating himself on being one step ahead of her, she had been making other plans. He hadn’t seen that coming. And he didn’t have a ticket to travel on to Exeter. He would need to dip once more into the money his father had given him for the trip to Derbyshire. And who was in Exeter that she was travelling to meet? His mind began to formulate possible answers, most of which he found unsettling.
Did Leah have a secret paramour in the west country? Was that the real reason behind her reluctance to marry Guy? The sudden thought that she had already given her heart over to another man pulled him up sharp.
“What is at Exeter?” he asked, trying to hide his concern.
“Nothing. It is just a stop. I have a ticket right through to Bodmin with the mail coach, after which I will take the local coach to Truro, after which I shall wait for the cart to take me to Mopus Passage, after which I shall walk,” she replied deadpan.
James blinked at the long list of place names as Leah rattled them off. Mopus Passage. What sort of a name was that for a town? He had never heard of it. He could only pray it was not some small out-of-the-way fishing village where Leah intended to take a boat from England. He held fast to her cloak, steeling himself for the answer to his next question.
“What is in Mopus Passage and who is waiting for you there?” he asked.
She huffed. “Mopus Passage is the hamlet near where my maternal grandfather, Sir Geoffrey Sydell, has his estate. His home is at Mopus Manor. He will give me sanctuary.”
Thank God. Leah had an actual plan. She wasn’t running blindly from London or into the arms of another man; she was headed to the safety of family. He smiled with relief.
The journey west would take several more days. Truro was a long way from London, if memories of his schoolboy English geography lessons served James right. But if Leah’s plans included sitting up each night and not taking a room at the various inns along the route, it meant she must be low on funds. Her reluctance to spend money on food and drink on the journey from London now made sense.
It also gave James the perfect opening.
“I am going to take lodgings here at the inn tonight. You may as well come up to my room and sit in a safe place, away from prying eyes. Just think, Leah; if I was able to follow you, who is to say that someone else didn’t see you get onboard the coach in London? Your father could be arriving here at any moment,” he said.
It was a dirty trick, and he promised himself that he would feel shame about it later. There was also a grain of truth to it. If someone in London had bothered to ask at the Gloucester Coffee House about a young fair-haired woman travelling on her own, it wouldn’t have taken much to discover where Leah had gone. He was as keen as she was to avoid the two of them being discovered.
“Please,” he added.
To his relief, her shoulders relaxed. A brief nod of her head saw him let go of her cloak.
“Thank you, Leah,” he said.
After securing a room for the night, they followed the coaching inn porters with James’s travel trunk up the narrow flight of wooden stairs. When they stepped into the tiny room, the porters had to squeeze past both James and Leah in order to make it back out and onto the landing.
The room itself could only have been described as tiny.Smallwould have been too generous a word. The roof was so low that it barely cleared James’s head once he had stepped through the door. Apart from a double bed and a small chair and table which sat by the fire, there was no other furniture. James’s travel trunk was squeezed in between the bed and the barely-there window.
“Could we please have some supper sent up? Whatever is on the menu. Also, some cider or ale,” James said to the head porter. Once the two porters had gone back down the narrow staircase, James closed the door.
Leah stood and surveyed the room. “This is very cozy; I think my wardrobe at home is bigger than this. There might be more space downstairs in the waiting room after all,” she noted.
His gaze followed hers around the room. She was right; it was little more than an oversized cupboard. “Yes, but you are not sitting in public view up here and there is a lock on that door. While you remain hidden, I stand a chance at being able to protect you. Leah we can make it work. We shall just have to make allowances for one another tonight. I will do everything in my power to see you safely to your grandfather. In return, all I ask is that you trust me.”
Leah looked utterly exhausted. James could only imagine what today had been like for her and the toll it must have taken on her nerves. He craved for her to now let him bear that worry.
“Alright,” she replied.
As she slumped down onto the bed, her whole body seemed to crumple in defeat. Her chin dropped and she began to cry. Big, fat tears rolled down her cheeks and a mournful sob escaped her lips.
“Oh, Leah.” James sat down next to her, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder. At that moment, nothing else mattered. His stupid lovestruck heart wasn’t important, and nor were Guy Dannon and Tobias Shepherd. All that mattered was that Leah was safe, and she knew someone gave a damn about her.
His chin rested gently on the top of Leah’s hair. The scent of her perfume made his heart ache. Today had been one of the most challenging days of his life, so full of twists and turns that at times he had struggled to keep up. Yet sitting here, holding her in his arms, he knew without a single doubt that he was exactly where fate had decided he should be.
They sat for a time, the only sound in the room being Leah’s soft sobs. James stroked his hand gently up and down her back. Leah slipped a hand around his waist.
Today had been hard enough for him; for her, it had been life-changing. A day where she had cut the very ties which bound her to her family and home. After today, her old life would be forever behind her. She could never go back.
She pulled a handkerchief from out of her cloak pocket and wiped her face. “I expect that whatever your reasons were for following me from the church this morning, you thought they were the right thing to do. But considering our somewhat checkered past, you cannot be surprised that I am not willing to place my trust fully in you at this moment. I don’t know you well enough, James.”
“I understand. I hope over the next few days that you and I will get to know one another better. I wish with all my heart that you willingly come to place your trust in me. Leah, I care about you. I shall do whatever I can to keep you safe,” he replied.
Now was not the time to get into a discussion about how he truly felt for her. In fact, that time may never come. On the road to her grandfather, he would make sure she slept in a warm bed every night, and that whatever Leah needed, she would have. And if in the end that was the only way he could show her his love, then so be it.
