“Yes, of course Lord Hawksridge. Now the thing is I only have one room open right now. It’s a nice one with a dining area. Plenty of room for you both.”
“No, that won’t do. We will need two rooms,” Miles bit out. Would the trial of this day never end?
“Are you traveling with servants? We could accommodate them out in the barn. Unfortunately, we are full up until tomorrow with Mr. Maddox and his traveling circus.”
Of course they were. There had to be more than one inn in a town this size. He glanced behind him out the open door where the rain had resumed in full force. Then back at Susanna who had taken off his hat. Her wet hair lay half coiled and half lank over her shoulders, her face was pale and her lips slightly tinged blue. She needed to get into a warm bath as soon as possible.
He turned back to the proprietress. “We’ll take the room. There was an accident with the stagecoach and we had to leave our trunk behind. I’d like to hire one of your employees to go fetch it. And we’ll need that bath sent up immediately.”
The lady nodded her head. “Yes, my lord. I am Mrs. Moody, follow me.” She snapped her fingers and a young woman emerged from the next room. “Tell, Mr. Moody to get water boiling for a bath for room twelve. Straight away.”
The woman curtsied and rushed away.
Mrs. Moody led them past a large dining room. Laughter and music spilled out through the open doors. Susanna hunched her shoulders in his jacket and kept her head down. He raised an eyebrow in question.
“I must look like a drowned rat. I’d prefer not to see all my friends until I am able to put myself to rights.”
He nodded. Perfectly reasonable. They climbed the stairs and followed the innkeeper down a long corridor. Several rooms down, a door opened and Colonel Hadley and his wife walked out.
“Susanna?” Mrs. Hadley exclaimed. “What happened? When did you arrive?”
“Oh Clara, it was awful! The wheel on the coach broke and I was stranded on the side of the road. Hawksridge came for me, though. But we have been soaked to the bone.” She rushed into her friend’s arms.
Mrs. Hadley embraced her warmly. “We will get you sorted. You can borrow a dry nightgown from me.” She looked up at him. “And you too. We can find you dry clothes, you are about the same height as the colonel. Which room are you in?”
The proprietress waved down the corridor. “This way. Room twelve.”
Mrs. Hadley nodded and let go of Susanna. “I’ll just go and gather some things. And you Lord Hawksridge which room are you in?”
The innkeeper flushed. “I only have one room open for Lord and Lady Hawksridge.”
Mrs. Hadley’s eyebrows rose high and she opened her mouth but Susanna intervened smoothly. “It’s fine, Mrs. Moody. Let’s go to the room. I am desperate to warm myself by a fire.”
Miles’s lips twitched in amusement but he held his tongue. Susanna could make explanations to her friends. This whole debacle was her fault anyway. He followed the ladies into room twelve. It was spacious, with a round dining table set under two narrow windows to his right. On the other side of the room a four-post bed was covered in a thick colorful counterpane. And a large fireplace graced the wall in between. He frowned. As spacious as the room was there was still only one bed.
Chapter Fourteen
Susanna tried tosee the silver lining in this terrible day. She’d made it to the Forest Stag Inn after all. But she had not escaped the very persistent, very practical marquess. Instead, she was soaked to the bone with no change of clothes in a very nice room with only one bed. The worst part was that twenty-four hours ago she could have confidently handled being tucked in the same room with Miles Weston, but now that she knew the contours of his body, his muscled torso, and those hard thighs, she felt flustered at the new sparks of attraction. How could such a stuffy man feel so deliciously sinful under all those layers?
Clara arrived with a clean nightgown just as four burly servants filled the tub with steaming buckets of water. After they left, Clara helped her out of her sodden dress. “Lord Hawksridge has changed into dry clothes in our room, turns out he had a leather satchel attached to the back of the saddle. He went downstairs to see about getting someone to fetch your trunks and to get some food ordered to the room.”
As Susanna stepped out of the dress, she turned to face her friend. Clara raised one eyebrow. “Lord and Lady Hawksridge? Do you have something to tell me?”
Susanna giggled. “No, it seemed easiest to say we were married when the innkeeper said she only had one room available.”
Clara glanced over at the bed. “But what will you do tonight?”
Susanna forced a smile. “I suppose he will just sleep on the floor. He doesn’t have to stay at all. I don’t need him meddling in my plans anyway. I told him Colonel Hadley and you were going to watch out for me.” She pulled loose the ties to her short stays and shrugged the garment off. “But no, he had to follow me like a dammed terrier searching for a bone. Can’t just accept that I won’t do as he says.” She yanked out the last of the pins remaining in her hair.
Clara turned to hang her dress over the back of a chair. “Well, it was good that he was there today when you were stranded. The outcome could have been much worse if it had been some brigand.”
Susanna blew out a breath. Her friend was right, Miles had saved her skin today. But still…he never did what she told him! Susanna bit her lip to hide a smile. She supposed he would say the same thing about her. “Thank you, Clara, for the dry clothes. If my trunk can be fetched then all will be set to rights. How long will the circus be in town?”
“Today was the last day. Tomorrow, we move on to Salisbury.”
“Already? It took me so long to get here, with all the travel issues.” She filled Clara in on what had happened to her coachman and how Hawksridge had shown up at the behest of her friends and how he had tried to order her to return to Marbury with him. “So, this morning I snuck out and left him behind. Not that it did me any good. Here I am stuck with the infuriating man again.”
Clara just chuckled at Susanna’s comments. “Well, I’ll leave you to your bath. I’m to meet Jared downstairs for supper.”
