Annabelle sent the lady before her a forced smile. “The weather. It…er…proved too arduous a journey for Miss Dunn,” she explained. “By the way, the guide, Mr. Blackwell. I wouldn’t recommend him to future guests.”
“I shall bear that in mind. Well, madam? Would you like another room?” She peered around Annabelle pointedly. “For you and your…er…companion? I don’t believe you’ll make the train to London tonight.”
Oh, dear.Staying in an inn with a fake chaperone was one thing. But a woman alone? The notion was unthinkable. Traveling to London alone was equally out of the question. If her parents discovered what she’d done, if word got out…Drat Lucy for leaving her. It would serve the woman right if she sacked her for this.
On the other hand, she had witnessed Annabelle being held at gunpoint, after which Annabelle had not returned.
She could have sought help...
Then again, Annabelle had warned the woman that if she dared breathe a word of her true identity to anyone, or let on that she was not Annabelle’s chaperone, but her maid, she would find herself summarily unemployed. She probably felt she had no choice but to return to London with her ticket.
Annabelle was, she was forced to concede, at least partially responsible for the situation in which she currently found herself.
“Madam?” The proprietress prodded.
“I don’t suppose she left my things?”
With a regretful smile, the woman shook her head.
Oh dear.Nowwhat?
Lord Randall would have to help her, of course. Had he already gone? She must catch him before he departed the stables.
Fisting her skirts in her hands, she whirled around, dashed out onto the walk—then froze at the heart-stopping sight of Lord Sterling Randall, leaning negligently against the exterior wall, arms folded over his chest.
***
“Lord Randall, what are you doing here?” Lady Annabelle asked, breathless.
Exactly what he wanted to know. Whyhadhe returned?
His grandfather would say he was behaving honorably. Zeke, his closest friend, would say he was a sap—not that he had room to talk the way he doted on his future countess. And why in bloody hell was Sterling thinking about Zeke and his recent marriage at a time like this?
The bottom line was he’d needed to make sure Annabelle was settled before returning to Holy Island. He didn’t intend to tellherthat, however.
“I set the stablemen to watering my horse and decided it was in my best interest to ascertain that you’re setting off for London on the first train out,” he said. All true, of course.
She bristled visibly, but seemed to regain the composure she’d lacked when bursting through the door. “I see.” A considering light shone in her blue eyes. “As to that…” she sank her straight white teeth into her lower lip, the same lower lip he’d wanted to sink his teeth into last night.
And all blasted day, damn his eyes.
“There’s a slight problem.”
He straightened from the wall. “Go on.”
She gave an airy laugh. “It seems my…er…chaperone departed without me.”
He had not seen that turn of events coming.Slight problem, indeed. “Why on earth would she do that?”
Lady Annabelle glanced around her as if assuring no one eavesdropped. Evidently not satisfied by the empty walkway, she urged him into the nearby alley and lowered her voice. “I believe, after fleeing the robbers, and witnessing my altercation, she feared the worst, especially when I did not return the following day. However, as she could not in good conscience reveal my true identity in order to seek assistance, lest she inform the world that Lady Annabelle Montrose had traveled here and then spent the night without the benefit of a chaperone, she set off for home while absconding with the tickets I had previously purchased.”
“Good God,” he muttered.
“So you see,” she said, resuming a normal octave, “you shall have to escort me to London after all.”
He had to hand it to her. She did not give up easily. “Madam, I do not see what one has to do with the other.”
Her eyes sparked with indignation. “As you are an intelligent man, I find that hard to believe, sir. You cannot possibly expect me to travel across the country alone.”
