Page 6 of No Duke of Mine

CHAPTER THREE

Algernon glared out the front door of the taproom. “Would you look at that? Would you just look at that? Will this infernal rain never end?”

“Not according to the innkeeper,” his valet warned, shivering beside the taproom fire, unwilling to give up his spot.

The rain had been coming down hard since yesterday, great sheets of it, obliterating the view and turning the road into a never-ending stream.

Algernon was irritated. He was still damp, and he was tired, having not slept well last night due to the lack of available rooms. A chair in the dining room was all very well for a light doze, no more than an hour, but it was a soft bed he craved under him at night.

At least he was clean again, and more presentable.

But with the rain coming down and the roadways flooded, there was no chance of any room becoming available anytime soon. The other guests could hardly leave, or want to share their chamber and bed with a stranger.

Although if that pretty woman from yesterday showed her face again, he might be in luck. He’d been hoping to spot her again, but she’d taken supper in her chambers last night and, to his disappointment, remained abovestairs still.

He turned back to the taproom. The locals had gathered around the room and were silently sipping ale and talking amongst themselves. Algernon listened discreetly, thankfully ignored for now.

“This is nothing compared to the flood of seventy-four,” an old man said.

“Oh, the one of eighty-eight was much worse,” another argued. “Trapped for nearly a month that time.”

Algernon tried not to groan.

Sims leaned toward them. “Did the bridge wash away completely?”

“No, not the bridge. The roads that led up to it washed away, though. Took forever to get our side done, and then the other side took their sweet time, too.”

“Brilliant,” Algernon said under his breath. “That’s all I need to hear.”

He might never reach London at this rate, and he might not be able to return home by Christmas, either.

Another fellow came in, and Algernon realized, judging by the way he looked around, that he was not a local but one of the few guests who had secured a room upstairs.

The man came his way. “Dashed nuisance, all this rain, isn’t it? The name is Keane, Charles Keane.”

“Allan Sweet. Yes, a great nuisance indeed,” Algernon agreed.

“Ah, well. Glad I’ve got my wife with me for company.” The man chuckled. “It would be a dull few days without the conversation of my family, wouldn’t it, sir?”

Algernon agreed with him. When he traveled, he usually had a brother with him. Most often Nash, but he would go nowhere without his wife and children these days. Jasper was needed to run the estate in his absence, and Stratford, while Algernon adored him, would have blathered the whole way to London. He had his valet, of course, but traveling with a servant paid to agree with you was not the same at all.

Algernon normally preferred to travel light and as inconspicuously as possible anyway, without using his title, but he regretted that now. A duke could have commanded the best room in the inn, had he looked like one upon his arrival.

“And the other woman traveling with you is comfortable upstairs, too, I suppose?”

“Other woman? I have no—oh, you’re talking about the young lady in the chamber beside ours, aren’t you? Yes, yes. You must be. Quite a retiring little thing, but handsome. Haven’t seen a peep of her since we first arrived, though.”

“I saw only a glimpse,” he said, hiding the truth. Algernon had been unable to tear his eyes from her face.

“A widow, I suspect,” Keane continued. “My wife is very disapproving of her staying in her room so much. Barely spoke a word to us yesterday, and the woman kept her nose in a book the entire time. My wife prefers conversation to reading when we travel.”

Algernon’s hopes soared. An amenable widow traveling alone might be interested in a gentleman’s company after dark. And bookish women had always appealed to him. “I have yet to meet this particular lady.”

“Hasn’t she come down yet again?”

“Not that I’ve seen.” And he’d been looking for her, too, and anything else to divert his attention on such a gloomy, damp day.

“This bodes well for a lively dinner this evening, then.” Keane grinned. “You’ll have to tell me what you make of her after your first meeting.”