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Minutes later, having paid the man handsomely for his agreement, Connor left the inn keeper to count the staggering amount of money he had just been given and joined Tahlia at the table.
“I have managed to secure us a coach. The inn keeper doesn’t usually allow his personal carriage to be loaned but he has agreed to drive us. It is going to be cold, and a bit windy I am afraid, but we have no choice.”
“Let’s just get to the meeting point,” Tahlia replied. She had no objection to a little discomfort. They were on their return journey to Rutland. She would suffer wind, rain, or even a blizzard just to get away from the danger. “Let’s go.”
It wasn’t as cold and windy as she had expected, not once they were inside the conveyance.
“It is a little rustic,” Connor murmured as he took a seat on the narrow bench seat.
“It will do,” Tahlia replied.
At least it was dry, which was something she was eternally grateful for seeing as it had just started to rain. Thankfully, the inn keeper had left a small basket of food inside the carriage for them. They ate hungrily while the carriage rumbled t
hrough the ever darkening evening toward Epping Forrest.
“How long is it going to take to get there?” Tahlia asked once she had finished and was sipping a small goblet of wine.
She sat back to watch the villages roll past and sighed in contentment when Connor settled beside her and drew her into his arms.
There was something romantic about being enshrined in darkness, wrapped in a loving embrace while they watched the world go by. The rhythmic swaying of the carriage relaxed them further as they listened to the steady clip-clop of the horses hooves against the road.
“I don’t know,” Connor replied honestly. “Matthew will wait for us.”
“Alright?” Connor asked when she sighed for about the fifteenth time in half an hour.
“Sublimely so,” she replied.
Connor laughed.
“Sublimely so? Really?” he teased. “Can I remind you, woman; that you are in the middle of a Star Elite investigation.”
Tahlia shook her head. “No, we have just left that behind.”
His mirth dimmed. “Not yet, but we will soon. With each mile that passes the danger recedes. I think we have been incredibly lucky to get away from London unscathed. I hope everyone else is doing just as well.”
“Me too,” she whispered.
As she settled back down to rest her head on his chest, she began to pray for everyone’s survival while Sayers was hunted down and put behind bars.
She had no idea how long they were travelling but it was dark when the carriage pulled up outside a small tavern in the middle of nowhere.
“This is it,” the inn keeper informed them as he tugged the step down and handed Tahlia down. “Are you sure you want to stay here? You aren’t likely to get a room for the night, I will tell you that much.”
“It’s alright,” Connor assured him. He pressed another note into the man’s hand.
“We weren’t followed,” the inn keeper assured him obligingly.
“Remember; if anyone asks, we went to Kent. That’s all you know.”
“Aye, but I am a busy inn keeper. I don’t have time to be fooling around with questions from strangers,” the man retorted bluntly. He doffed his cap at Tahlia and climbed onto his carriage. Within seconds he was on his way home.
Tahlia didn’t doubt that the man would do what he said he would do. His no-nonsense attitude would stop even Sayers’ men from finding out where they had gone. If they did, well, their search would go no further than this rather ramshackle little tavern in the middle of nowhere. She understood now why it had been chosen.
“Wait,” Connor murmured.
Tahlia looked at him. “What is it?”
The only sound that could be heard was the fading noise for the horse’s hooves on the road. When it had vanished without interruption and silence settled Connor nodded.
