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Quietly, slowly, she made her way to the oak front door, unlocked it, and slipped through into the chill, foggy early morning. She pulled her cloak more closely about her and half-dragged her valise toward the small stable set at a right angle to the cottage.
She had every intention of taking his stallion, Gadfly.
Her chin went up. She also intended to go to London, to Mr. Westover. Surely Rafael had lied about her inheritance. Surely it could not simply all be his, just because of a few words spoken by Bishop Burghley. No, nothing could be that unjust. She’d had the long night to refine her plan. She wasn’t stupid and knew well enough that her leg could bear only three hours of riding a day. It would take her at least four days, then, to return to London. And that, she thought now, a bit uncertain, would most certainly eat up her fifteen pounds.
She slipped into the warm, dark stable. She smelled leather, linseed oil, hay, and horse. Comforting smells. She found Rafael’s stallion, and spoke softly to him, wishing now she’d had the nerve to fetch some food from Mrs. Ripple’s kitchen. As she slipped a bridle over the stallion’s head, her wedding ring sparkled in the dim light. The beautiful sapphire, circled with small perfectly cut diamonds . . . Slowly she smiled. She had more than fifteen pounds. She would hock the ring.
She eyed the saddle, then squared her shoulders and hefted it onto the stallion’s broad back. He snorted, dancing a bit to the side of his stall.
“Hush,” she said. “Please, don’t move, that’s right. Hold still now, Gadfly. Good boy.”
She tightened the girth, then slowly led the stallion from the stall. She managed to lift the valise to the saddle and slip the leather handles over the saddle pommel.
“Hold still now, boy. We’ll be gone in just a moment.
“I doubt that, Victoria.”
Victoria whipped around to see Rafael standing in the doorway of the stable, his arms crossed over his chest. He was wearing only a pair of breeches and a white shirt. His feet were bare.
For a moment she could think of nothing to say. She’d been so quiet. She laid her cheek against the saddle, willing him to magically disappear, willing him to be a nightmare.
But he didn’t disappear, of course.
“How? I was so quiet.”
“It occurred to me that you weren’t in an excessively intelligent frame of mind. Only a female would decide to run away with fifteen pounds. You have proved your stupidity by this stunt.”
“Oh, I have more than a paltry fifteen pounds.” The instant the words were out of her mouth, she wished she’d kept her mouth shut. She eyed the stallion’s back and gauged her chance of climbing into the saddle and running Rafael down.
“Don’t try it, Victoria. As to your meager fortune, I already checked. You didn’t try to steal my money. Of course, that would have meant creeping into my bedchamber. I couldn’t see you doing that. After all, I might have awakened, and then you would have shortly found yourself in my bed, on your back.”
She forced herself to straighten and face him fully. There was a good twenty feet between them and it gave her courage. “Why are you doing this? Why aren’t you delighted that I wish to leave and be gone from your life?”
His right hand slashed through the air. “Were you doing to sell my stallion once you reached London?”
“No.” Actually, she now realized that she probably would have thought of that, sooner or later.
“If you managed to make it to London, of course, which I strongly doubt. No smugglers, not here, in any case, but there are bandits, Victoria, who would be ecstatic to come across a delightful morsel like you.”
“Why would you care?”
“A
fter, of course, they raped you, they would probably kill you.”
“Why would you care?” she repeated. “Then there would be no question that all my money would be yours.”
“There is no question of that now, with you quite alive.”
“I don’t believe you. It would be too unfair. No, you are lying to me.”
“My feet are cold,” he said abruptly. “Come along back to the house.”
“No, I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He heard the panic in her voice and it bothered him. It made him feel guilty as hell. Damn her, she’d lied to him, she didn’t deserve any consideration.
“Come here, Victoria.”
