AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Eleven
“Imust admit that I am rather nervous about being abducted,” Madalene shared as she rode in an open carriage with Lord Hawthorne.
“It is technically not an abduction, since you are going along willingly,” he pointed out.
Madalene smiled playfully. “I know, but it sounds much more exciting to call it that.”
Lord Hawthorne looked at her with mild amusement. “Regardless, you need not fear for your safety.”
“What if something terrible goes wrong?”
“It won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked, hands clasped in her lap.
“Because I have planned for any situation,” he explained. “There are times when I have to go into a situation unprepared, but that is not the case here.”
“What kind of situations?”
Lord Hawthorne arched an eyebrow. “Are you always this much of a busybody?”
“I am,” she replied, unabashed.
“It is not very becoming.”
“I just can’t help but notice you are shrouded in a cloud of secrecy,” she said with a half-shrug, “and I find it fascinating.”
“My life is rather dull.”
“It doesn’t appear that way to me.”
“You would be wrong, then,” he remarked dismissively. “Do you have the muff pistol on your person?”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Good.”
Lord Hawthorne turned the carriage down a road that she was unfamiliar with. “Where are we going?”
“We need to get rid of the open carriage and travel the rest of the way in a closed carriage,” he explained.
“But I can’t ride in a closed carriage with you,” she declared, her voice taking on a hint of unease. “What if someone saw us? I would be ruined.”
“That is why the closed carriage is parked under a bridge. No one will see us get in, I’m sure of it.”
“And if you are wrong?”
Lord Hawthorne met her gaze, his eyes growing intense. “Then I will have no choice but to marry you.”
Her brow shot up. “You cannot be in earnest!”
“I wouldn’t let your reputation suffer on my behalf,” he stated. “I refuse to have that on my conscience.”
“You would willingly enter into a marriage of convenience with a woman that you hardly know?”
Adjusting the reins in his hand, he commented, “There are worse things.”
“Such as?”
