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“Is that why you traveled by horse and not by mail coach to London?”
“One of the reasons, yes. I did travel by mail coach part of the way, but a young lady traveling alone is very suspicious.” Evie shrugged. “Besides, it was faster on horseback.”
“You could have been robbed, or worse, by brigands. Have you thought of that?” Gabriel sounded irritated.What did it matter to him?
“But I wasn’t,” she said calmly. “I am here, and everything worked out well, didn’t it?”
A short silence followed, filled only by the sounds of carriage wheels and horse hooves.
“Did you send a note to Lord Clydesdale?” Evie asked.
Gabriel nodded. “I sent a note to him this morning. Said that I was summoned by my father to Winchester. If your guardian decides to look there, I wish him luck.”
They proceeded the rest of the way without conversation. The carriage was jostling them this way and that, making any kind of effort to converse uncomfortable. Gabriel sat in the seat across from her. He lowered his hat to his eyes and seemed to be dozing most of the way. Evie wondered how anybody could sleep in conditions like these and kept her eyes on the horizon.
They stopped several times during the day to change the horses and stretch their legs. Sometime after eight o’clock in the evening, they reached a tiny inn, a bit out of the way from the main road. St. Clare checked them in as Mr. and Mrs. Swift and ordered their supper and bath to their rooms.
Evie was extremely tired, so she even contemplated going to bed unbathed and hungry for the second night in a row. But the lady in her won out. She picked at the food while waiting for the hip tub to be brought in and filled with hot water.
Gabriel entered the room just as the last bucket of water was emptied into the bath. He took off his jacket, hat, and cravat and draped them over the chair by the window. He came closer to the table and studied Evie’s plate.
“You haven’t eaten much. I thought you’d be hungry.”
Evie wrinkled her nose, “I do not eat much while on the road.”
“You don’t do a lot of things while on the road, do you?”
Evie sighed and rubbed her eyes with her fingers. “I don’t. I’m too tired from jostling around the carriage, and my stomach is too churned to keep down much of the food.”
“More for me.” He settled at the table across from her. “Feel free to have a bath while I eat.”
Evie raised a haughty brow at that.
“Very well.” He stood and moved his chair so his back was to the bath. “I’ll have my back turned, but that’s the most I can do. You have nothing to be embarrassed about, I assure you. I’ve seen so many women naked that nothing can surprise me. Besides, I am too hungry to care about your little naked bottom.”
Evie frowned at him, but she was too weary to argue. “Just keep your back turned until I’m done,” she grumbled and stood from the table.
Evie undressed as fast as she could and lowered herself carefully into the bath, watching Gabriel all the while, afraid he would decide to take a peek. She lathered herself with soap several times, washed her hair, and got out of the bath before he finished his supper.
“That was fast.” He turned to look at her as she wrapped a towel around herself.
“You said you wouldn’t look.”
“I said I wouldn’t look until you were done. And you’re done.” He studied her toweled form. “You need to eat better. You’re too thin.”
“Thank you for being so kind, but you don’t have to worry about me.”
“With the way you take care of yourself, no wonder you are skin and bones. I only hope you’ll be well enough when we get to the border and won’t be swaying with the wind.”
Evie drew in a breath. She didn’t have the energy left to spar with him. Instead, she went to her valise and took out her night shift, hair comb, and toothbrush. She took care of her nightly ablutions while he got undressed and got himself into a tub. Gabriel was humming some tune under his breath, and the pleasant timbre of his baritone quickly lulled her into sleep.
