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Lavinia wet the handkerchief wrapped around her foot and slowly peeled it away. The wound was closed, and she wasn’t bleeding anymore. She could even step on her foot, although not without wincing. The ride on horseback wouldn’t be pleasant, but she’d have to persevere.
A part of her wished she could have just stayed in this creaky old house with Sebastian till the end of their days.
She would get used to bathing in the freezing stream. She would even learn to cook the fish. This little adventure they were on was supposed to be a punishment, a torture. But in reality, these had been the best twenty-four hours of her life. And she dreaded what the future might bring her.
She looked at the bloody handkerchief in her hand and paused. There was a flower stitched at the edge of it, a rose. It looked oddly familiar. She’d seen this before, but she could not remember where.
“Are you ready?” Sebastian yelled from outside of the room.
“Just a moment,” Lavinia called out. She left the handkerchief on the bedside table, wrapped her foot in a clean linen strip Sebastian ripped from the spare sheet, put on her riding boots, and walked out the door.
They had a long day ahead.
They mounted their horses, and Sebastian threw her an apologetic look. “I thought about your idea of going back to London and making it seem like your guardian collected you ahead of time, but we won’t be doing that.”
Lavinia raised her brow. “We won’t?”
“No. Because as perfect as this solution would be for you, how am I to explain my disappearance from my house party? To go to London and then back would take way too long. And I have a bastard to kill and my niece to save.”
“Then perhaps I can go to London and—”
“Don’t even finish that sentence.” Sebastian’s face turned angry red in an instant. “I am not letting you out of my sight. So, we are going back to Roth estate and once I kill William, we are going to marry.”
“But—” Sebastian spurred the horse into a slow canter, and Lavinia did the same. By his set features, she could tell that there was no arguing with him. She’d figure out the whole marriage business once they got back to the Roth country seat. “You are not actually going to kill him, are you?”
Sebastian just threw her a dark gaze, then turned back to the road and spurred on his mount.
The journey back to the Roth estate was exhausting. Lavinia had never spent so many hours atop a mount, and when they stopped for a break and a bite of food, she thought she’d never get back up.
The inn they stopped at didn’t have any coaches, and they had to continue their journey on horseback. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, to ride in her worn, dirty gown, and more than that with her injured foot, her muscles aching and her back hurting after the hours they’d spent riding.
She knew she couldn’t complain, because what else were they to do? They couldn’t spend half a day languishing in an inn, sleeping and having a nice warm bath when Roth believed his niece was in danger. He was a man on a mission. He threw her worried gazes and asked about twenty times if she wanted to rest, but she forced a smile to her lips and always answered that she was not tired at all.
Well, that was a complete lie. And now, a few hours into their journey and several minutes past dusk, she was regretting it all.
Sebastian, who was a few paces ahead, as if sensing her despair, slowed his mount until Lavinia caught up with him.
“You are tired.” That wasn’t a question; that was a statement. And Lavinia wasn’t about to answer him, anyway. What could they do in the middle of the field with nothing but grass in sight? Lie down?
Sebastian halted and forced Lavinia to bring her mount to a stop, too.
“Come here,” he said, with an utterly serious face.
Lavinia looked around. “Come where? I am standing right beside you.”
Sebastian smiled. “Come and climb atop my mount.”
“How will that help?” Lavinia was ready to cry from frustration.
“You’ll be able to rest, relax your back. Come. You’re about to fall over.”
Lavinia would argue if he wasn’t right. She felt herself almost toppling over as they spoke. But the idea of sharing a horse did not seem more comfortable to her. Still, she moved the horse closer to Sebastian’s and then he leaned in, snaked his arms around her waist, and tugged her from her mount and onto his lap.
Lavinia landed on his lap with a loud plop. She looked at her vacated mount and then at her current place in wonder. How did Sebastian manage to transport her this easily?
Sebastian shifted his thighs, setting Lavinia between them, and then wrapped his arms around her.
