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He bowed in his seat, every inch the gentleman. “Perdie it is, then. You can call me Thaddeus.”
“So you’ve already mentioned.” She slipped her fingers between her knees, though with the now-damp fabric of her dress, it did little to warm them. “I’d prefer not to call you anything. Or better yet, I’d prefer to call you the scoundrel I met on the road with whom I no longer associate.”
“That sounds like quite the mouthful. How about calling me Thaddeus for short? I’ll know you’re cursing my bones every time you do.”
She tried not to smile, but it was a losing battle. All the more so when she made the mistake of looking sideways and caught his eyes. They twinkled with mischief. In the dim daylight sifting between the clouds, now they looked the same stormy color as the sky.
She looked away again, but said softly, “Thaddeus, then.” Her heart pounded louder than the words that escaped her lips. She nearly raised her hand to brush them but balled her fist at the last minute and held it by her side.
They rode on.
Thaddeus said quietly, “Perhaps you’re right not to own to your identity. If it were known a lady were traveling with a gentleman not related to her, we’d have a scandal on our hands.”
“It’s difficult to have a scandal when you can’t name the affected parties.”
He tipped his hat to her again but didn’t drop the subject. “It’s clear you’re from the upper crust of society. I wouldn’t put paid but that you are the sister of a duke, or someone as important.”
Perdie snorted at the thought of her brother, Sebastian, being called important. It would swell his ego so big, he couldn’t sit at his desk. The thought of her brother made her heart twist and her amusement faded.
The horses took another few plodding steps.
“I find your bravery remarkable.”
Startled, Perdie took a quick breath of utter astonishment. “Remarkable?”
“Very much so. How you handled those bandits was impressive.”
A small laugh slipped from between Perdie’s lips before she covered it with her hand. She turned to face him, incredulous, but there was nothing in his expression to betray that he was merely flattering her. “I declare you are a rare creature; one I have never met the likes of. Many in society would scandalize me for dreaming to try to defend myself, let alone succeeding.”
A bright mockery invaded his stare. “They’re bird-witted dandies, the lot of them.”
Perdie felt her cheeks heat. “Oh, no, I think they have the right of it.” She held back her smile by force of will, though she couldn’t keep it out of her voice. “When next I’m accosted by highwaymen, I’ll do the proper thing and scream and swoon. Then a daring gentleman like yourself might satisfy his desire to look a proper knight in shining armor and save us poor damsels from certain peril rather than saving us from waiting out the rain on the side of the road.”
“We daring gentlemen do like to be appreciated,” he answered with the hint of a smile.
He sat straighter as the mist began to thin and the silhouette of buildings coalesced out of the shadows. “I’d say we’re almost there.”
Perdie straightened her shoulders and prepared herself to do what she always did when people were watching. She put on a mask of affable gentleness.
“Thank you, Thaddeus,” she said.
He tipped his hat but made no reply. They were firmly out of London and would stay the night at a respectable inn. Perdie stared at her hands that trembled and pushed them inside the pocket of the greatcoat, not wanting her rescuer to see that she was still shaken.
What were the odds of being accosted only hours after leaving London? Her raw impetuous impulse to run away was abating, and anxiousness seared through her body. But she could not allow these feelings to take root. With determined will, she pushed them down. It had already passed; now she must only look ahead.
By morning, she would have a solid plan of where they would make their final destination.
Perdie knew she was meant for more in this lifetime. And if it took running away from everything she knew to find exactly what that something was, then she wouldn’t regret it one bit.
