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{ Chapter 5 }
A knock on the door sent Elle to her feet from the chair she’d pulled over to the window. She’d been sitting there for the last four hours, foot tapping as she peered out into the darkness broken only by the scant light from the lanterns hanging beside the doorway to the coaching inn.
Watching for Rune. Her driver. Her footman.
Anyone to show and tell her she’d not just been abandoned at a coaching inn in the middle of the countryside. She didn’t even have her reticule—or rather, Rune hadn’t thought to pick it up when he grabbed her and tossed her over his horse.
Rude.
Rude of him to throw her over a horse.
Her head tilted to the side.
Rude of her to lose consciousness in a situation as dangerous as that.
With raised eyebrows at her own actions, she tipped her wine glass up, sending the last drops of Madeira over her tongue.
Rune had rented this room at the inn, ushered her in and told her not to leave under any circumstance, then mumbled something about going back for the carriage.
But now, finally—escape.
She hurried toward the door, veering to the table to set her empty wine glass down—small favor that there had been a full carafe of Madeira already in the room. Without even thinking to ask who it was that knocked, she flung open the door.
Rune.
Rune with two heaping plates of food. Her stomach instantly tightened, remembering how hungry she was. The wine had only slightly sated the grumble in her belly.
His eyes instantly narrowed at her. “You opened the door without asking who was out here.”
She shrugged. “I knew it was you.”
His lips pursed for a second, admonishment nearly slipping out. But he managed to hold back from calling her on her lie when they both knew full well she didn’t have a clue who was knocking on her door.
So hecouldmanage some semblance of pity.
He lifted the large silver platter the plates were balanced on. “I am here to deliver food.”
“Thank goodness. How is Felix? And my footman?”
He stepped into the room, moving past her toward the table in the corner of the room. “They went to Taunton. The surgeon there looked at your driver’s arm and the bullet went clean through the flesh. Bandaged, but he’ll recover fine. Your footman wasn’t harmed.”
She let out an exhale, her eyes closing. “Thank the heavens. I am just so grateful that Rosey wasn’t with me.”
“Who is Rosey?” Rune set the platter on the table and pulled one plate from it, placing it on the table. He laid the silverware into place. A proper setting, even.
For all his egregious behavior in flopping her over a horse, at least he had enough manners to set a table properly. Not that he’d openly displayed them as of yet beyond her fork, spoon and knife in the right place.
Elle moved across the room, her fingers tapping along the high back of one of the chairs by the table. “My maid. She has a temper when it comes to protecting me and I fear she would have attacked those men herself.”
His right cheek lifted in a half smile. “Why did you leave her behind? And your second footman? Des said you had two footmen. We could have used both the extra one and your maid on the road instead of being stuck with that lily-livered boy that could barely hold a pistol.”
Her mouth twisted to the side for a long moment. “They…well. Rosey and Fredrick—there have been looks between them.”
“Looks?”
Her head tilted to the side, her fingers waving in the air between them. “Romantic looks. I thought in this situation it would be easiest for us to travel without them—the less they know about what we’re doing with the box the better. Plus, it would give them a chance to travel back to the isle together, and…” Her shoulders shrugged with a grin on her face.
Rune scratched the back of his neck, his copper-green eyes boring into her. “I did not take you for a romantic.”
