Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“You said that two bends in the road ago. I thought the coach would have caught us by now. Perhaps they can’t mend it.”
“All the more reason to find the village. If worse comes to worst and the carriage can’t be mended, we can find other transportation. I can hire a—” He stopped in the road. “Fuck.”
His blasphemy sent Delilah into a titter. “Fancy a fuck, love? Ooh! Ooh! Yes! Pretty girl.”
“My coat,” he said. “I left it in the carriage.”
Penny paused and squinted at the cloudless sky and the cheerfully scorching sun. “I can’t imagine you’ll need it.”
“I don’t need the coat. I need the money that’s in it.” He set the birdcage on the ground and rubbed his face with both hands, cursing into them.
“What do we do?”
“I don’t know. But one way or another, I’ll have you back in London by nightfall. You needn’t worry you’ll be ruined.”
“I’m not worried I’ll be ruined. I can’t be ruined.”
He lowered his voice, though there was no one but Delilah to hear. “If this is about earlier, by the river . . . There’s quite a gulf between what we did and the act of copulation. You haven’t lost your virtue.”
“For heaven’s sake, I understand how matters work between a man and a woman.” She wiped sweat from her brow. “I can’t be ruined because that would suggest I have prospects to ruin in the first place. I’m still unmarried, despite being an earl’s daughter, despite having a considerable dowry. No suitors are beating down my door.”
“There is no way in hell that your unmarried state is due to a lack of interest.”
“Please, enlighten me as to the reason.”
“That’s simple. You’ve been hiding yourself, and you’re good at it. A master of camouflage.”
She laughed. “Camouflage?”
“That’s the only possible explanation. You’ve made a frock from the same silk covering the drawing room walls, trimmed it with cat hair and feathers. Then when gentlemen visit, you stand still and blend in.”
“You have a surprisingly vivid imagination.”
“What I have is experience.” He stopped in the road and turned to face her. “I’ve built a fortune by spotting things that are undervalued, dusting them off, and selling them at the proper price. I know a hidden treasure when I see one.”
“Oh.”
Looking away, he pushed his hand through his hair. “Not this again.”
“Not what again?”
“Every time I speak three words, you look as though you’re going to swoon into my arms.”
“I do not,” Penny objected, knowing very well that she probably did.
“You sigh like a fool, blush like a beet. Your eyes are the worst of it. They turn into these . . . these pools. Glassy blue pools with man-eating sharks beneath the surface.”
“I hope you’re not planning a career in poetry.”
“For the good of us both, you have to cease gazing at me.”
“Then you have to cease wooing me.”
“Wooing you.” He grimaced, as if the words were a pickled lemon on his tongue. “I don’t woo.”
“You do too woo.” She lowered her voice to match his gruff timbre. “‘I need you,’ ‘I’m not letting you go.’ A woman can’t help but go soft inside. Those sorts of declarations are unbearably romantic.”
“You know very well I don’t mean them that way.”
She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “I suppose if I didn’t already, I would now.”
“Exactly. So don’t go swooning on me.”
“I assure you, you needn’t worry about that. If I did swoon, it would be from the heat.”
Pounding hoofbeats behind them announced the prospect of salvation. Penny turned, hoping to see the carriage.
It wasn’t Gabriel’s carriage, but it was the next best thing. A stagecoach, passing their way. Penny darted to the center of the road, waving her arms until the driver pulled his team to a stop.
“You’re a guardian angel,” Penny said. “Can we ride to the village?”
The driver looked them over warily, taking in their bedraggled attire. “In that state? You’d have to ride up top with the trunks.”
“We can do that.” Penny extended her hand to the driver. “Will you help me up?”
The driver didn’t take her hand. “Not so hasty. I need the fare in advance.”
“How much?” Gabriel asked.
“Let’s see.” The driver squinted. “Fare for the two of you, plus tuppence for the baggage—”
“Oh, this isn’t baggage.” Penny lifted the cage for him to see. “She’s a parrot.”
“Then that’s fare for two of you, plus thruppence for the parrot . . . A shilling, all told.”
Penny reached for her reticule.
She didn’t have her reticule.
Her reticule was back in the carriage. Along with Gabriel’s coat.
“Deuce it,” Gabriel said dramatically. “If only I had a shilling.”
She sighed.
“I was certain I had one here somewhere.” He made a show of patting all his pockets. “Oh, that’s right. Someone tossed it away.”
“Please,” Penny begged the driver. “Take pity on us. We’ve had an accident. It’s only to the next village.”