Page 25 of Marry in Scandal

He didn’t believe her. That bastard hadn’t held back with that backhander. A nasty blow from a ruthless villain. God help her if she’d ever married him.

Her gaze dropped to his knuckles, skinned and raw. “Your poor hands, are they—”

“No.” He shoved them in his pockets and sat back. The movement drew his attention to the soggy pile of clothing on the floor. “Faugh, that stench!” He opened the carriage door and kicked the pile of sodden, muddy clothing out onto the road.

“My clothes!” she exclaimed. She peered out the window, then turned to him accusingly. “What did you do that for?”

“They were filthy.”

“But that was my favorite dress.”

“You can buy another one.” She continued exuding silentindignation, so he added bluntly, “Look, whatever muck you fell in stank like a midden. I’m not traveling all the way back to London with a stink like that in the carriage. We’ll stop in the next town and get you a hot bath and something clean to wear.”

“Oh.” She glanced down at herself, sniffed cautiously, and blushed. He cursed himself silently for embarrassing her. She stank, but it wasn’t her fault.

“Do you have anything to drink?” she asked. “I’m very thirsty.”

He passed her a bottle. “Cold tea—a habit I picked up in the army. Never know when you might need it.” She drank it all down, draining it dry. Thirsty indeed.

“Thank you. I needed that.” She handed it back with a tremulous smile.

“So, I gather you weren’t eloping with that bastard?”

That put the starch back in her spine. “No, of course I wasn’t! He abducted me.”

“How?”

She flushed slightly. “He tricked me.” She fidgeted a little, tucking her toes more securely under the fur rug. “I was at the Mainwaring rout with Cal and Emm...”

She explained how she’d been enticed outside.

He frowned. “You didn’t realize the note was a forgery? You didn’t recognize your own sister’s writing?”

She turned a dusky rose-pink and didn’t meet his eyes. “No,” she mumbled, but didn’t explain. She’d probably had too much to drink, he decided.

She continued her story, explaining how she was shoved into a carriage and drugged—kept in a damned airless box like a coffin—and his anger grew.

She glossed over the part where she’d been let out to relieve herself, mentioning only that the pins and needles had made it hard to walk, and that the fresh air had made her more alert, but he could read between the lines at her complete mortification.

He wished now he’d beaten that bastard to a pulp and then dragged him and his damned coachman off to jail. If he’d realized at the time what he’d been dealing with...

“So his destination was Gretna Green and a forced marriage,” he said when she’d finished. “An heiress, are you?”

She nodded. “Cal always warned us that men might want us for our money, but I never imagined... I didn’t think...” Her face crumpled and the big gray eyes filled with tears. “I’ve made such a mess of things. Everyone will be so worried.”

“Not your fault,” he said heartily, hoping to head off the incipient waterworks. “In fact, dashed clever of you to have the presence of mind to stick your tongue in the neck of that bottle.”

She looked up in surprise. “Clever?”

“Absolutely. You escaped from that villain all by yourself, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but if you hadn’t come along—”

“Don’t even think about it. I did, and that’s all that matters. We’ll get you back home safe, don’t worry, and nobody will know of your little adventure. And you won’t be tricked by any plausible blackguard in future, will you?”

She bit her lip. “I hope not.” It came out as a shamed whisper.

There was a long silence. He didn’t know what to say. He knew nothing about this girl, apart from who her brother was. He wasn’t used to the company of virtuous young women. He’d done his best to avoid respectable women since he’d sold out of the army.