Page 39 of Road Trip With a Rogue
Finch glanced at her, then looked over her head at Vaughan, and some silent communication clearly passed between them because he scratched his bristly cheek and shook his head.
“Can’t do that, I’m afraid, Miss. The cattle are too tired. Wouldn’t be right to risk ’em by carryin’ on.”
Daisy flapped her arms at her sides. “Well then, let’s get them changed and be off.” She turned and caught the sleeve of one of the hostlers who was tightening the girth of a large gray mare. “Sir, we need fresh horses immediately.”
The hostler gave her an odd glance, and she ducked her head, suddenly realizing that she wasn’t wearing her hat and that in her urgency her voice had risen far higher than that of the average male youth. She coughed into her hand and glanced back at Vaughan.
“Tell him!”
Vaughan stepped in front of her, neatly shielding herfrom view, and the groomsman forgot about her as he took in Vaughan’s height and noticed the ducal crest painted on the carriage door.
“I’m sorry, my lord, but those were the last fresh carriage ’orses.” He gestured vaguely after the departed carriage.
“We’ll ride, then,” Daisy said, in a deeper tone. “Quick, saddle us some mounts!”
The man opened his mouth, but Vaughan shook his head. “That won’t be necessary, thank you. My impetuous young nephew has clearly failed to notice how close we are to sunset, and I for one refuse to endanger either myself or an animal by riding in the dark.”
Daisy elbowed him in the side, hard.
He choked off a laugh, reached back, and caught her wrist in an inescapable grip. “Come, now, boy. What kind of guardian would I be if I let you to go riding about the countryside at night? I’ll not have you breaking your foolish neck while you’re under my care. Your mother would never forgive me.”
Daisy stepped on his foot and scowled up at him when he turned to her.
He bent so his lips were close to her ear. “Be sensible. Even if they make it to Gretna tonight, they won’t find anyone to marry them until the morning. We can stay here tonight, rest the horses, and still arrive in time to stop them if we leave early enough.”
She gave a soft, frustrated groan. They wereso close. But Vaughan was right; they could get a few hours’ sleep and leave at dawn. All was not lost. She could still stop the wedding and complete her mission.
“Fine.”
He nodded, and she clambered back into the coach toretrieve her hat and coat. Finch collected their luggage and she kept her head down as they entered the inn.
Her spirits rose as the innkeeper informed them that there were several rooms available, but then Vaughan spoke.
“Oh, no, I don’t require a second room for my nephew. He’s quite the little tearaway. Rather unhappy about being returned to boarding school, I’m afraid, and I need to keep an eye on him. We’ll share a chamber. The best you have, please.”
The innkeeper nodded in sympathetic understanding. “These young’uns don’t appreciate how good they’ve got it, milord. That’s for sure.”
Daisy fumed silently under her hat, and trailed the three of them up the stairs and into an impressively large suite decked out in shades of warm ochre. Finch deposited their bags by the door and promptly left with the innkeeper.
As soon as they were alone, she threw off her hat and coat and turned to face Vaughan, ready to berate him about not getting her a room of her own, but his raised hand stopped her.
“Consider me duly chastened,” he said, a smile ghosting his lips.
She froze in her tracks at the sudden memory of herself saying those precise words, the night he’d kissed her. Was it a deliberate taunt? Or coincidence? Surely he didn’t remember it as clearly as she did.
Either way, she felt just she had back then: angry, humiliated, fizzing with nervous energy.
His brows arched at her silence. “What? No furious tirade about making you share a room? No threat to murder me in my sleep? Are you ill, Hamilton?”
He reached forward as if to put his hand on her forehead to test for a fever, but she deflected his arm and grabbed his wrist. Her fingers barely closed around it, and he could have shaken her off with the smallest effort, but he simply stilled.
Daisy could barely breathe. The room was huge, but he was so close the tips of his boots brushed hers and she glared up into his handsome, mocking face. Angry ferment mixed with frustrated desire in her belly.
Infuriating man.
She wanted him. Hated him.
God,hewas the fever. He made her body hot and her brain stupid.