Page 54 of Road Trip With a Rogue

“I’m not staying here. I’ll take two fresh horses back to Finch, and he can take me back to London in your carriage. It’s the least you can do. You can share a coachwith Violet and Perry as far as your estate. I’m sure they’ll be wonderful company.”

Daisy hastened back through the inn’s central hallway and emerged in the cobbled courtyard at the back. The stables were off to one side, with a trio of rough-looking stable hands loitering below the arches, but the arrival of a carriage through the arched gateway impeded her progress. She waited for it to stop, but as soon as it did, a woman dressed in a deep green velvet cape and matching bonnet stepped down in front of her.

Daisy moved back into the doorway to give the new arrival room just as the woman glanced up. Mutual recognition was instant, and Daisy’s blood froze as horror filled her.

The new arrival’s eyes widened, and her thin brows rose in astonishment.

“Dorothea Hamilton? Good Lord, what on earth are you doing here?”

The shrill tones carried across the yard as the woman’s fascinated gaze swept over Daisy’s jacket and breeches with almost comical slowness and her nose wrinkled in well-bred disdain. “And wearingthat?”

Daisy willed for the ground to swallow her up. It did not oblige.

Bloody Hell.

Letty Richardson was the worst gossip in the whole of London. She’d come out the same year as Daisy, Tess, and Ellie, and her spiteful gossiping was legendary. She’d always seen other women as a threat to her own marriage prospects, and her sly smugness when she’d accepted an elderly baron at the end of the season had been unbearable, despite the fact that her new husband was an overbearing letch no other woman would have wanted.

Now, as a married woman, Letty loved to feign pityfor “poor unfortunate spinsters” like Daisy, while simultaneously whispering about all her unfeminine flaws behind her fan with her little coterie of petty-minded friends.

This was, without doubt, a nightmare.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Daisy cursed her monumental bad luck as a litany of excuses ran through her brain. Madness. Amnesia. Kidnap. A lost twin. Sadly, none of them sounded remotely plausible, so she squared her shoulders and lifted her chin.

“Letty, what a surprise!” Her tones indicated it was anything but pleasant. “I say, you’re not here to commit bigamy, are you?”

Letty let out a fake little laugh, even as her eyes narrowed. “Of course not. I’m on my way back from visiting my sister. She lives up past Dumfries.”

She waved vaguely northward with her white-gloved hand, but her eyes glittered with malicious delight. It was clear she suspected a scandal.

“But this is marvelous!” Her eyes roved Daisy’s features again and she gave a gleeful chuckle. “From the looks of you, I do believe I’ve stumbled onto an elopement! How famous. You’ve finally found someone to marry you.”

Her tone was so condescendingly saccharine that Daisy clenched her fingers into her palms against the urge toshove Letty into the steaming pile of horse manure just to her left.

“Who’s the lucky man?”

Daisy opened her mouth to tell Letty to mind her own business when she felt a presence behind her and saw Letty’s eyes widen to the size of saucers.

“I am.”

Vaughan’s deep, amused tone made Daisy’s heart stop in her chest.

“What?” Letty squeaked. She recovered from her surprise almost immediately and sank into an obsequious curtsey. “I mean, Your Grace! How wonderful to see you again.”

She couldn’t seem to decide where to look; her eyes kept bouncing between Daisy and Vaughan.

“But I’m not sure I understand,” Letty simpered. Her entire attitude had become flirtatious and cloying. “This must be the most bizarre coincidence. You’re not here withDorothea,are you?”

She made it sound as though associating with Daisy was one step worse than contracting the bubonic plague.

Daisy stood stock-still as Vaughan casually slipped his hand around her waist and tugged her back into his chest in a move so naturally possessive it was as if he’d done it a thousand times before.

“You heard me. Yes, you’ve stumbled on an elopement. And yes, I’m the lucky man. Daisy, here, is going to be my duchess.”

Daisy kept her expression completely serene as Letty gaped at her. Her brain didn’t seem to be able to come up with an alternative suggestion.

“So you’re not married yet?” Letty managed.