Page 58 of Road Trip With a Rogue

Daisy almost rolled her eyes at this skewed male logic.

“He didn’t mean to kidnap me. He thought I was someone else,” she lied desperately. “He’ll be glad to see the back of me, I swear.”

None of the three men seemed to be listening.

“Even if she’s just ’is piece o’ muslin, he’ll want ’er back.” The tall one said. “Nobs like ’im ’ave a code of honor.”

The near-toothless one nodded. “Aye. We’ll take ’er, and send ’im a ransom. A fine fellow like that’s goin’ to be mighty keen to get ’er back safe and sound.”

The three of them all nodded in agreement, and Daisy cursed beneath her breath as they began to approach. A row of stalls hemmed her in to the left, a stone wall with just a few small windows to her right, but the narrow aisle also prevented the men from fanning out. It was only wide enough for two of them abreast.

She pulled her first blade from her pocket and held it high, then dipped her left hand for the second, and the sight of her brandishing them made the trio pause.

“You’re making a big mistake,” she hissed. “I know how to use these.”

It was clear they didn’t believe her. They came closer, and she cursed inwardly at the need to hurt them.

“I warned you!”

She threw the first blade, and the toothless one let out a howl of pain as it plunged into the meaty part of his thigh. He stumbled to the floor, but the other two were too close for her to throw the second one. She slashed a wide arc around her as they rushed her, trying to keep them at bay. She caught the tall one’s forearm, cutting through the cloth of his jacket and shirt to draw blood, and he leapt back with a curse, but the third man managed to grab her wrist and slammed it against the hard wooden panels of the stall.

Daisy let out a cry of pain. She didn’t drop the knife, but the horses reacted to the commotion. They reared and whinnied in agitation, tossing their heads, and the one in the nearest stall bucked and kicked the boards with a sound like thunder.

She tried to free her hand, but the man’s grip was too strong, and the two of them grappled in the restrictedspace. Daisy tried to twist away, sweeping her leg behind his knee to try to topple him to the floor, but he used the weight of his body to slam her into the siding and she screamed as a bolt of pain streaked through her shoulder.

She twisted away, panting in agony, just as the tall one rejoined the fray, his face twisted in a rictus of fury.

“Little bitch cut me!” he panted, and the last thing Daisy saw was the knuckles of his closed fist coming toward her face.

And then everything went black.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Wherewasthe bloody woman?

Lucien raked his hands through his hair and scowled around the deserted courtyard. A deeply disinterested cat sat atop the stone mounting block in one corner, licking its paw, but there weren’t any stable hands to question about where Daisy had gone.

He shouldn’t have let her out of his sight. She was Daisy Hamilton; she couldn’t be trusted an inch. She was reckless, stubborn, and infuriatingly self-sufficient. He should have known her easy acceptance of his offer to stay at Carisbrooke Hall was suspicious.

Bloody woman.

She’d probably saddled a horse the minute he’d gone back inside and set off toward Carlisle on her own.

Unacceptable.

He marched back inside to find Perry and Violet feeding one another bites of teacake in the front room of the inn.

Lucien suppressed a shudder. This was precisely the reason he hadn’t wanted the boy in his house for a moment longer. Perry had been mooning about, trying toengage him in discussions about which of Shakespeare’s sonnets best described Violet’s quivering lips or cornflower blue eyes until Lucien had been forced to lock himself in his own study with a seventeen-year-old malt just to get some peace.

Unfortunately, his study held the desk on which he regrettednotdebauching Daisy Hamilton every time he entered the room, which had done nothing to improve his temper.

“Have you seen Miss Hamilton?” he growled.

Perry brushed a crumb from his upper lip. “Sorry, no. She hasn’t been in here.”

“Have you lost her?” Violet asked, blue eyes wide with concern.

Lucien bit back a sarcastic retort.Of course I’ve bloody well lost her. Why would I be asking you about her if I knew where the bloody hell she was?