“Not even a cursory explanation? After all, I’ve been riding all day. I think after all the trouble I went to find you, I deserve that much.”
“Oh, you do, do you? Perhaps no one has ever explained to you that when someone runs away, they generally do not want to be found. So forgive me if I do not thank you for doing precisely what I did not want.”
Ah, yes. This was the Emmeline his aunt complained about, the one full of fire whom Stratford saw all too rarely. The dog licked his chin and Stratford wrinkled his nose. “And to think I always said you were no trouble.”
“I am no trouble because, as usual, I am not your concern.” She started away from him, crossing the room of the public house, and stepping outside. Stratford followed.
“What are you doing?”
“Continuing my journey,” she said, looking this way then that for a groom.
“Oh, no you are not. You are coming back to Odham Abbey with me.”
She shot him a look that said over-your-dead-body, and Stratford hoped she did not possess any weapons else his life might actually be in danger. At that moment, the groom reappeared leading a horse, and Emmeline walked right up to him. “Thank you,” she said. “I will take this animal.”
Stratford could not blame the man when his mouth dropped open in shock. He had known Emmeline was a force to be reckoned with. He had seen her take on her mother and more than one suitor, but she was clearly in a mood now, and pity the man or woman who stood in her way.
And that man was obviously him. “Wait a moment!”
The groom, hand half-extended to give over the reins, paused.
“The lady and I need a word. If you’ll excuse us.”
“We do not need a word,” she said.
“We do,” he said. He looked down at the dog in his arms then over at the groom.
“I’ll take her, sir,” the groom said. “She’s a real beauty.”
Stratford handed the dog to the groom who immediately crooned to the spaniel and brought her over to a patch of grass where the dog seemed relieved to be able to...well, relieve herself. Aware the groom was still nearby, Stratford lowered his voice. “Listen, Emmeline—”
She sighed. “This is the part where you tell me I cannot take this horse and I must come back with you and what will people say and think and so on.”
“Exactly.” There. She could be reasonable.
“And what I will say to you, Stratford Fortescue, is I no longer care. I am not returning. Not with you. Not with anyone.”
“Emmeline, be reasonable,” he said, hoping that he could will her into behaving logically.
“Stratford, I am being reasonable. This is how a reasonable person behaves when she has been pushed to the brink of sanity and made to attend event after event whereupon she is maligned and insulted and ignored. What I might argue is that it is not reasonable for that person to keep attending said events.”
Stratford could see her point, though her logic was twisted. “Then have that conversation with your mother.”
“Don’t you think I have? She will not listen. And of course, neither will you. You are not my brother. Our families are friendly, but you have no authority over me.”
“And yet I feel as though I have an obligation to be certain you come to no harm.” That was part of the reason he had come after her. The other part was the rare chance to spend time alone with her. They might have known each other for years but he could count on one hand the number of times they had ever shared a private word. “Don’t be difficult.”
That was the wrong thing to say. He saw it in the way her eyes immediately narrowed.
“Difficult, am I? Wanting my freedom makes me difficult?”
“Emmeline, I thought we were friends.” He would explain and appeal to her reason. “There’s no reason for all this trouble.”
“Do you know why I was never any trouble when you escorted me about Town?”
Stratford did not like the look in her eyes.
“Because I felt sorry for you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Hot anger flooded through him. She felt sorry for him? The perpetual wallflower, the spinster of three and twenty, the woman who couldn’t secure a beau if she tried, felt sorry for him?
“I did. Because you did not want to be there any more than I. And you were as pathetic as I because we both did whatever we were told and dutifully followed the rules. Well, sir, I am done following the rules.” She made a move toward the horse, and Stratford grabbed her arm.
“Oh, no you don’t.” She gave his hand on her arm the most disdainful look he had ever seen. He could almost feel the heat of her loathing. “You are clearly distraught.” That seemed to be putting it mildly. “Therefore, I will ignore your insults. But I draw the line at allowing you to take that horse and ride away.”
She stepped closer to him, so close he could smell the lemon scent he always associated with her. Her eyes were so brilliantly blue that he almost needed to squint. “Oh, yes, I am.”
She snatched her arm from his grip and made an unsuccessful attempt to put a foot in the horse’s stirrup. The horse shied away.
“And just where will you go?” Stratford asked, clasping his hands behind his back to resist the urge to shake her until she listened. “It will be dark soon.”
She didn’t look at him, but her shoulders stiffened.
Ah, he had hit a chink. Now to exploit it. “Do you have blunt to pay for a room at an inn? Not that any inn will accept you. A lone female? Any decent inn will assume you are a fallen woman and not want you under their roof.”
She still did not turn to face him, but he could almost hear her thinking.
“I’ll stay here then.”
Time to wrench a crowbar into that chink and open it wide. “This is not an inn. There are no rooms to let, and if you haven’t coin to pay for food and drink, the proprietor will not let you stay.”
“We’ll see about that,” she said, and Stratford had no trouble believing she would bend the proprietor to her will. His strategy teetered on failure.
“Emmeline,” Stratford began. She glared at him over her shoulder. “Miss Wellesley,” he said sharply. “Clearly this is not a decision to make without more consideration and discussion.”
She rolled her eyes.
He ignored her. “I propose we inquire as to the location of the nearest inn, stop there for the night, and discuss this further in the morning, when we are both feeling refreshed and clear headed.”
“I won’t change my mind,” she said.
But she already had. When he’d arrived, she wanted to escape him as soon as possible. Now she was tacitly agreeing to go with him. “Of course not, but at least you will be rested and fed. Wait here while I secure another mount and inquire about the inn.”
He started toward the groom then realized he didn’t trust her not to mount his horse and ride off while his back was turned. He took the horse’s reins and brought the animal with him.
The groom was more than happy to give him the location of a good inn, which was not the nearest but was close enough to reach before full dark. But before he went to saddle another horse, he gave the dog he’d been playing with a baleful look. “What will you do with the dog, sir?”