Scandalously Yours (Hellions of High Street 1)

“No, please let me finish,” said Olivia. “It was never meant maliciously, sir. Indeed, it began as a harmless jest, but things went awry.” She quickly explained about the reply she had written, and how Anna had sent it off on a whim. “We never expected anything to come of it.” She lifted her chin. “What more can I say? I—I am very sorry.”

“I suppose I should have guessed.” All at once, John felt his anger ebb away. “After all, the chances of there being two women in all of England possessing such a cleverness with words are virtually nil.” He looked around to catch the spasm of surprise flitting over her features. “I hate to admit it, but you were scathingly funny as Lady Loose Screw.”

Olivia made an odd little sound in her throat.

A rueful grin crept to his lips. “Perhaps you should ask Hurley if you can pen a second column in the Gazette, giving advice on love and marriage.”

“I think I might consign my pen to the Devil,” came her ragged reply. “It seems to stir naught but trouble.”

“On the contrary, it stirs fire and brimstone, which lights a much-needed flame under our country’s complacency.”

“Even though your bum feels a bit singed?”

He laughed. “My sister would probably say it was all for the good. She thinks I’ve become a trifle too stiff-rumped.”

The cabriolet crested the hill and the horses quickened their pace over the flat ground.

“Be that as it may, sir, we had best put talk of our own foibles aside and concentrate on the far more important matter at hand.” Pulling another paper from inside her cloak, Olivia unfolded a large printed road map and smoothed it open in her lap. “Your sister’s coachman gave me this, and I have been studying the routes that lead to Devonshire. We must turn at the next signpost, and that will take us to Guilford. From there we can make a beeline for Aldershot, which will allow us to pick up the main route into Andover.”

She traced a finger over a long line stretching from London to the narrow finger of land to the west. “It seems logical that Lumley will want to travel as fast as possible and by the shortest route to Exeter. So my guess is that’s the road he will take.”

“Agreed,” said John, as he as

sessed just how much farther he could push his tired animals before he would need to stop and change to a fresh team. “That you have a detailed description of the coach should allow us to know sooner rather than later whether we have made the right choice.”

“He can’t have gone north—there are no roads that would take him in the direction of Dartmoor. And while it’s possible to cut south, through Salisbury and the Vale of Wardour, it makes no sense to do so when speed is of the essence.”

“Assuming Davenport is correct in his information. Assuming they are intent on speed and not stealth.”

“I think we are on the right track, sir,” she said stoutly.

“I pray so, Miss Sloane.” John urged an extra burst of speed from his lathered horses. “I pray so.”

Chapter Twenty

Olivia drank down the last of the steaming tea, and handed the mug back to the stableboy. Drawing her cloak a little tighter around her shoulders, she sat back on the seat, grateful for the pleasant warmth that was now radiating out through her limbs. Despite the mildness of the early evening, the rising breeze and galloping pace had left her fingers and toes feeling chilled to the bone.

John appeared from behind a massive barouche that was having one of its rear wheels repaired, looking none too happy about his negotiations with the inn’s ostler. “I managed to procure the last available team of horses,” he grumbled. “Though the knave charged me an extra guinea.” Perching a hip on the cabriolet’s running board, he made a face. “I hope that my blunt will hold out. I expected to pick up additional funds when I reached Wrexham Manor.”

A fat leather purse dropped onto the floorboard of the driver’s box. “Your sister and I thought that might be the case,” said Olivia. “So she sent this along with me.”

He pursed his lips in a rueful smile. “If Whitehall were wise enough to hire ladies as quartermasters for our military forces, we would win the war within six months.”

“Quite likely. We tend to think of the practical things.” She handed him the other mug of tea she had ordered. “Here, drink this while it is still hot.”

Their hands touched for a fleeting moment, sending a sweet curl of warmth through her tired body.

John downed it in several quick gulps. “Thank you,” he murmured, stepping aside to let the stablehands harness the fresh horses to their vehicle. “I am sorry to ask you to continue on without a longer stop here. I am sure you must be tired and famished. However, I should like to reach Odiham before we stop for the night.”

Olivia waited for the men to move away before replying. “First of all, sir, we need to establish some rules for this journey.”

“You dislike rules,” he quipped.

“Not when they serve a higher purpose,” she retorted. “My likes and dislikes aren’t important, Wrexham. Freeing Prescott is the only thing that matters. And so, if you wish to drive from here to Hades without pausing, you must do so without any thought to my creature comforts. Having accompanied my father on a very lengthy expedition into the wilds, I assure you that I am no stranger to traveling under primitive conditions.”

He shifted his stance, his face unreadable.

“I asked to be part of this, knowing full well what to expect.” That, Olivia admitted to herself, was perhaps not entirely true, but it was close enough. The earl’s real feelings about her presence were still impossible to gauge.