“What is it?” Peter asked, scouring the area around them, his senses on alert.
“The rain; the boot polish,” Jemima replied, studying his black hair for signs of betrayal.
“We’re all right, the boot polish won’t wash off that easily,” Peter reassured her, before bursting into laughter.
“What? What is it?” Jemima asked, waiting patiently for him to stop chuckling long enough to draw breath.
“We are all right, because the boot polish needs a lot of soap and water to wash off.”
“So?” Jemima frowned, wondering what was so funny about that.
“Eliza - oh God,” and he burst out laughing again.
It took several more minutes for Jemima to realise what was so funny. Jemima had streaked her hair with cocoa, which needed water. She would undoubtedly smell – and look – like a cup of hot chocolate if it rained heavily.
“Edward’s going to have a conniption,” Jemima said, biting her lip in an attempt not to laugh. But it was useless.
The thought of Eliza in her spinster-like clothing, riding on a carriage, with brown streaks of cocoa running down her face, smelling like a cup of hot chocolate, while Edward glared at her balefully was too much.
Their laughter remained with them for several long miles.
They stopped twice to eat, each time choosing a coaching inn located just off the main road. Although seemingly relaxed, Peter had remained watchful and had spent a lot of time studying the people around them for possible threats.
Throughout the day, they had found a variety of topics to discuss. Jemima now knew a lot about Peter’s childhood with Isobel, and Peter knew more about Jemima losing her mother at a young age, and the family’s struggle to continue a normal life without a woman to run the household. They had talked about their favourite foods and pastimes, their distant relations and immediate family.
By the time they turned into the slightly shabby tavern later that evening, Jemima felt as though she had known Peter forever. They had discovered they had so much in common that they felt a strong camaraderie.
It cemented Peter’s opinion that Jemima was indeed his soul mate.
Although she tried to be as matter-of-fact about it as possible, Jemima knew what the arrival at the inn heralded.
At Havistock she had readily agreed to travel with Peter as man and wife, although that also meant they were expected to share a room. Peter had insisted that they travel as man and wife to allow him to protect her as much as physically possible.
It also meant that they would be sharing a bed.
As she disembarked and entered the inn, Jemima was thinking about the next few hours and what it would mean for their relationship. Was she ready to be intimate with Peter again? She wasn’t certain. She was so lost in thought that she didn’t see the man approach her until they bumped shoulders.
Immediately she jolted and looked up, straight into familiar eyes. Everything within her froze as she studied those eyes for several moments, before Peter gave her a gentle nudge. His hand at her elbow encouraged her into the main tap room where he quickly arranged a room for them and ushered her up the stairs. By the time she had the chance to glance behind her, the man had gone.
Once in their room she immediately moved to the window and glanced down at the street below, but darkness had descended and she could only see her own reflection.
“Draw the curtains, Jemima,” Peter ordered, depositing their bag on the bed.
Jemima did that with a sigh of relief, and turned back to Peter, a frown on her face.
“Did you see that man?”
Peter paused, his gaze meeting hers directly. “Yes. Does he look familiar to you?”
Jemima considered for several moments and then gasped, “Oh!”
Peter nodded slowly. “He is going to follow us down. There is another man following Edward and Eliza.”
With his hair plastered to his head with a liberal amount of grease and combed over his high brow, several days’ growth of stubble, and old farmer’s clothing, Hugo had barely been recognisable.
“I didn’t realise he would be so close,” Jemima muttered, feeling vaguely reassured that there was additional support should they need it. Although she trusted Peter with her life and had no doubt of his fighting capabilities, it reassured her that, should he be outnumbered, someone who knew what he was doing was able to fight at his back.
She had learned from both Eliza and Peter that on previous excursions, Peter had been supported by Edward, Sebastian and Dominic. This time Dominic and Sebastian had been forced to remain at home. Isobel was due to give birth any day now, and Amelia was also expecting her baby in the near future, and needed to return to her own home for her own confinement once Isobel had given birth. Despite Dominic and Sebastian’s protests, they were not allowed to put their lives at risk, given the imminent arrival of their children. They were outvoted, and were forced to watch the rest leave without them.