“Get out of the carriage, Rose,” Barnaby growled suddenly.
Rose’s eyes popped open. Her stomach dropped to her toes. She was so shocked that for a moment, she couldn’t quite comprehend that he was actually there. How had he found out? Who had told him?
“Now.” The harsh command in his voice echoed around the carriage.
The other passengers quickly began to disembark amid whispers of ‘who is she?’, and ‘what do they want with her?”
When it was evident that Rose wasn’t going to budge, Barnaby climbed into the carriage and slammed the door closed behind him. He sat directly opposite her and braced his elbows on his knees, and allowed the silence within to thicken.
“Just what the Hell do you think you are doing?” he said calmly.
Too calmly for Rose’s peace of mind. She studied the enigmatic look on his face but could not pick up any trace of emotion to give her any clue whether he was angry, or just there to retrieve her so he could go back to his Star Elite business.
“I am leaving. I refuse to spend my life being dragged up and down the country. I can’t. I won’t. This battle with Chadwick is your battle, and the Star Elite’s. I cannot sacrifice weeks of my life because I decided to take some air at a ball one evening.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper when emotion threatened to overcome her. If she allowed him to see just how upset she was, Barnaby would spirit her away to another safe house no matter how much she protested.
“You cannot leave like this,” he murmured.
“I have not committed any crime. I don’t see why I should be detained,” she protested.
Barnaby stared at her. “Is that how you see what has happened?”
“How could I not?” she whispered. “It isn’t your fault. You are just doing your job. Chadwick is a criminal who should be behind bars. I am just a problem you think you have to take with you. But you don’t.”
“Rose.”
“You don’t, Barnaby,” she persisted. “I need some semblance of a life. I can’t do this.”
She felt tears gather on her lashes as she looked at him and made no apology for them. He might not have been affected by what they had shared last night but she was and she couldn’t hide it.
“It’s too late to go back now,” he said flatly. “I did warn you yesterday that once we shared a bed we couldn’t go back to the way things were. I thought you understood that.”
“I do,” she replied. “I am not asking you for anything. But neither should you expect me to go along with whatever you decide to do. This is my life too. I can’t spend the rest of it paying the price for what we did.”
“Well, it is too late because you must,” Barnaby replied.
He didn’t know when he had fallen in love with her but he had. Totally. Completely, and with everything he had. It was every fibre of his being now; this woman was an essential part of his very existence. The flight across country to find her was one of the most fraught he could ever remember. The thought that Chadwick had her had left him coldly furious and desperately worried.
To think she had run to try to get away from him left him more than a little shaken. In fact, he was horrified.
“I don’t have to do anything,” she reminded him.
“You are under my protection,” Barnaby countered. “So you must.”
“So last night was your protection was it?”
“No, it wasn’t,” Barnaby replied. “It was much more than that. I confess that the timing was lousy but I do firmly believe it was the right thing to do.”
“Why?” she whispered.
“Because I love you,” he said bluntly and ignored her startled gasp. Now that he had opened up and started to talk about his feelings nothing was going to stop him – not even Rose. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but there is something – an invisible connection of some kind; an attraction if you will – that drew me to you right from the very beginning. Even up on that balcony the first night we met I knew I couldn’t just allow you to re-join the guests. If I am honest, it wasn’t entirely because of Chadwick either.”
Rose stared at him in stunned disbelief and watched his smile grow. She tried to be angry but didn’t know what to think. Unsure if she should trust him she studied him closely, but saw nothing but honesty in the somewhat adoring look he was giving her.
“Do you mean to tell me that I could have stayed at the ball and Chadwick might never have found me?” She asked weakly.
Barnaby coughed uncomfortably. “It is safe to say that I was more of a threat to Chadwick than you, and he and I knew it. He would have passed you off as a passionate entanglement and come after me if I had made my presence known to him.”
“But you carried me off into the night like a sack of flour. You got me shot at,” she cried.