A Pair of Rogues (21 page)

The sight of his face bent over hers in concern had been so welcome. His evident pleasure on seeing her had been like a poultice to her aching heart. Despite the scandal that faced her at home, she would not regret her impulsive act.

Barks and snarls continued to erupt from the barn, joined by the equally savage noises of men. Before long this gathering would have to disperse, for there would soon be no more daylight to illuminate the fighting.

Christina had been certain that Ned could not emerge again without her seeing him; but she was soon surprised by the sight of his curricle coming towards her. She covered her mouth with the stock and lowered her chin to be sure, but the driver was Ned.

“Hop up,” he said, bringing the curricle to a halt beside the stile. The horses looked refreshed and eager to be gone.

As Christina scrambled to her feet, he said, “You will have to forgive my deplorable manners in not handing you up. But I think you will agree, it would look a bit odd if I made a fuss over a person presumed to be my tiger.”

Christina threw him a grimace, which he returned, before the sight of her slim ankles below her breeches seemed to capture his interest. His gaze faltered.

Up until now, Christina had moved about in her boy’s clothing without the slightest bit of self-awareness, but her feelings became quite different under Ned’s scrutiny. An appreciative smile hovered at the corners of his mouth as he clucked to his horses.

A pregnant silence fell between them. Christina did not dare ask where they would be going, or more particularly where they would spend the night, which would soon be closing in. She trusted Ned to bring them out of this predicament, although she feared the consequences might be greater than he liked.

* * * *

For his part, Ned was fully aware of the failing light and the compromising situation, as well as the probable outcome of this night. Intending to spare Christina as much disgrace as possible, he focused on getting her home first. He eased his team out of the rutted track and up onto the main road. But, once there, he told her to hold on tightly while he urged his pair into a gallop.

He could not possibly get her back to London tonight. Nevertheless, they should put as much distance between themselves and the men behind them as they could before dark. The worst possible thing would be for one of those spectators to recognize the Lady Christina Lindsay.

His near euphoria on seeing the light in her eyes had quickly given way to worry. He didn’t know what had brought her on such a mad escapade; but the result would be foregone.

She would be forced to marry him.

Once Robert discovered she had left town in his company and spent the night with him alone, she would have no choice.

Ned’s heart gave a stunning leap, but his concern for Christina tamped it down. He thought he could make her a good husband. He would surely try.

But no young girl with her beauty and spirit should be tied to a burnt-out rake like him.

Ned pressed his horses until the fading light made the road too dangerous. While they’d kept up a rapid pace, conversation had been impossible. Now, as he slowed his team to a restful trot, he cast his gaze on the woman beside him.

Christina’s eyes met his, and in their depths he read her embarrassment over what was to come. Still, she looked at him with all the trusting wonder of the little girl he so fondly remembered.

Ned could not be certain that he could merit that trust.

 He broke their gaze and with an effort at casual speech, said, “We shall have to find a place to pass the night.”

“Shall we go to an inn?”

He shook his head. “We’d be certain to run into someone we knew. It would be better to find ourselves a barn.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw her shiver.

“Frightened?”

His question seemed to surprise her. “Of course, I’m not. Your mentioning a barn made me think of those poor dogs.”

“Ah.”

“Why did you stop there, Ned? I hope you do not enjoy dogfights.”

On another day, at another time, he might have teased her; but Christina needed reassurance now.

“I have never cared for dog matches, but Levington does. I only stopped so he could place a wager.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Levington? Oh, that was easy. I concocted a yarn expressly designed to appeal to the most tender spot in his heart. I told him a messenger had tracked me down from London to deliver some very important news. My Great-Aunt Bertha, if you please, is not expected to last the night, and if I want to be included in her will, I had better make haste.

“In that sort of situation, you know, Levington can be surprisingly sympathetic. He said he had an aunt in similar health, and he was daily hoping for her to expire.”

Christina made a noise between a laugh and a snort. “But whatever did you do to get rid of him?”

“We had several acquaintances in the crowd. It did not take me long to find someone willing to take him up.”

“Thank goodness!” She gave a sigh. “I am happy you were put to so little trouble on my account.”

“Yes, excellent,” he said. Ned did not mention that he had offered to pay Levington’s expenses on a shooting jaunt Lord Pepperill had arranged.

Christina cocked him a glance. She seemed alert to the wry humor he had failed to keep from his tone.

Unwilling to burden her with guilt, especially when, despite his concern for the hour, he felt so unreasonably happy, Ned merely grinned until her suspicions faded.

They rode along behind the horses as the late spring day turned into twilight. A pleasant breeze sprang up, bringing with it the scent of freshly turned earth. Meadow flowers filled the air with their delicate fragrance, along with the sweetness of new grass. The cooling gusts ruffled the hair beneath their hats, giving Ned a feeling of freedom, but he reminded himself that it would later carry a chill. Even though Christina in her heavy black jacket was more warmly dressed than in her usual light muslin gowns, she would be needing a decent shelter for the night.

As they tooled along the country road, Ned realized that, if it were not for the worry he knew Robert and Louisa would be experiencing, he would be completely content.

He carefully avoided the taverns and inns on the London road. Then, shortly before dark, he noticed a tidy looking farm only a short distance away. Turning down its curling drive between two hay fields, he stopped the horses several yards from the house and, giving the reins to Christina, told her to wait.

After a good quarter of an hour, during which dusk turned to night, he reappeared with a large basket in his arms.

“Hold this,” he told her as he climbed back up.

Christina felt around inside the basket. It contained a pair of folded quilts, a rough pottery jug, and a cloth-wrapped parcel which smelled like bread.

Ned repossessed himself of the ribbons and guided the horses a short way, through the opening in a low stone fence, then past a dark hen house and pigsty to a vast, well proportioned barn.

In the increasing blackness, Christina could barely see him as again he told her to wait. Despite the quickness in her pulse, she felt no alarm, just a great sense of anticipation, a quivering deep within her belly, and a pleasant tightness in her throat. She took a deep breath to calm her tremblings and drew in the sweet, musky odor of hay.

The creaking of a large barn door and a striking of flint reached her ears. They were followed by a glow of light, which illuminated from within the outline of the barn.

Ned emerged and, with his body completely in shadow, approached the curricle. He held out both his arms.

Christina dropped their provisions down to him, then descended with the assistance of his hand.

Inside, the barn was both airy and cozy, with last year’s hay scattered across the floor. A pair of working horses occupied two stalls in the corner. They snorted and jerked their heads at the intrusion. The lantern Ned had lit was swinging slightly from a hook suspended from the central beam. Its warming rays swept in and out of the corners.

Ned left Christina in charge of the food, while he unhitched his horses and brought them inside for a rubbing down. They had already walked off their heat, so he permitted them to nibble at the feed and drink water from a bucket as he briskly stroked their legs with straw.

Christina spread one of the coverlets down on a broad expanse of hay. Then, she delved into the basket and found a large hunk of cheese, a good loaf of bread, and a knife for both, two plain mugs, and the brown jug of ale.

She had barely laid out this simple picnic when Ned joined her, throwing himself to lie down facing her with his shoulders propped on one elbow.

“You appear to have found a generous farmer,” she said, handing him a length of bread. She could see that he was trying not to grin as he shook his head. “It is amazing how generous men become when they are paid three times what their goods are worth.”

“Oh,” was all she could think to say.

“Yes. Yon farmer was inclined to believe there was something havey-cavey in the notion of a person of quality desiring his barn for the night. I told him what I thought was a plausible tale of a sporting event and no rooms available, but he preferred to think the worst. Fortunately, I did not give him my genuine name, or I fear my reputation would be even more blackened than it already is.”

“But he does not know you have a lady with you!”

“No, that he doesn’t. He thinks you are my groom.” Ned’s smile held a secret she did not think she should ask to have clarified. Somehow, however, that smile raised a blush to her cheeks.

His teasing gaze shifted to the ale. He filled his mug and hers, before he said, “Would you now care to tell me what this prank was all about?”

Christina’s throat closed up. She nearly choked on a clump of cheese. She had given astonishingly little thought to what she would say; however, she excused herself on the notion that time had been so short. She had not had enough of it to form her story.

That left her nothing but the truth.

She could not quite meet Ned’s gaze, when she said, “Louisa said you had been so overturned by Robert’s accusations, which she knew as well as I to be in error, that she was afraid you would do something rash.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, she was afraid you would go on a sort of rampage, as it were. Do dangerous things, I suppose. Things you might later regret.”

“What sort of things did Louisa have in mind?”

Unmistakable amusement tinged his voice. Christina peered through the lantern light to find him staring at her with his cheeks taut as if one more word would send him into a gale of laughter.

At the sight of his extreme enjoyment, frustration spurred her tongue. “How am I supposed to know what things? Rakish things, I suppose!”

“You mean like saturnalian orgies, where the wine flows freely and bare-breasted nymphs dance on the table?”

“Do you deny it?” She poked her chin into the air. “You were taking Levington along with you, too. Considering the number of times you have warned me of the evil to be associated with that gentleman, I find it strange that you would seek his company if you did not have some similar entertainment in mind.”

“Of course. And I am to thank Louisa for inspiring you to come along on our jaunt. Did she think you would wish to play a nymph?”

Indignation, like a rising head of steam, came bursting from her lips. “I did not wish to be one of your nymphs! I meant to stop you from making such a cake of yourself! However, if you’d rather be an ass, you may simply leave me here. I am quite certain I can find my way back to London”

Ned laughed and laughed so hard he had to roll over on his back. Rising to her knees, Christina tried to maintain an air of offended dignity, but his laughter was too infectious. She could not help wishing she could touch his face and feel his deep, delicious humor spreading through her own body.

His reaction had to mean that Louisa had misjudged his intentions. Either that, or he found the notion of her stopping him vastly amusing.

“Was that not your intention, then?” she finally asked, sitting back on her heels to gaze down on him.

Ned stayed where he was in the hay with one arm crooked under his head. His eyes held a softer glow.

“No, I did not plan to go to the devil as you feared. But you would have stopped me? Why?”

Christina felt a lump that teased and tickled her throat, making it hard to talk. She quickly turned away. Her pulse was humming like a frenzied ocean wave.

“Then, Louisa must have been mistaken.” She ignored his question as she gathered up the cheese and untouched bread.

“Was she? I wonder. Still, I’m surprised to hear she sent you on such a dangerous mission.”

Christina had been trying to pick up the knife, but the low seductive note in Ned’s voice made her fingers feel clumsy.

“Louisa did not send me,” she said, her voice small.

There was a long silence, before Ned raised himself to one elbow again. She felt the pressure of his relentless gaze as he studied her face.

After a moment, she said, “Why are you staring at me so? Are you thinking what a mess I look?”

“No. I’m thinking how beautiful your skin is in the lantern light.

“Christina, come here,” he said softly.

She swallowed. Putting down the knife she’d so foolishly gathered, she awkwardly crawled to sit near the place where his hand rested on the quilt.

“Look at me, Christina.”

Slowly, she raised her lashes to meet his gaze.

Instead of the mocking humor she’d half expected to find, she saw a loving tenderness she had never seen in his eyes before. Her lips parted on a sigh as Ned reached one hand to cup her face.

He brought her down onto the hay beside him and covered half her body with his own. He gently stroked her hair, watching each smooth, straight piece as it fell through his fingers.

“Don’t let my laughter disturb you,” he whispered, his gaze drifting back across her features to caress her eyes and her lips. “You may yet prove to be my salvation.”

Christina welcomed his kiss with every fiber of her being. She purred as his lips met hers and his gentle hands moved over her. Alternately gathering her body for a deeper embrace and freeing his hand to run his fingers over her cheek, her head, her throat, and her eyelids, Ned made gentle love to her.