He took the one opposite. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I should not have told you that.”
She pursed her lips in thought for a minute, and he could almost see the wheels turning in her head. Then she took a breath. “So, as a courier, you would be responsible for taking messages from one place to another?”
“I shouldn’t have revealed it.”
She managed a little snort of amusement. “No, you probably shouldn’t. But it explains a few things.”
“It does?”
“Of course.” She folded her hands together and met his gaze. “You were delivered here, weren’t you? You had Madame’s address and somehow you conveyed it to whoever ferried you across the Channel.”
He opened his mouth to answer, but she held up a hand.
“Wait…I’m still thinking. You said you were engaged in some sort of horse business with the cavalry. Which, when I think about it, is an ideal occupation for someone taking messages from one place to another. Nobody would ever suspect you were doing anything else.”
He had to appreciate the rapidity with which she put all the pieces together. “Something like that, yes.”
“And now you need to go to…Myrtle Manor? Or London directly?”
“I need to go to London. As soon as possible.”
“Then that is what we shall do.” She glanced at his foot. “It will have to be a carriage though, and that will be a lot slower than if we rode.”
“Er, Willow, I will be going to London. There is no need at all for you to be involved in this business any more than you already are.” He thought for a moment. “The best course of action would be for me to find a carriage somewhere around here and leave at once. You will write to your family, and I know they’d have someone here posthaste.”
“I see.” She raised an eyebrow, giving him a look so much like her mother’s that he wanted to laugh. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I mean just that. No. I am not letting you hare off to town without me. You are still recovering from a serious indisposition, Harry. And then there’s the matter of you being my temporary husband. If you up and leave me so soon, everyone will start talking. You know how small villages are? Would you condemn me to that sort of embarrassment?”
“A little far-fetched, my dear,” he replied, amused.
“But true, nonetheless.”
He sighed. “Willow, I cannot, in good conscience, take you on a trip that might prove to be dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“I have no way of knowing what the current situation is, as far as my mission is concerned. I don’t know if my arrival here was noticed, if anyone has been watching this house, or if word has been passed along to the wrong people that I might have something or know something of value.” He made his gaze as stern as he could. “These are matters I’ve become accustomed to. But it is completely unthinkable for me to allow you to participate, or even travel with me, under these circumstances. I won’t risk you, my dear. In any way.”
Willow stood, straightening her skirts as she did so.
“Well, Harry, that was a delightfully phrased speech. Congratulations. Now I believe I shall start packing, since we’ll be leaving soon. The business of obtaining a carriage has me slightly concerned, because I’m going to assume, from what you’ve told me, that speed will be important.”
She walked to the little bedroom door. “I’ll pack for us both, I think. Madame had some larger valises that should suffice. The journey to London will require one overnight stay, won’t it?”
Suggestions, ideas, solutions—all ran through his mind like lightning, but before he could put any of them into words, she looked at him with a smile that shot a jolt of lust through his body.
“Don’t bother,” she said. “You know you’ll most certainly lose any of the arguments you’re putting together at this moment.”
He dropped his head into his hands and groaned.
“Oh come now, it’s not that bad. Besides, what sort of wife would I be if I let my husband go off on a wild adventure while I stayed here and polished the teapot?”
“You’d be safe, at least,” muttered Harry.
“I’ll be every bit as safe with you,” she shot back. “So the matter is settled, and the subject closed.”
