Alfie merely grunted in reply, glaring at the apple as though it had personally offended him, before stomping off. He was almost certainly going to toss the rest of it into the woods.
When I finally glanced back to Davina, she was examining me in a way I couldn’t quite name. “What did I do?”
She shook her head and replied, “Nothing.”
“Fog is lifting. We’ll be off as soon as that one finishes his apple.”
I heard the unmistakablethunkof an apple core—or more likely an apple with a singular bite out of it—landing on the ground.
“If I find an uneaten apple in the dirt, I’ll feed it to ye myself,” Rory called. She disappeared, followed by the shuffle of feet in the leaves, a kick-like thump, then the rustling of leaves as a once-bitten apple rolled down the hill. “Yer getting six more at the inn.”
A plaintive whine of Rory’s name earned an eye roll from the lady herself as she returned.
“Ye ready to set off?”
Davina nodded and Rory buckled the damned door. I leaned back, tipping my head against the wall, and praying this time would be different when I heard Rory climb onto her barrel.
The carriage jolted forward. We’d changed horses overnight at least once while Davina and I slept, and these two were far more up to the task than the ones we’d set off with. While that was good, it also meant their trot was somewhat more impressive and my stomach twisted uncomfortably.
“You’re sitting over there?”
I nodded, not glancing her way. Given half an opportunity she would manhandle me back to her side and I’d never manage to extricate myself again.
“If you’re sick on my skirts, I shall never forgive you.”
“Noted.”
“You’re acting strangely this morning.”
“Forgive me, I’m not aware of the proper protocol of waking to a she-demon’s screech over a spider in a carriage-shaped lump of wood with my abductress.”
“Abductress?” she questioned, laughter in her voice.
“Feminine of abductor.”
“Is it really?”
“No. I made it up,” I deadpanned, finally opening an eye to look at her.
“Well now I really cannot tell.”
“Good, quiet now. ‘M trying to sleep.”
“But—”
“Hush, little menace. It’s time for quiet.”
“Menace?” she whispered in between the croaks and groans of the unhappy carriage.
DAVINA
“Menace…” I couldn’t decide whether I liked that.
His entire body rocked with the motion of the carriage as he feigned sleep.
With no other form of occupation, I was left to observe thesleepingMr. Summers—Kit—again. Somehow, without my notice, he’d become a rather an attractive man. True, his nose was a little too big and too straight, but the stubble distracted from that. And yes, his lips were perpetually downturned, but they were incredibly full and seemed rather soft. Perhaps his form was too wiry and his frame too short. But the combination was strangely beautiful, a masculine beauty, of course, but beautiful.
I could see it now, why that woman he’d been with at Gunter’s years ago was so eager to win his affections—before I ruined their outing.
