“But then?—”
“We’ll take a room at the inn.”
“Tonight?”
His smile deepened. “Obviously, my dear.”
“But—”
“Imagine! All that privacy!” he drawled with relish. “Hmm. Privacy and a wife who should be damned grateful at the moment. Oh, I should really, really like this night!”
CHAPTER 14
“You should be hanged,” Skylar muttered.
He arched a brow, looking at her with mock despair. “Whatever happened to ‘Thank you, Lord Douglas, my dear husband?’”
“You know, Hawk, you have a nasty way of taking advantage of things.”
“I intend to take advantage of things quite pleasantly, actually.”
She groaned.
His eyes were green fire as he laughed up at her. “You were trying to say thank you properly, weren’t you?”
She groaned again, allowing her face to fall against the roan’s mane. He laughed.
“Come on. I’ll leave you at the inn, then take the horses over to the livery stable.”
Hawk came into the inn with her briefly. He apparently knew the round, very proper proprietress, Mrs. Smith-Soames, well enough because the woman was quick to assure him that she had the best room in the house available and that every amenity would be afforded them.
Skylar was left in the foyer with a cup of tea while Hawk’s “customary requirements” were seen to. Hawk took the horses over to the stables. By the time Skylar had finished her tea, a maid appeared to tell her that her room was ready. She followed the girl, who was wearing a black dress and a perfectly starched white apron and cap, up the stairs to the end of the hallway. Double doors opened on a sumptuous room. A huge four-poster bed was against the far wall, a fireplace spanned half the opposing wall, and the largest hip tub Skylar had seen in her entire life, made of copper and wood, sat in front of the fire, steam rising from it in great waves.
“Lavender soap, Lady Douglas,” the young maid said, setting a purple bar down upon a huge pair of bath sheets. “And sandalwood here, for Lord Douglas, of course.”
“Lovely,” Skylar murmured.
The maid moved across the room. “Mrs. Smith-Soames has sent up her finest champagne, ma’am. It’s here, with glasses, and some chocolates, all with her fondest wishes for the happiness of your marriage.”
“My marriage…oh, yes.”
The maid smiled. She was a rosy-cheeked girl with a few traces of a British accent remaining. “If you need anything at all, there’s a bellpull by the bed.”
“Thank you so much.”
The girl left her. Skylar restlessly moved about the room. She’d dressed for a night in the wilderness, and now suddenly she was standing on a handsome Persian carpet. Nothing had been what she had imagined since she had come here.
Did it matter? Her all-important wire was soaring across the country even as she stood there. Jim Pike would receive word tonight. He was so wonderful and kind a man, he would immediately find a way to reach Sabrina, who would be waiting, hoping…
By tomorrow, she could pick up her money and be on her way.
Skylar exhaled, moving thoughtfully across the room to the windows, opening the heavy velvet drapes that fell over them. She thought about Hawk and felt a strange quivering in her abdomen. She was somewhat alarmed to realize that she wasn’t dismayed about being here. She wasn’t dismayed about him. She was anxious…
Excited.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no…
Yes.
