“Oh, but I—”
He shut the door on her protest.
“Let no one in except me or Archie, is that clear, Bids?”
“Aye, sir.”
“Someone attempted to kidnap Lady Samantha today, Bids. They will not get a second chance.”
“That they won’t!” Bids pressed his back to the door and pulled out his gun.
“Excellent. Ensure the shotgun under the seat inside the carriage is loaded.”
Samantha’s irate face appeared at the window. Wrenching the door open, Warwick leaned in and closed the curtains. Shutting the door again before she could yell at him, he said to his driver, “I will return shortly.”
Warwick motioned for a stable hand to take the horse he’d stolen. He then found the man who owned it and explained the situation. Mollified with Warwick’s story, the man calmed down.
After telling Archie what had happened, he told him to take Penny to the carriage. He then purchased two pillows and a basket of food from the proprietor. Reaching the carriage, he opened the door.
“These are for Penny.” He handed the pillows over. “It may offer her some comfort if her arm is resting.”
The glare on Samantha’s face eased slightly as she took the pillows and helped her maid get comfortable.
After stowing the hamper with the luggage, Warwick then climbed inside with the women. They were rolling out of the inn minutes later.
“Has Penny had more laudanum?”
Samantha nodded, and they rode in silence for a while. Warwick kept his eyes out the window. Alternating from left to right. Earplugs out, he listened for horses in case whoever took Samantha tried again.
“I have my knife, you know.”
“And that is supposed to reassure me, is it?” Penny’s eyes were now closed, head resting on the door.
Samantha looked like an irate child. Hair all over the place, dirt on one cheek, and a mark on the other that a hand had clearly inflicted.
Warwick’s hand curled into a fist on his thigh.
“I have survived for a year without the overprotective men in our families. I assure you I can continue to do so and that was surely a random attack.”
“Even you cannot dodge a bullet, and I fail to see how you would have gotten out of that situation without my help.”
“You would not have escaped that either,” she snapped. “He grabbed me before I knew what was happening.”
“I am stronger. He would not have grabbed me so easily.”
She huffed out a breath, and Warwick sighed.
“Just have a care, Samantha. Please.”
“I’m sorry. I sound ungracious and do not mean to be.”
“You’re scared. So am I.”
The look she sent him made his chest hurt. Desperate, fearful—it held that and more. She’d worn that expression a great deal as a child.
“If they were kidnapping me to extort money, perhaps they heard it the day we arrived at the inn? You used my title so you got rooms before the other customers.”
He did say it but with the best intentions. He’d not thought the result would be her kidnapping.
