It was crowded and stuffy, with the taproom, dining room and parlour teeming with soldiers, travellers and tired children. The innkeeper, a short, bald man with a leather apron bound over his round stomach, was clearly overwhelmed and profoundly ill-humoured.
“No rooms available. No rooms, I say,” he snapped before she even opened her mouth. “Don’t even ask.”
“But—”
“No. What do you want me to do? All rooms are gone. They’re already sleeping in the corridors and in the attic, packed together like herring in a barrel. They’ve even herded the cows into half of the stalls and taken over the other half of my stables,” he added bitterly. “If my cows refuse to be milked tomorrow, the blame’s not with me.”
“I just need a tiny room,” Evie tried again. “Truly, I?—”
“Impossible. Even the officers have to share their quarters.” He lifted his chin towards a corner, where several officers stood with their spurs and sabres. Some of them were hussars, looking dashing in their braided dolmans, pelisses and shakoes.
Evie glanced into the dining room, where people had begun to spread out their sleeping mats on the floor. The inn, indeed, seemed to be bursting at the seams. This was a problem.
“Unless you’re a person of higher consequence that would justify my dislodging these officers, who have earned their bed with their blood and sweat, after the horrible trials they went through, I advise you to drive on to the next inn.”
“How far away is that?”
“About an hour.” He cast a look through the window. “In this weather, it might take longer.” Just as he was speaking, a clap of thunder tore through the sky.
Clara stepped up to her and gripped her arm. “Maybe we’ll just have to do that,” she suggested quietly.
Evie took in the feverish glow in her eyes. Her entire body was radiating heat, and her cheeks were flushed.
This wouldn’t do. Evie’s mind worked quickly.
“See here.” Evie placed both hands on the counter, pulling herself up on her toes to squarely meet the man’s eyes. “You have no idea who we are, do you? You have no idea who that lady, in particular, is?” She waved at Clara.
The man’s wary look travelled down Clara’s expensive green ballroom gown. He was clearly unimpressed. “Who? Someone of significance?”
Evie cast a look to her right and left, before leaning forward. “Indeed. She is none other than the sister of the Duke of Aldingbourne.”
The innkeeper narrowed his eyes. “That English duke?”
That was how he was mentioned in the papers. ‘The English Duke’ who had arrived with the English Foreign Secretary to save the congress before it had even begun. He was of immense consequence and rubbed shoulders withthe most powerful men in the realm, and some said he even had tea with the Kaiser himself.
Evie nodded emphatically. “Yes, yes. The very same, indeed. A very important person, the duke. Now, don’t tell me you don’t have a single bed for Lady Evangeline Stafford-Hill, particularly as you can see she is dreadfully ill?”
The innkeeper threw a mistrustful look at Clara. “You’re truly the sister of a duke?”
Clara hesitated.
Evie stepped on her foot.
Clara drew herself up, with chin in the air. “Indeed, I am.” She looked down her regal nose at the innkeeper as though he were dirt beneath her feet.
Well done, Clara, well done.She could mime the haughty duke’s sister so much better than she, herself, ever could.
“There you are.” Evie turned back to the innkeeper. “What will you tell her brother, the English Duke, when he discovers that you denied her a bed and she ends up dying on your doorstep? Can you answer for that possibility?”
“I don’t know. She looks all right to me.” The innkeeper’s gaze travelled critically up and down Clara. “She doesn’t look like she’s on her deathbed yet. All ready to go to an assembly ball, too.”
Of all the infuriating, annoying men she ever had the misfortune to deal with, this one topped them all. “Now see here,” Evie began, but was interrupted by a crisp, sharp voice.
“She can have my room.”
Evie whirled around and faced a man who seemed to have overheard every word of their conversation.
She looked him up and down.
