Chapter 1 #3
“Wonderful. Perhaps we might join her?” Max suggested.
“She said there had been an accident with your carriage and that she’d had to uncouple the horses and bring them to safety,” the farmer said, as he led the way out of what turned out to be a substantial medieval barn, complete with arrow slits.
“Yes! That’s what happened.” Max grasped the idea with alacrity. “I must have hit my head.”
“So she said.”
The farmer led the way up to the top of a hill. Below, a slate-roofed, whitewashed farmhouse sat tranquilly beside a large kitchen garden. Smoke came out of the chimney and, as they approached, the appetizing smell of cooked bacon drifted from the open kitchen door. Max’s stomach rumbled.
“I reckon you’ll be hungry,” the farmer said as he followed Max into the kitchen.
“I am, Mr…?” Max looked inquiringly at the man.
“Lacock, and this is my wife, Mrs. Lacock.”
“A pleasure.” Max bowed at the woman standing at the stove.
“Sir.” She bobbed a curtsy, looking rather thrilled by what must be unusual activity. “Would you like some breakfast?”
“Yes, please.”
Max sat down at the table, his gaze moving to the female already seated there.
She regarded him with distinct disapproval.
She had brown hair, gray eyes, and a perfectly average face and figure—the kind of woman he’d never usually bother to look at for longer than it took to pass her by.
She also looked as if she’d slept in a barn.
A vague alarm flickered in his memory as he focused on her rather prominent nose.
“Good morning, brother,” she said. “How is your headache today?”
“Terrible. How’s yours?”
“I was too busy dealing with the mayhem to allow myself to have a headache, sir. I left that luxury to you.”
“It’s hardly my fault I got knocked out, is it?”
Mrs. Lacock put a cup of well-brewed tea at his elbow, and he thanked her.
“You seem to have managed well enough.”
Despite being distracted by the sizzling pile of gammon and eggs placed in front of him, Max thought he could hear her teeth grinding. She had quite a ferocious stare and the upper-class accent of a lady, which begged all kinds of interesting questions as to how they’d ended up together.
Mr. Lacock announced he was going back to work and that he would feed their horses. Mrs. Lacock said she needed to attend to the chickens and left Max alone with his female companion. He had to imagine that his friends had played a joke on him and that this woman, whoever she was, was involved.
“Look,” he said. “I don’t know who you are, but—”
“You don’t know whom you abducted?” Her eyebrows went up.
He hesitated as an unpleasant memory wiggled into his mind—her furious face as he took her arm and bundled her into his carriage.
“Hold on.” He tried desperately to remember. “There was a wager …” He frowned. “But you’re not who I thought you were.”
“I am well aware of that, sir.” She raised her chin, her gaze fulminating.
“Then why in damnation are you here?”
If ladies had been able to breathe fire, Max truly believed he would’ve been incinerated.
“Why am I here? You abducted me!” Her voice rose on every word, which did nothing for his headache.
“You were supposed to be someone else.”
“I suppose you expect me to apologize for being the wrong person, don’t you?”
“Well, you have to admit that it isn’t very helpful.”
“Helpful?” She rose to her feet, her hands clenched into fists. “You took me from my own front doorstop, told me to calm down, and then proceeded to let a lunatic drive your carriage right into a ditch in the middle of nowhere!”
He winced and pressed his fingers to his temple. “If you could just speak more quietly, I’d—”
“You are a rake, a scoundrel, and a drunkard, and I will never forgive you for landing me in this mess.” She came around the table and stood over him, visibly shaking.
“Never is a long time,” Max offered weakly. “Surely we can come to some agreement …”
“Oh, we will be doing that, Max Devereux,” she said. “I can’t wait for your father to find out what you’ve done now.”
“There’s no need to involve him,” Max protested, aware that he couldn’t afford another falling-out with his long-suffering father. “We can sort this out between us.”
“How?” she asked. “Everyone in town will know that I’ve disappeared. The authorities will be looking for me, and when they find me, I’m not going to lie to protect you.”
This was bad. Very bad. Max didn’t want his father anywhere near this brewing scandal. He’d have to think of something fast to placate the furious woman in front of him. If only he knew the full extent of what he was dealing with. …
“If you could just calm down a little, there’s something I’d like to ask you,” Max said in what he hoped were winning tones. “You obviously know who I am, but clearly, I have no idea who you are. Will you at least tell me your name?”
She sucked in a breath and let it out very slowly, her gaze fixed on his face. “You absolute bastard.”
“Probably. But you haven’t answered my question.”
“I’m Lady Allegra Musgrove, and you have just ruined my life.”