Lord Melvedere's Ghost by Rebecca King Page A

against her will. By
the look of their secretive conversation, they were going to
continue through the town on their journey with or without
her.
    She could scream as much as the next person, she mused. If they tried to force her to do
anything she didn’t want to do, like go with them without securing
the horses properly, she would have every curious local within a
two mile radius following them to see who was being murdered, or
kidnapped, or whatever.
    “ Cecily?”
    Cecily
jumped as Jonathan came to walk beside her. “There is a coaching
inn in the town where I got the carriage from. I will drop the
horses off there for you and get the ostler to send them
back.”
    Cecily
glared suspiciously at him for several long moments, glaring back
at a clearly disgusted Jamie, who was now sitting on the box
seat.
    “ We are passing the coaching inn on our way through the town,
so you can take one last look at them before I take them in for
you.” His voice was calm and reasonable, and was as steady as the
gaze he levelled on her. He gave Cecily absolutely no reason to
object and she meekly handed him the reins with a delighted
smile.
    “ That would be very reasonable and considerate of you ,” Cecily declared
loudly, handing Jonathan the strips of leather. Jonathan’s eyebrows
shot up and he stared after her as she walked regally toward the
carriage and climbed aboard.
    “ What the -” Jamie glared at the carriage door as it slammed
shut before throwing a disgruntled look toward a smirking
Jonathan.
    “ Gift of the gab, dear boy,” Jonathan drawled, smiling as he
walked toward the far end of the field with both horses in tow.
“Ride on. I’ll tie them to the back.”
    Jamie
clicked the reins with a snort of disgust. Clearly, he had more
work on his hands than he realised. She hated him; distrusted him.
If he was to go down on one knee and propose, she would probably
kick his head in while he was down there. Shaking his head at the
folly of unfathomable females, he began to think about the
precariousness of her future. It gave him something to think about
other than the myriad swearwords swarming in his head like a hive
of angry bees.
     
    This
time she wasn’t sick in the carriage. However she was bored. Out of
her mind bored.
    She
heaved another sigh and glared out at the dusky haze snuffing out
the last vestige of daylight and wondered what the new day would
hold. She was going to be glad for a day without travelling. Most
of her life had been spent in one place, yet in a matter of days
she felt as though she had travelled the entire length and breadth
of the country. She was bruised from head to toe, couldn’t stop
trembling – although she wasn’t sure whether that was because of
the lack of food. Tiredness made her thoughts sluggish and she was
certain she could sleep standing up if only they would stop the
carriage.
    She
winced as the carriage bounced through a particularly deep rut in
the road. It was either that, or they were going through newly
ploughed fields. She didn’t need to look outside to know that
Jonathan was driving again. His breakneck, devil-may-care driving
was going to bring about all of their deaths if he didn’t slow
down. She could understand their wanting to get to their
destination – wherever that was, but if Jonathan kept at the reins,
the carriage would arrive with three corpses on board. She was
contemplating shouting at them to feed her and slow down when the
carriage began to ease to a steady crawl.
    Heaving
a sigh of relief, she dropped her feet to the carriage floor and
lowered the window to peer outside and take a deep breath of fresh
air. Although Jamie had ordered her to leave it up, she dropped it
anyway. She needed to reassure herself that there was a world
outside the tiny box that was starting to feel like a prison
cell.
    “ Close that window,” Jamie growled, spying the top of her
glossy head poking out of the open rectangle.
    “ No,” Cecily snapped defiantly.