Runaway Miss by Mary Nichols Page A

they stretched their stiff limbs and made a dash for the inn where they were joined by the bedraggled occupants of the outside seats.
    The end of May it might have been, but the spring had been so cold and wet, the proprietor had lit a fire in the parlour and soon steaming coats and cloaks were draped around it. Emma looked about for Lord Malvers, but he was nowhere to be seen, though his man, his dark hair plastered to his scalp, had made himself comfortable in the corner nearest the fire and was tucking in to a plate full of chicken, potatoes and gravy. The young man and his bride were in earnest conversation with the innkeeper and were soon conducted upstairs. No doubt they had bespoke themselves a private room.
    Emma found a table and they sat down to wait to be served. They had just handed in an order for ham pie and potatoes, the cheapest thing on the menu according to the man who took the order, when the Viscount returned. He had changed his coat and brushed out his hair, though the rain had made it curl even more. He approached Emma. ‘May I join you?’
    She could hardly refuse. ‘Please do. We have already ordered our meal.’
    ‘Ah, I see, that means I am not to be allowed to pay for it.’ Nevertheless he seated himself beside them.
    ‘No, my lord, you are not. We are perfectly capable of paying our own way.’
    ‘How independent you are!’
    ‘You are mocking me.’
    ‘Indeed I am not. I admire your spunk.’ He turned as the waiter brought the girls’ meal and took his order for pork chops, roast chicken, a fruit pie and a quart of ale.
    ‘Spunk, my lord?’
    ‘You do not seem at all distressed by your recent alarming experience.’
    She was taken aback for a moment, thinking he must know who she was and had heard about Lord Bentwater’s proposal, but then realised he was talking about the runaway horses. ‘Oh, that. It did not last above two or three minutes and we did not turn over, did we?’
    ‘No, but it was a near thing.’
    She smiled. ‘A close-run thing.’
    He laughed. ‘Yes, if you will.’
    ‘It must have been far worse for those of you travelling on the outside in the rain and wind.’
    ‘A mite uncomfortable,’ he said laconically.
    The waiter came back with a tray loaded with food and Emma’s eyes widened at the sight of it. Her ham pie had barely filled a corner. She watched as he attacked it with gusto.
    ‘And you need not have endured it if you had not given away your inside seats.’
    ‘I hope you are not going to bore me with your gratitude all the way to Kendal, Miss Draper. A good deed once done should be forgotten.’
    ‘By the doer, yes, but the recipient should be thinking of ways to make all right again.’
    ‘Allowing me to bear you company has made it right.’ Hehad noticed her looking longingly at the food on his plate and guessed she had very little money. Putting down his knife and fork, he pushed his plate away. ‘Do you know, I am not as hungry as I thought I was. I shall have to send most of the chicken back to the kitchen and I hate waste.’
    Rose looked at Emma and Emma looked at Rose, each reading the other’s thoughts. ‘So do I,’ Rose said, knowing Emma would never stoop to admitting such a thing. ‘And it is like to be some time before we stop again. If you have truly eaten your fill…’
    ‘Oh, I have. Here, let me help you to a morsel.’ And he divided what was left in the dishes between their two plates. ‘But do hurry up. We were so late arriving we are not being given the full hour to eat. Apparently, the schedule is more important than our digestions.’
    They had eaten half of it when they were recalled to their seats. Almost reluctantly Emma left the cosiness of the warm room and the company of a gentleman she found strangely beguiling and made her way out to the coach, now with a different team of horses. Followed by Rose, she took her place and was taken aback when Lord Malvers’s servant climbed in and sat opposite her. Lord