The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [112]
While it appeared that Danvers’s driver had been shot, probably by a highwayman, they had decided that the other three must have escaped uninjured, or at least well enough to be able to walk. It just wasn’t likely that their robber would have dragged the three off. Highwaymen took money and jewels, not passengers. That meant Suzette, her father and Danvers should have been on foot and headed this way. However, when they hadn’t passed them on the road, they’d assumed the trio had already reached this, the first inn since they’d found the overturned carriage. However, on questioning, the innkeeper had assured them that no one fitting their descriptions had arrived yet. Still, they’d checked with the inn’s stable boy to be sure and had got the same answer.
“We could turn back and scour the road between the carriage and here again,” Robert suggested.
Daniel shook his head. “We could miss them that way. They are obviously on foot. They must be traveling under the cover of the trees to avoid further trouble with bandits. They could arrive here while we are back at the carriage and be gone before we return.”
“I wish we knew how long ago the accident happened,” Richard murmured, glancing toward the lane. “It would tell us how near they might be.”
Daniel grunted, his glance moving to the lane and then the trees surrounding the inn as he realized that Danvers, Suzette and Lord Madison could arrive at any time, and he wasn’t sure what would happen if Danvers saw their party there. As far as he knew, Suzette and her father had no idea that Danvers might be the one who had sent the letter, or that the man may have shot him. He wasn’t even sure of it, though he suspected that was the case. Suzette and her father’s ignorance on the matter would keep them safe, but if Danvers saw Daniel and the others waiting here, he wouldn’t want to approach. That would raise questions and probably protests, at least from Lord Madison, which might force the man’s hand and make things much more dangerous for Suzette and her father.
“We will wait here,” Daniel decided grimly. “But we have to get the carriages and ourselves out of sight. Then we will lie in wait.”
“Move faster,” Jeremy snapped, poking Suzette in the back with his pistol.
Suzette ground her teeth at the irritating jab. He had been poking her in the back and harrying them to move faster for several minutes now and she was sick of it. Aside from that, she suspected her father couldn’t move any faster. There was a reason he had a cane and it wasn’t for affectation. The man had injured his leg in a riding accident years ago and it sometimes troubled him. All this walking was apparently aggravating the old injury, because she’d noticed him beginning to limp some distance back. She didn’t say as much to Danvers, however. She already knew the man would have little sympathy, so she stopped walking altogether and simply said, “No.”
“Move,” Jeremy growled, giving her a shove.
Suzette turned and smiled at him sweetly, her eyelashes fluttering as she’d seen the females doing at the Landons’ ball. The only thing missing was the fan as she breathed, “Oh, my lord, I am ever so tired and my feet are beggared, can we not stop to rest?”
“So,” he said dryly. “You can pretend to be a lady when it suits you.”
“As well as you can pretend to be a man when it suits you,” Suzette shot back.
“God, you are such a trial,” Jeremy growled.
“Yes, you’ve whined about that incessantly already,” she said indifferently, and then suggested, “So don’t marry me. I’d rather marry Daniel anyway.”
“Yes, I noticed,” he sneered. “You acted no better than a bitch in heat with him when I saw you together in the stables.”
“I acted like a woman in love,” Suzette snapped, suddenly furious. The letter—his letter, she was sure though he hadn’t yet admitted to it—had rained down all sorts of shame on her when she’d read it, but she was not going to feel that shame again. Giving a humorless laugh, she looked down her nose at him and added, “I’m not surprised you didn’t recognize it was love