The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [116]
Daniel turned his head back, blinking as he took in what Suzette was—or wasn’t—wearing. He couldn’t believe he had been so distracted by everything else that he had missed that she wore little more than a very short shift or shirt. At least that’s what it appeared to be at first, but then his gaze slid to the torso of the outfit and he realized it was a gown with a good deal of the bottom missing. Her legs were naked almost all the way up to her hips. Good Lord.
Digging his heels into his mount, Daniel urged the horse forward, moving more swiftly now to cross the remaining distance between them.
“Again,” Suzette panted and they hopped again, she to her right, her father at her back hopping to his left so that they were moving, she hoped, toward the next inn.
“Suzie?” her father asked, forestalling her repeating “again.” He sounded as breathless as she was.
“Yes?” she puffed.
“Maybe we should be heading the opposite way,” he wheezed. “After all, this is the way Danvers went and the way he’ll come back.”
“Yes,” she acknowledged. “That’s why we’re going this way.”
“It is?” he asked uncertainly. “Why?”
“Because he’ll expect us to go the opposite way,” she said simply. “We are only going this way for a little bit longer, and then we’ll move deeper into the woods. He’ll go right past us and when he finds us missing from where he left us, he’ll continue on and search in the opposite direction, thinking we would head back toward the last inn rather than risk running into him at the next inn where he went.”
She felt his deep chuckle vibrate along her back, and then her father said, “You always were a clever girl.”
“Not clever enough,” she said sadly. “If I’d only been smart enough to trust in Daniel—”
“Now, don’t start berating yourself for that. Danvers obviously saw the two of you up to something in the stables that you thought no one else knew about. Of course you’d think it was him.”
“You thought the letter might be a fake,” she pointed out.
“Not at first. I only started to wonder because it just seemed a little suspicious that Danvers was there to rush you to wed after you got the letter. And then I remembered him being at the club with Dicky and me,” he admitted. “So don’t be blaming yourself for any of this. None of it was your fault. Danvers and Dicky had it planned at the start, and Danvers just carried on with the plan.”
“Yes.” She sighed and then glanced around. “Perhaps we should start hopping deeper into the woods now. Danvers could return any time and—” Her voice died as she noticed a dark shape approaching ahead. After a moment she recognized it as a man on horseback, and for one horrified moment, thought it was Danvers and they’d left it too late to get off the path. But then she realized the shoulders were too broad to be Danvers. In fact, the shape looked to her to be Daniel’s. She had stared at the man and admired his form often enough to recognize it even in silhouette and she relaxed.
“It’s Daniel,” Suzette said out loud as she became aware that her father was almost vibrating with his anxiety.
“Are you sure?” he asked worriedly.
“Very,” she assured him, but Cedrick Madison didn’t relax until Daniel drew his mount to a halt and hailed them.
“Suzette, Lord Madison!” he said as he slid off his horse. He paused for the briefest moment once his feet hit the ground, not long really, but the way he held on to his saddle for that second made her frown, and then he was moving quickly to them, his face pale in the moonlight.
“Are you all right?” he asked, coming around in front of Suzette.
She nodded, hardly noticing the shaft of pain the movement sent through her head. Every hop they had made since she’d woken up had sent agony through her skull, so the small jolt of pain was easily ignored.
Daniel caught her face in his, and frowned as he saw the dried blood on her forehead. “You’re hurt.”
“I hit my head is all,” Suzette said quietly, her eyes moving hungrily over his face. She’d thought she’d never see him again, and yet here