The Heiress - Lynsay Sands [123]
“Hmm.” Her father stood and offered his arm. When Suzette stood as well and took it, he urged her toward the door saying, “Lady Woodrow seems a fine woman.”
“Yes, she does,” Suzette agreed with a smile as he led her out of the room. “I like her already.”
“Well, it’s mutual. She told me so herself.” He paused to pull the door closed, and then urged her along the landing toward the stairs, asking, “Are you nerv—?”
When his question stopped mid-word and his steps faltered, bringing them to a halt, Suzette glanced to her father curiously and then followed his gaze to what had caught his attention. A man had just come out of one of the rooms further along the landing. He was a good distance away, even so, Suzette could see that he wore the coarse clothes of the working class and a short single-breasted jacket that was popular with stablemen. Assuming he worked in the stables here, Suzette was just wondering what on earth he was doing in a guest’s bedchambers when he turned toward them and she saw his face. She was just registering that it was Jeremy Danvers when he spotted them and pulled his pistol from inside his jacket.
“I thought you said she was ready?” Daniel asked, glancing fretfully toward the inn. His mother had come down several minutes ago and sent Lord Madison up to collect Suzette. The group had then immediately moved out into the courtyard to wait . . . and wait.
“She was,” Lady Woodrow murmured, glancing toward the inn as well. Sighing, she shrugged helplessly, and suggested, “Perhaps they are having a father/daughter talk.”
“Hmm.” Daniel tapped his fingers against his thigh, counting out the seconds as he waited, but his gaze was now trained on the inn door as he willed it to open. They should have been here by now and he was getting a bad feeling.
“You don’t think she’s had second thoughts because you aren’t poor, do you?” Richard asked with a frown.
“I haven’t told her that yet,” Daniel said at once.
“Oh.” Richard hesitated and then admitted, “I did.”
“What?” Daniel turned on him with dismay and his friend grimaced apologetically.
“It was after she got that letter. I thought—”
Daniel didn’t wait to hear what he’d thought. He was already headed back into the inn, his mind in an uproar. Leave it to him to fall in love with probably the only female in all of England who would refuse to marry him because he had wealth, he thought with disgust as he stomped inside.
Honestly, he did always seem to choose the hardest route to everything. So, of course, he would find himself in love with the most difficult woman he could probably find. But if Suzette thought she was going to back out of this wedding, she had another think coming, he told himself grimly as he mounted the stairs to the bedchambers. They had already consummated this marriage. She may be carrying his child even now. And he loved her, dammit! That had to count for something, he assured himself as he started along the landing. She was going to marry him if he had to—
Daniel stopped abruptly as he heard Suzette’s voice coming from the door he was passing. It wasn’t her door, but the door to the room he’d shared with her father and Robert last night. Frowning, he moved closer and pressed an ear to the wooden panel to listen. If she and her father were having a father/daughter talk, he would just slip back outside and force himself to wait patiently. If not though, and she was arguing with her father over marrying him, Daniel would—
That thought died as a male spoke next. He didn’t recognize the voice, but it was not Lord Madison, and since all the other males in their party were below, that left only one person he could think of. Jeremy Danvers. Daniel supposed that he should have known the man wasn’t smart enough to stay in hiding.
Jaw clenching, he grasped the door handle and turned it as slowly and carefully as he could, then eased the door open enough to stick his head in and peer about. Daniel saw Lord Madison and Suzette first. Lord