A Lady’s Secret Read Free Page B

“If you need a nun, madame, you should perhaps go to a convent?”
    “Dolt!” she spat in English, and rushed off in her chaotic search. Another Coquette, and with a worse temperament. Robin wondered at any man marrying her, despite her looks. He searched his memory again for a Lord Sodworth, but felt certain there was none. So, a knight or baronet, and probably of recent creation. Excellent. That made it unlikely he’d meet Lady Sodworth again.
    He collected Fontaine and headed for his chaise, where ostlers were putting horses to under Powick’s scrutiny. He’d been a groom in his youth, and knew the trade.
    Powick had put Robin on his first pony and then become his tutor in riding, hunting, fishing, and other country lore. Eventually he’d become a kind of manservant-companion of endless usefulness. Having steered Robin into adulthood, however, he still thought he held the reins. Even Robin becoming earl a year ago hadn’t convinced the man that he was able to manage his own affairs.
    “The nun’s coming with us, sir?” he asked in a forbidding tone.
    “A damsel in distress. What would you?”
    “I, sir, would return her to her mistress.”
    “As would I,” said Fontaine. “The chaise, it will not fit three.”
    “Therefore,” Robin said, “you will ride.”
    The valet normally traveled in the coach. “Impossible. It might rain.”
    “Think of it as a favor you are doing me in thanks for all the times I’ve ridden and you’ve had the chaise to yourself.”
    “Not in the rain, sir,” Fontaine protested.
    “Sir—” Powick protested for other reasons.
    “I’m all innocence,” Robin insisted. “The holy lady needs to reach England, and do you really want me to abandon her to that harpy?”
    “We could be days on the road if the weather turns. Days and nights.”
    “And she will have a room to herself, I promise.”
    “The weather….” Fontaine tried again.
    Robin held on to his patience. “We need only go as far as the next stage. What is it—Montreuil?”
    “Nouvion,” Powick said.
    Robin shrugged. “As long as we’re away from all things Sodworthy. Let’s be off.”
    In the end his word was law, so soon Fontaine and Powick were mounted. A postilion took his seat on the leader of the chaise horses, and Robin took delivery of the basket of food and wine he’d ordered earlier. He opened the door, winked at the shadowy nun, and placed the basket on the carriage floor. Coquette leaped out to relieve herself.
    Once the dog was ready, Robin glanced around, saw no problems, and put the dog in the chaise. Coquette leaped right onto Sister Immaculata’s lap.
    “If you think to make me jealous,” Robin said to the dog as he sat beside the nun on the one seat, “prettier ladies than you have failed.”
    The nun stroked, and the damned dog seemed to smirk. The chaise rolled out onto the Boulogne Road, leaving the screeching and howling behind.
    “Welcome to tranquillity,” Robin said.
    “Can you promise that?”
    “If it’s what you truly desire.” Her reaction to the word “desire” seemed to be a weary sigh. Very well; she wasn’t ready for the game.
    “I must confess,” he said, “that I’ve suffered tranquillity for days. I was hoping you would remedy that. But not in any naughty way, Sister. See, I’ve even provided female companionship.”
    She glanced down. “She’s a bitch?”
    “With a name like Coquette, she’d better be.”
    “Why don’t you like her?”
    He shrugged. “I can tolerate tiny, frivolous women, but not tiny, frivolous dogs.”
    “Then why own her, poor thing?”
    “With a collar of gold and pearls, there’s nothing poor about her.”
    She looked down at the collar. “It’s real ? Why?”
    “You tell me your stories and I’ll tell you mine.”
    She gave him a scathing look and turned away, as if fascinated by the outskirts of Abbeville. So she did have secrets, and some must relate to why she’d accepted his invitation. There was time. To