In My Wildest Fantasies Read Free Page A

won't bolt again?"
    "Not while I am leading them."
    He certainly knew how to instill confidence.
    "Then I must thank you." She took his hand and stepped back inside.
    She settled into the seat and covered herself with his coat to keep warm. He closed the door with a firm click, but opened it again a mere second later and said, "I am twenty-four."
    She stared numbly at him as he smiled. He closed the door again.
    A moment later, they started back along the road to where her father was surely waiting in a tizzy.
    She shook her head when she thought about that. Her father's tizzy. Surely it could be nothing compared to hers, for it could never have been so frightfully wicked, yet so wonderfully breathtaking at the same time.
    Chapter 2
    "Thank the Lord!" her father said, looking her up and down from head to foot as she stepped out of the coach. "What happened? You're all wet!"
    "I am fine, Father," she replied.
    "The horses turned off the road and into a bog," the gentleman explained as he dismounted from his own horse. He removed his gloves and strode toward them, glancing briefly at her father's misshapen hand upon his cane. "May I enquire about your driver, sir? Where is he?"
    "I am afraid I do not know. We thought he might have stopped to retrieve a bag that fell from the coach before you came along."
    "Did he not tell you of his intentions?"
    "No."
    Tapping his fine leather gloves against his palm, her handsome rescuer looked up at the baggage tied down on the roof. "Everything appears to be secure, even after what just occurred." He turned to look in the direction from which they had come. "Wait here, please. I'll be back shortly."
    He started walking.
    "Well, at least you're all right," her father said, glancing briefly at her. "This gentleman, was he...Was he helpful?"
    "Very helpful, yes," she replied, sensing her father's concern and doing her best to alleviate it with a show of indifference. She could not possibly tell him what really occurred, not to mention how much she'd enjoyed it. "I'm fine, Father."
    A few minutes later, they heard footsteps returning, and curiosity compelled Rebecca to start walking toward the sound.
    "Where are you going, child?" her father snapped. "Stay here beside me, if you please."
    She stopped in the center of the narrow road, but remained exactly where she was with her back to her father, anxious to see her magnificent hero returning. At last he appeared, carrying Mr. Smith over his shoulder like a heavy sack of potatoes.
    "What in the world happened?" she asked.
    He continued walking toward her, but addressed her father, not her. "I regret to inform you, sir, it was not a piece of baggage that fell from your coach. Your driver has had too much to drink and tumbled over the side."
    "How can you be sure?" Rebecca asked, following them back to the coach. "What if he is ill?"
    He carried Mr. Smith around to the front of the coach and managed with a grunt to tip him over the driver's seat rail. The unconscious man fell backward across the cushioned bench, his arm falling limp and resting on the footboard. He snorted and groaned.
    "I found the empty bottle a few feet away from him," her gentleman-hero explained as he wiped at his hands. "And he smells like a distillery."
    Rebecca's father limped around the coach and stood beside her, leaning on his cane. "He is no good to us in the driver's seat. What the devil are we to do now?"
    "May I ask your destination?"
    "The Cotswolds Arms for tonight, then we're on to Burford in the morning."
    The man turned and strode toward his horse. "You can expect to be there in an hour."
    Her father limped after him. "But wait, sir! How are we to get there?"
    Rebecca followed as well. After everything her handsome rescuer had done for them so far, was he going to abandon them now? Surely not.
    "I beg your pardon, sir," she said, "but my father cannot drive. His hands cause him great pain."
    The man had already reached his horse and was now leading the animal