The Highwayman's Bride Read Free Page B

knows!
    She jerked round to face him and witnessed the flicker of a smile and, yes, even the glint of humor in his shadowed gaze.
    Anger burned low in her gut and she fisted her hands, though she desperately wanted to slap the smug look off his face.
    He knows! What now?
    “ Ye wife, eh?”
    The innkeeper’s blatantly salacious gaze slid the length of her in her men’s attire, adding further shame and fury. As she was about to speak, the wounded stranger’s hand stilled a single syllable as he squeezed her shoulder. She gritted her teeth and said nothing.
    “Whatever takes ye fancy, I suppose,” the man grunted. “This way.”
    Her stranger took a step back. “After you, m’dear.”
    Tess wrenched from his hold. “Don’t you dare touch me.”
    “Why not? We are married.”
    Tess leaned toward him, ignoring the flourish of body heat between them, and hissed. “We are nothing of the kind. You, sir, are a scoundrel.”
    “And you, madam, are a highway robber. How would you like that broadcasted to the entire village?”
    Her jaw dropped, mouth opening and closing.
    “No, I did not think so,” he answered at her hesitation. “However, you need to understand that acting as my wife is far better than what would become of you if these men realized you were scandalous enough to wear men’s clothing. They would also presume other things. You have no option. Either play along with me or play with the men at the inn.”
    A glance toward the patrons of the none-too-salubrious watering hole and Tess quickly saw his truth. Damn. She sniffed her disgust at his trickery. “Just for now, and not for long. Soon I will be gone and you, sir, can rot at the end of a Redbreast’s rope, for all I care.”

Chapter Two
    A rake, a rogue, a lady and damsel in distress
    All is not what it seems
    Mirabelle’s Musings
    October 1813
    “Funny how when you have no sight everything is intensified,” Aiden quipped as the door closed behind them.
    “Funny? There is nothing funny about this. You’ve coerced me here under false pretenses.”
    “What is false about being blind? Besides, it is not false. I cannot see a damned thing.”
    “You can see me!”
    He wished he could, for there was a tinkling lightness to her voice, and though it bristled with indignation, Aiden couldn’t help but wonder if her voice matched her appearance.
    The truth was, everything was still hazy as if coated by a thick fog. He could sense her fear, however, and heard the creak of the floorboards as she shifted from foot to foot. But it was her fragrance that captured him—the fragrance of lavender and roses.
    “Only partially,” he at last admitted with honesty.
    “For that I can be grateful.”
    He heard her sudden movement and followed it with unseeing eyes.
    “You knew I was a woman, yet you said nothing.”
    “I did on both counts. You do not smell of hours spent on the road but of a lady of the parlor. Perhaps you would have preferred I shouted to the coach driver and his passengers that the ‘lad’ holding them up was none other than a weapon-brandishing female. What do you think would have happened then?”
    She said nothing, and Aiden cursed silently. He truly wanted to see her.
    She’d been hidden from him mostly, until she’d wiped a pale hand across her face and the shadowy form of her tapered fingers had captivated him.
    “I cannot stay here.”
    “Why the devil not?”
    “You know why. We are not married.”
    “But you came upstairs, nevertheless, and you never corrected my claim to the innkeeper.”
    “You didn’t leave me much option, and you were bleeding—still are—but then what do I care if you bleed to death?”
    “Ah…but that’s the rub, I think you do care, otherwise you would have left me to rot on the forest floor.”
    “I should have, it would have meant less trouble.”
    “You said you would take me to a safe haven, so that makes you a robber with a conscience. That is unique.”
    “More fool me,” she