The Lost Gentleman by Margaret McPhee

Author:Margaret McPhee
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

‘Briggs is watching the door that leads up to the bedchambers as you instructed. You really think that the anti-American feeling is so strong as to be a risk to her?’ Within the stables Gunner leaned back against the wooden partition and watched Kit strapping the saddle on to his horse.

‘I do not wish to take the risk. Hostility is in the air, stoked, it seems, by a series of sensationalised stories of what La Voile and his pirate friends have been doing to the British merchant vessels in their waters.’ He did not like the way she had been treated over her nationality. And no matter the risk to her safety Kate would refuse to keep quiet or pretend she was anything other. But protecting her from attack was not the only reason he was keeping a close eye on her.

He could not trust that she would not try and make a run for it. No other woman would risk it, but Kate Medhurst was not any other woman. She would not balk at the dangers for a woman alone and penniless in a foreign country. Just the thought of her alone out there, at the mercy of men who would hurt her... He tightened the buckle and moved on to the next strap around the horse’s girth.

‘This betrothal—’ Gunner began.

‘Feigned. To save her reputation,’ he interrupted in a harsh voice.

‘That is a shame,’ said Gunner. ‘When the two of you are such a good match for each other.’

Kit ignored the words and kept his focus on the strap he was buckling

Gunner got the message and turned to leave.

‘Gunner,’ Kit said, his fingers stilled against the horse’s belly.

His friend stopped and glanced back.

‘The vows you swore as a priest... The vows that define a man...’

Gunner waited.

‘Is there any way you could break them and live with yourself?’

The morning sunlight spilled across the straw-strewn floor. Outside a blackbird was singing.

The two men looked at each other.

‘No,’ said Gunner softly. ‘I could not. Why do you ask?’

But Kit just shook his head and turned his attention once more to the horse before him.

* * *

The little column of men and horses and the carts wound their way across those narrow bumpy highways, creeping slowly but surely towards London. Kit rode out in front, keeping his distance from Kate, checking on her welfare, but leaving her to ride beside Gunner. But too many times during that long day that took them out of Devon and halfway across the south coast of England, she glanced at him to find those dark eyes upon her.

The Cardinal’s Cap Inn in Milbourne was busier than the one at Dartmoor had been, and its guests, a little more mannerly. But she was still very aware of the looks her accent drew. And of the slightly threatening message that Kit’s protective presence sent them. He paid extra money that she did not have to share a bedchamber with other women travellers and walked her there after they had eaten.

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