(Banning Sisters #2) Irresistible by Karen Robards

Author:Karen Robards [Robards, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Suspense, Romance
ISBN: 9780743424530
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2002-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

19

“I’m sorry.” Hugh sounded genuinely remorseful as he walked out of the barn with her and headed across the muddy lot toward the farmhouse. The moonlight struck his eyes, turning them to silver as he looked at her. With her head nestled on his shoulder, their eyes were just inches apart. “Sorry for everything. Sorry you had to get caught up in this.”

“I’m not,” Claire said, inhaling the musky aroma of him with every breath and feeling the warm strength of the muscles that cradled her clear down to her toes. “At least, not altogether. If I hadn’t gotten caught up in this, I never would have met you.”

He looked down at her sharply, and his lips parted as if he would reply. Then squelching footsteps behind them heralded James’s arrival.

“I rubbed ’em down and fed ’em.” His gaze swept over the two of them and he frowned, but if he had aught to say about her being carried so carefully in his master’s arms he kept it to himself.

“What other animals are in there?”

“A plow horse. Some chickens, a cow, and a couple of nanny goats.”

“Hildebrand’s not arrived, then.”

“I’d say not.” James turned a frowning glance on Claire, then cleared his throat. “Master Hugh, have you given any thought as to what the general’s liable to say about her?”

Hugh grimaced. “He can say what he likes. I intercepted the wrong woman, and there’s an end to it. The only thing to do is send her home safely, and get everyone we have searching for the real Sophy Towbridge.”

James coughed delicately. “Are you sure . . . ?”

“I’m sure.”

They reached the back stoop then, which was no more than a couple of planks laid over a base of rocks set into the ground. Before they could knock, the door opened. A man, a farmer by the looks of him, with illkempt chestnut hair and a straggly beard of the same color, dressed in a loose shirt, breeches, and brogues, stood in the aperture looking at them suspiciously, a lantern in his hand.

“Well met, Tinsley.”

“Colonel! Thank God! I was that afeard something had gone wrong—you’re late. And General Hildebrand’s not here yet.” His voice with its hint of cockney revealed that Tinsley was no more French than Claire was. Was he an intelligence agent too? Her eyes widened at the thought.

“Something did go wrong,” Hugh said, carefully maneuvering Claire through the narrow doorway as Tinsley, after a nod at James, stepped back for him to enter. Claire clung to Hugh’s neck. If he put her down, she wasn’t sure she could even stand, much less walk. “I’ll tell you all about it, but first I must see the lady here taken care of. Have you a bedchamber where she can rest?”

“Aye, upstairs.” Tinsley evinced no surprise at the presence of an unexpected female guest. In the spy game, Claire supposed, one learned to expect the unexpected.

“Lead the way.”

James closed the door behind them, and, with Tinsley’s lantern lighting the way, Hugh carried Claire up the narrow stairs and into a bedroom.

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