“She’s lying again,” the earl stated flatly.
“How can you tell?” Tom asked, frowning. “The part about the chef sounds right. She could have learned to cook from him.”
“That much could be true,” the earl agreed. “But, trust me, at least part of what she said was not. I’ve been in this business too long not to recognize when an amateur is lying.”
“And is she an amateur?” Tom asked.
The earl laughed, but his tone was cold. “Oh yes, she’s very much an amateur. I suspect that she was recruited because of her looks, but either her training was shoddy or she hasn’t the intelligence for this work. She was actually singing a song in French when I entered the kitchen. Of course, it was the cooking that originally aroused my suspicions. No good English miss would cook like that.”
“What are you going to do with her?” Tom wanted to know.
“That depends.” The earl gazed at Merriana with narrowed eyes. “Tell me, my dear, are you familiar with a village in the north of France called Vilon? Ah, I see that you are. Your beautiful eyes are so terribly expressive. Do you know it well?”
“Only a little,” Merriana whispered as she quickly lowered her gaze. She had never acquired the ability to dissemble, not having needed the skill before. Now that particular deficit in her education was turning out to be unfortunate. She feared she was going to regret the fact that she had not been able to hide her surprise when the earl mentioned Vilon. But then, she could never have imagined that he would be familiar with such a tiny French village, one that had, to the best of her knowledge, absolutely no claims to distinction.
“Could you get to Vilon from the coast?” His voice was soft, but Merriana was certain she detected undertones of tension in his tone as well as in his actions when he touched a finger to her chin so he could tip her face up and look again into her eyes.
Merriana jerked her head away but she raised her gaze to look straight into his eyes. “I believe I could do so,” she said.
“Justin!” Tom nearly shouted the word in his astonishment. “You can’t consider using her as a guide. If she’s a French agent, she could lead you straight into a trap.”
“And forfeit her life for her trouble?” Despite Tom’s interjection, the earl had not taken his eyes from Merriana’s face. “Would you do that, ma petite?”
“I do not wish to return to France, sir,” Merriana announced as firmly as she could.
”No, I daresay you do not,” the earl replied. “Nor do I, for that matter. But a man awaits me in France, my dear, as you probably already know. His life depends on my reaching him, and I intend to do so or die in the effort. Since you have effectively disabled my previous guide, you will go with me and you’ll go knowing that if I don’t live to complete this mission, I won’t die alone.”
Merriana shivered. She couldn’t help it. Never had she heard a voice so grave and so purposeful. And never had she seen eyes so coldly resolute. She wasn’t a fool, and even had she been, she couldn’t have misread the determination of this man. To refuse him would be futile. She would obviously have to go back to France. But a remnant of pride refused to allow her to give in without showing at least a bit of spirit.
“Very well, my lord, I’ll go and guide you to the best of my ability. But there are two conditions.”
The earl raised his eyebrows. “You’re hardly in a position to set conditions, my dear, but let’s hear them anyway.”
“One,” Merriana stated, “you must promise that you’ll bring me back to England with you when you’ve completed this mission of yours.”
“I assure you, Mademoiselle, that I would not consider leaving you behind,” the earl stated as he bowed to Merriana in a manner that could only be interpreted as mocking.
“And,” she continued, ignoring his gesture, “there must be no more kissing.”
She heard a guffaw from Tom and was pleased to note a slight look on chagrin on the earl’s face. She felt at least partly vindicated for his earlier attempt at seducing her for the sole purpose of gaining the information he believed she possessed.
The earl bowed again, a reluctant smile on his face. “Touché, Mademoiselle,” he said. “It shall be as you say.”
“Very well.” Merriana nodded. “When do you wish to leave?”
“At dawn,” he replied. “Where do you sleep?”
Merriana was surprised by the question but motioned toward the storeroom. The earl hurried to inspect it and returned in a few seconds.
He addressed Merriana. “I saw a pelisse and bonnet hanging on a nail. Is that the best you have?” At her nod he cursed softly.
“I had planned,” he explained to Tom who was looking bewildered, “that Mary and I would travel as brother and sister in England. That way we can stop when the horses are changed and share a private parlor for a light meal. But if I dress like a gentleman and she like a servant, the innkeeper would expect her to eat in the common room. I can’t afford to be separated from her. I don’t trust her that far. So I shall have to go to Hilltops and borrow some clothes from one of my stepsisters.”
“And how will you explain that?” Tom wanted to know.
“With luck, I won’t have to. I believe the youngest, Antonia, would be just about Mary’s size and she already suspects that I’m an agent. She hassled me endlessly with questions the last time we happened to meet in London. If I tell her it’s for a secret mission and she’s to keep mum about it, she’ll be thrilled to do so.”
“Still sounds risky to me,” Tom grumbled. “You said you had peasant clothes with you, and Mary’s could certainly pass for peasant clothes. Why don’t you both travel in those?”
“We will when we get to France, but in the meanwhile, I need as much speed as possible to get to the coast and that means driving my curricle. Can you see us dressed like peasants while sitting behind those greys of mine?”
Tom grinned. “I can see I’m not cut out for this business. Very well, so you will have to go to Hilltops. What do we do in the meantime?”
“Get some rest, I should think. Mary can have her usual bed. The storeroom’s perfect. No windows. But, Tom, I hope you won’t mind sleeping in front of the storeroom door tonight. I wouldn’t want your former cook to get word to any friends of hers who might be waiting to hear about my plans.”
“It’s the least I can do,” Tom replied. He was twisting his hands in front of him. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am that Luke and me let this happen. We should have realized about the cooking and all.”
“Forget it, my friend.” The earl’s smile was genuine and his voice jovial as he slapped Tom on the back. “More experienced men than you and Luke have been tricked by a beautiful woman.”
Merriana sniffed. “I should like to go to bed now,” she stated as firmly as the slight tremor in her voice would permit. “I’ve been cooking all day and I’m extremely tired.”
With an exaggerated wave of his arm, the earl invited Merriana to enter her makeshift bedchamber, and she walked into it with her head held as high as she could. Only when she had closed the door did she allow her shoulders to droop.
Almost immediately, she dropped onto her cot and curled up in a ball, pulling the blanket up to cover her while she lay staring at the crack of light that filtered under the door leading to the kitchen. She found it hard to believe that this was really happening to her. It had taken Jacques years to find a way to smuggle her out of France, and now this autocratic earl, because of his suspicious nature, was forcing her to return. It was too much. She detested his hateful smile and his smug assumption that he knew why she was at the Drake and Cock.
Merriana sniffed in displeasure. Well, despite his arrogance, the earl was very wrong about her purpose in coming to England, but he would never learn the truth from her. She had been much too well coached to risk sharing the secret of her identity with any man other than the two who were related to her by blood.
But Merriana was always truthful with herself, and she had to
admit that she now feared she would never see either of those two men. And even if she did, she couldn’t help wondering if they would believe her when she told them who she was.
But that was a problem for the future. Tonight’s problem was merely to stop worrying long enough to allow her exhausted body to get some rest. But her fretful mind was too restless to allow sleep to come until long after she detected soft snores emanating from Tom’s makeshift bed on the floor in front of the storeroom door.
Chapter 3
A sharp rapping on the storeroom door awakened Merriana a few hours later. “Mary?” Luke called. “Time to get up.”
Merriana groaned as she rolled off her cot and stood. Was it dawn already? Surely she’d slept for only a couple of hours. “I’m up, Luke,” she called, then sat back down on the bed. She’d have to cook breakfast, but she wasn’t sure how she could manage it, as groggy as she was. Still, she had to try. At least she didn’t have to dress. She’d gone to sleep in her clothes the night before. She stood and made her way to the door, then pushed it open. Luke waited on the other side, a large bundle in his hands. Tom was busy preparing their morning meal.
“Here.” Luke thrust the parcel toward her. “Justin says you’re to put these on. It’s some clothes he got from his stepsister.”
“Could I please have some warm water first?” Merriana asked. Luke nodded, then turned and filled a pitcher from the water heating over the fire. She wondered if Luke believed she was a French agent, but she was afraid to ask. Tom had already turned against her, and she didn’t want to risk hearing that Luke’s opinion of her had changed too.
Luke handed her the pitcher in silence, and in silence she turned and shut the door. After stripping and washing thoroughly, she picked up the parcel Luke had given her and loosened the strings. The contents raised her spirits considerably. There were underclothes, the most delicate she had even seen, and a soft green traveling dress with sturdy matching half boots. There was also a darker green pelisse with fur trim and a matching bonnet. Never had she owned such lovely clothes, and she thoroughly enjoyed dressing herself in them.
Unfortunately, there seemed to be dozens of tiny buttons down the back of the dress, and Merriana could reach only those at the top and those near her waist. Twist and turn as she might, she couldn’t manage the ones near her shoulder blades and had to eventually give up on those. She decided to settle for covering the dress with the pelisse and forget about the buttons. In the meantime, she dressed her long hair as best she could considering there was no mirror in her room. When she was finally ready, she bundled her own clothes up, tied them with the string, and stepped into the kitchen.
Any doubts she might have had about how she looked in her new clothes were instantly laid to rest by the widening of Tom’s and Luke’s eyes when they saw her. “My god,” Tom breathed as he gaped. The earl, who’d entered the kitchen just as Merriana stepped out of the storeroom, grinned while watching his friends’ reactions. “Now do you understand why they sent her?” was his only comment, and neither Tom nor Luke bothered to answer.
“We’re going to eat before we leave, Mademoiselle,” the earl informed her. “Tom’s cooking is not as good as yours, but it’s filling, and we have a long day ahead of us. You should take off that pelisse and sit down and join us.”
“I’ll be delighted to have some breakfast,” Merriana announced as she pulled a chair out from the table, “but I’m quite comfortable as I am, thank you.”
“Couldn’t reach all the buttons, eh?” the earl inquired with his annoying grin.
To her horror, Merriana felt her face growing warm.
“No need to answer now,” the earl said, his grin widening. “Your face gives you away every time. Now take off that pelisse and turn around so I can finish the buttons.”
Gritting her teeth in impotent vexation, Merriana followed his orders.
“You’ve got some in the wrong holes,” he announced as he began unfastening some of the buttons. “No, don’t jerk away or you’ll make me tear a button off. I’m not going to undress you. There now, I can start doing them up right.”
In only a matter of seconds, he had all of the buttons fastened and had held her chair for her. Merriana couldn’t help reflecting that he’d certainly been adept at that chore. Probably that meant he’d had quite a bit of practice. But that shouldn’t surprise her. She might be inexperienced but she wasn’t ignorant of what went on between men and women, and she had a good idea that the earl was not without a great deal of experience. Hadn’t his kiss last night proven that? He had probably kissed and undressed hundreds of women.
Was that a pang of jealousy that shot through her? Why should she be jealous? She hated him. He had humiliated her and kissed her without her permission and frightened her dreadfully. Now he was forcing her to go on a very dangerous mission into the very country she had so recently fled. No, she was not jealous.
“You’re not eating, Mary,” Luke said softly. “I know Tom’s cooking ain’t what you’re used to, but you’ll need your strength over the next few days. Best eat what you can.”
Merriana gave him a tremulous smile, thankful for the kindness in his tone, and took a bite of egg. “Why Tom,” she exclaimed, “these eggs are delicious. You must stop letting people malign your cooking.”
Tom smiled and thanked her and the atmosphere in the kitchen lightened considerably as Merriana ate heartily of the food Tom had prepared. The earl said little, and when he did speak, his words were always addressed to Tom or Luke. However, Merriana noted that he glanced at her frequently and always with an inscrutable expression on his face. She wondered what he was thinking, but perhaps she was better off not knowing. Perhaps being privy to his thoughts would only feed the increasing anxieties she was already feeling about the upcoming journey he had forced onto her.
The morning was overcast and chilly, but when the earl led Merriana outside to the curricle, Tom carried hot bricks to warm her feet, and Luke brought an extra blanket to cover her legs. The earl contributed nothing beyond grasping her around her waist and lifting her into the vehicle.
“You’ve got everything?” Luke asked.
“You put our little agent’s old clothes in?”
“Yes, Mary’s old clothes are here,” Tom replied.
The earl nodded. “We’ll be off then. Look for us back in about a week, but don’t worry if it’s longer. Several things could happen to delay us.”
“Be careful, Justin,” Luke said as he held out his hand.
“Always,” the earl replied as he quickly shook hands with the two men and then gave the horses their head. Merriana allowed herself to glance back once and to return Luke’s and Tom’s waves, but she quickly turned away as she felt tears burning at the back of her eyes. It was strange, she thought morosely, how very much at home she had learned to feel at the Drake and Cock in such a short period of time. Leaving it for another venture into the unknown was almost as frightening as leaving Jacques had been. But there had been no other option then, and there appeared to be no other option now. And so she did not look back again.
The curricle had barely reached the main road when the earl turned to her with what Merriana was beginning to characterize as his “dangerous smile.” “Well,” he said, “you have those two worshipping at your feet again.”
“Luke and Tom were kind to me,” Merriana replied stiffly. “I would hardly call that ‘worshipping at my feet.’ I noticed that they didn’t try to make you leave me behind.”
“No,” he agreed. “They know me a bit too well to have tried that.”
Merriana turned her head away and stared steadfastly at the trees lining the side of the road. She occasionally fancied that she could feel the earl staring at the back of her head, but she refused to turn, telling herself that she preferred to travel in silence.
The air was cold, but she felt relatively snug in her warm pelisse and with Luke’s blanket tucked around her legs. Eventually she began to grow sleepy, the result
of the monotonous trotting of the horses combined with her lack of sleep from the night before. She dozed momentarily and then was quickly jerked awake when her head nodded to the side. Opening her eyes wide in an effort to remain awake helped very little. In a few seconds she had nodded off again and had again jerked upright when her head tipped too far. She risked a glance at the earl and found him grinning at her.
“For heaven’s sake, stop being so stubborn and rest your head on my shoulder. I won’t bite you, and I have already promised not to kiss you, so you have nothing to worry about from me. Make yourself comfortable and get some rest while you can.”
Merriana considered the proposition for a few seconds. She desperately wanted to sleep, and to refuse the earl’s offer would seem churlish and perhaps even childish. Very gingerly she rested her head on his shoulder. Even through the heavy fabric of his driving coat, she could feel the hard, rippling muscles of his upper arm, and her own muscles, somewhere in the vicinity of her stomach, tightened in response. Startled by her body’s reaction to such slight contact with his, Merriana almost pulled away, but she forced herself to leave her head on his shoulder. Soon exhaustion claimed her and she dropped into a deep sleep.
She had no idea how long she’d slept when the curricle slowed and the earl spoke. “Time to wake up, Mary,” he said. “We’ll need to change horses here and we might as well get some refreshment at the same time.”
Merriana opened her eyes and looked around in dazed surprise at finding herself in a strange location. She didn’t want to wake up. She had been feeling warm and comfortable and unbelievably safe. Reality didn’t promise to be so inviting.
“Are we getting out here?” she mumbled.
“That’s the general idea,” he replied. “It would be rather difficult to partake of the light meal I plan to order without going inside, don’t you think?”
The Mysterious Merriana Page 3
