A Scandalous Deception

by Ava Stone

  At once, her heart clenched as she looked at her servant. “Annie,” she whispered, “you’re bleeding.”

  “I am?” The servant girl’s eyes rounded in surprise.

  Lissy nodded. “Your head,” she said, riffling through her traveling valise at her feet for a handkerchief. Finding it quickly, she pressed the linen against Annie’s temple. “You must have fallen against the wall when we hit that bump.”

  Annie held the handkerchief in place. “Are you all right, my lady?”

  “Yes.” She smiled reassuringly. “I’m just going to check on Lord Carraway.” What if Fin needed help? He’d be too stubborn to ask for it.

  “But,” Annie began as Lissy reached for the coach door, “he said to stay here.”

  “Heaven’s sake,” Lissy returned. “We hit a root in the road or something. There isn’t a band of highwaymen out there.” At least she hoped not, but even if there were villains about, sitting inside a downed carriage was hardly the safest place to hide from such men.

  She opened the door, crawled past her maid and stepped out onto the road. The pink and orange sky above cast a warm glow upon the outside world. Blast it all, it would be dark soon. And then the threat of highwaymen would be quite real.

  On the side of the road, not far away, Fin’s coachman rested against a tree, pain etched across his face and what looked like a bone sticking out of his calf. Heavens!

  “We’ll use this,” Fin called to the man, tugging at his own cravat. She must have made some sort of sound, because he glanced back over his shoulder and frowned. “Didn’t I tell you to stay put?”

  Lissy shrugged, closing the distance between the lopsided carriage and injured driver. “And I believe I’ve told you on more than one occasion that I don’t answer to you.” She reached Fin’s side, standing over the driver and frowned herself. The poor man’s leg did look bad. Blood pooled on the ground beneath him. He was shaking just a bit, and his face was ghostly white. She glanced up at Fin at her side and said softly, “If you’re trying to bind his leg, Fin, you’ll need more than your cravat. But go ahead and press it to the wound to stop the bleeding. I’ll get something better to wrap it up.”

  Fin gaped at her as though she was some sort of foreign species he’d never encountered before. “You shouldn’t have to see this, Lissy.”

  Heavens. She’d seen worse than Chiver’s leg before. She’d suffered worse than Chiver’s leg before. She waved her hand in the air as she turned back to the coach and called, “Worry about him, not me.” Then she opened the coach door and smiled at Annie. “Doing all right?”

  Annie shrugged. “Is the coachman hurt?”

  Lissy nodded. “Looks like he was thrown and broke his leg. Will you please hand me my valise?”

  “Broken leg?” Annie winced as she slid the valise on the coach floor towards Lissy.

  “Oh! Oh! Ohhhh!” Chivers cried out in pain.

  Annie’s eyes widened in horror. “And the coach is broken,” she whispered loud enough for only Lissy to hear.

  Lissy hadn’t even thought about the coach, not after she’d seen Chiver’s leg. She stepped back from the conveyance and damage was quite visible. “We’ll need another wheel, it looks like.” The she gestured to the copse of trees where Fin and his driver were located and said, “You might rather sit outside, Annie. It’s going to be a long night.”

  Without waiting for her maid to answer, Lissy stepped away from the coach, placed her valise on the ground and opened it up, hoping for something that could be of some use. An apple, the third volume of Emma, a brush, some soap and her silk nightrail. The nightrail it would have to be.

  “Fin!” she called. “Do you have a knife?”

  Bent on the ground over his driver’s leg, Fin turned his attention to Lissy. “Chivers keeps one in his box.” Then he rose from his spot and crossed the road until he was standing beside her. “Your nightrail?” he asked softly.

  “Have you any better ideas?” she asked.

  He shook his head, his dark eyes boring into hers. “I’ll get the knife.” He quickly climbed up into the coachman’s box and returned a moment later, brandishing the weapon.

  Lissy took the blade from him and sliced across the hem of her nightrail. Then she began cutting the silk in a way to make it to one long strip. “We’re going to have to walk for help, Fin. The wheel is broken, we can’t drive it another inch.”

  He nodded in agreement. “Chivers said there was an inn about a mile and a half back. Once we wrap his leg, I’ll start for it.”

  Lissy made quick work with her nightrail and when she was done, she knelt beside Chivers. “You’ll be just fine,” she assured him with a smile. Then she gently slid one end of the silk under his broken leg.

  Fin watched Lissy in awe as she wrapped the driver’s leg. She was gentle but thorough in her work. He would have never imagined she could be such a skilled nursemaid. He helped, of course, lifting Chivers’ leg since the coachman was unable to do so, but all the while he couldn’t keep his eyes off Lissy. She was amazing in every way, amazing in ways he hadn’t even realized until now.

  When she finished wrapping the driver’s leg, Lissy glanced up at Fin, and he felt it all the way in the marrow of his bones. Damn it all, he was lost to her. He knew it in that instant as well as he knew his own name.

  “Now we walk to the inn?” Lissy asked, dusting her hands on her traveling gown.

  We. Fin heaved a sigh. Any girl with sense would stay safely put with her maid and the driver. Any girl with sense would realize walking a mile and a half in her kid slippers upon the bumpy road wasn’t the best idea. And any girl with sense wouldn’t spend the remaining light they did have arguing the point. But as he would be arguing with Lissy and wasting the remaining light they had, Fin decided against doing so.

  He climbed back up into the coachman’s box and retrieved the pair of pistols his driver kept there for safety.

  “Pistols?” Lissy asked after he dropped back down to the road.

  “No idea who inhabits these woods after dark.” Fin then returned to Chivers and Annie, offering one of the pistols to the pair. “Just in case,” he said.

  His coachman took the pistol and laid it across his lap. “I am sorry, my lord.”

  Sorry for hitting a hole that couldn’t be avoided and for breaking his leg? It was Fin’s fault for getting such a late start that first day. They’d been trying to make up time ever since. In fact, they probably should have stopped a few miles back while they still had good light instead of trying to make it to the Chase this evening. He shook his head. “Hardly your fault. Just stay together, and we’ll be back as soon as we can with help.”

  He shoved the pistol he held beneath the waistband of his trousers, turned around to assess the road he was about to travel, but his eyes landed on Lissy instead. His heart pulsed a bit faster and he couldn’t help but wonder about what a fool he’d been for so long. He lifted his hand out to her and said, “My lady.”

  Lissy smiled softy and then slid her arm around Fin’s elbow. “This is hardly a walk down Rotten Row, you know?” she teased once they were out of earshot of their servants.

  This was better than a walk down Rotten Row with hundreds of sets of eyes on them. This, in the waning light along the country road, was just the two of them. “Indeed, you always wear better walking shoes in Hyde Park,” he said instead.

  “Well, I like to be comfortable when traveling,” Lissy giggled. “I’m surprised you didn’t put up a fight about my shoes, about me coming with you.”

  “Would it have done any good?” He cast her a sidelong glance.

  She shook her head, making her flaxen curls bounce about her delectable shoulders. “But that’s never stopped you before.”

  “We didn’t have time to argue, not with the light almost gone.”

  She nodded in agreement. “Always so reasonable, Fin.”

  Reasonable. He felt the very furthest thing from reasonable. Sebastian’s assertions echoed in
Fin’s ears. His cousin seemed to believe that Fin thrived on the madness that swirled about Lissy. A reasonable man wouldn’t thrive on such things, would he? A reasonable man wouldn’t fall in love with a woman who drove him half-mad all the time, would he?

  So bed her and get it over with, his cousin had suggested. More than once, actually. Fin had hardly been able to think of anything else ever since hearing Sebastian’s unsolicited advice all those many days ago. He’d lain awake each night along this journey, knowing she was in the room next door.

  A reasonable man in Fin’s position, walking along the darkened road to get assistance, would be thinking about how to go about getting their carriage wheel fixed, hoping the small village a mile back had a doctor who could attend Chivers’ broken leg, wondering if the inn had enough rooms to accommodate them. “You gave up your nightrail,” he said instead. “What will you sleep in tonight?”

  Because that thought had flitted about his mind ever since she’d removed her silk nightrail from her valise. The idea of her lying in bed without a stitch on her would keep him up one more night.

  She looked up at him as though he was half-mad. “I’ll manage. Besides, poor Chivers needed it more urgently than I did.”

  “I hate to think of you being cold,” he replied. All she had to do was stay in his room that night and he’d make sure she was warm. Fin gritted his teeth together, willing one inappropriate thought after another from his mind. What in damnation had come over him? He’d known her nearly all her life, but now…

  “I’m certain they’ll have blankets at—” Lissy stumbled forward and dropped to the ground. The hem of her traveling dress was up around her knees at the fall, and Fin couldn’t help but be mesmerized. She did have pretty knees, and he’d wager her thighs and—

  “Ack! Blasted stone,” she complained, interrupting the most inappropriate of his musings.

  “More like blasted foolish slippers, I’d wager,” Fin said as he arched one brow at her, attempting to rein in his depraved thoughts. Then he sighed and lifted his hand down to her. “Are you all right?”

  “Am I all right?” She snorted. “One would think a concerned gentleman would ask that question before mentioning my foolish slippers.”

  He couldn’t help but laugh as he wiggled his fingers in her direction, urging her to take his assistance in finding her feet once more. “Come on, Lissy, let me help you.”

  She smiled sweetly, which should have been his first clue that something devious was going on in her mind, but that thought came a moment too late as she reached for his hand and tugged him down onto the ground beside her. “A shame you tumbled, Fin,” she teased, turning towards him, giving him a rather nice view of her charms. “You might want to wear better boots next time.”

  “Or choose my traveling companions better.” He brushed his thumb across her cheek as he couldn’t help but touch her, not after he’d thought of little else with her pressed against his side in the coach for days, not after he’d thought of little else for quite some time.

  Lissy’s pretty blue eyes rounded in surprise at his caress. “Fin,” she began, her voice a mere whisper.

  Before she could say anything else, before she could protest and break the spell swirling around them, he cupped her jaw with his hand and pressed his lips to hers.

  Dear God, kissing Lissy was better than Fin had imagined. Tingles rippled across his skin and a soft moan escaped her lips, the sound of which brought his cock to full attention.

  Lissy’s lips opened for him, the most delicious of invitations. Fin swept inside the haven of her mouth, touching his tongue to hers. She tasted like heaven, like the sweetest, purest heaven he’d ever experienced.

  Kissing her seemed the most natural, most right thing he’d ever done in his life. But she began to tremble slightly, so Fin pulled her closer to him with his free arm, wanting to soothe her, to reassure her that everything was all right, that everything was exactly how it should be.

  She clutched his jacket in her hands, pulling him even closer. She kissed him back, just as passionately as he was kissing her. And for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, Fin’s heart lifted. “Dear God, Lissy,” he rasped. Then he kissed his way across her jaw.

  He would have kissed her neck and the tops of her creamy breasts, if the sound of an approaching carriage hadn’t hit his ears. But as the sound had hit his ears, Fin pulled slightly back from Lissy to look down upon her.

  Damn it all, was there a lovelier sight in the world? Fin didn’t think so. With her pretty blue eyes gazing upon him and her slightly swollen lips begging him to kiss her again, Fin couldn’t believe his amazing good fortune. “Someone’s coming,” he said, gesturing in the direction they’d been traveling. Then he gently brushed his thumb across her soft lips. “We’ll continue this soon, sweetheart.”

  Soon? Lissy gulped, not certain at all what to say to him, not certain at all what had just happened between them, but she was certainly light-headed.

  Fin pushed back to his feet and reached his hand down to help her. Still slightly in a daze, Lissy grasped his fingers, ignoring the warmth that filled her at his touch. She shouldn’t feel warmth at his touch. He was Fin. Georgie’s Fin. No matter that she’d urged him time and time again to get on with his life, she never imagined…

  Fin’s hand slid around her back and he grasped her waist, pulling her closer to him as though she belonged at his side. With his free hand, he waved at an approaching carriage. “Do stop, please!” he called.

  The driver waved back and the coach slowed to a stop. Lissy didn’t recognize the crest on the side of the door. The words Creag an Turic in an arc above a black lion wearing a golden crown, but it appeared quite the fancy traveling carriage.

  “Ericht,” Fin muttered under his breath. “Scoundrel. Hasn’t taken up his seat in several years.”

  That was what made a man a scoundrel? Lissy scoffed as she glanced up at the very noble viscount beside her. The moniker Saint Fin was hardly an exaggeration. She could never be as perfect as him, not if she made it her life’s mission. Honestly, she doubted anyone could.

  He must have interpreted her look correctly because he hastened to explain in sotto voce. “Spends every night in one gaming hell or another. More concerned with lining his own pockets than with the well-being of England.”

  In other words, Lord Ericht was like most men of Lissy’s acquaintance, not that she said as much. Besides, she didn’t have the time to do so as the carriage rambled to a stop before them.

  “Hoping you can be of assistance,” Fin called. “Our coach hit a hole up ahead. Threw my driver, broke our wheel. There’s an inn not too far down the road, I understand.”

  The carriage door opened and the Earl of Ericht, strapping Highland Scot with black hair that he was, alighted from the coach. “Carraway?”

  “We are lucky you happened upon us,” Fin said. “I’m afraid Lady Felicity’s slippers are hardly conducive to the walk.”

  Lissy squeaked in protest. What a thing for him to say!

  “Ye hit a hole up ahead?” The Scot looked off in the distance. “It is getting dark.” Then he poked his head back inside the coach. “Make room, Ellie.”

  “Thank you.” Fin nodded.

  “Of course, of course,” Ericht replied. “It’s too late for us to carry on any further anyway, especially if the road is as bad as ye say.” Then he stepped aside and gestured for Lissy to enter his carriage. “My lady.”

  She started for the conveyance with Fin right on her heels, his hand on the small of her back. “Thank you, my lord.” She ducked her head and climbed inside the coach. At once, she spotted Lady Elspeth MacLaren, the earl’s pretty blonde sister, sitting on the backwards-facing bench. Lissy smiled at the Scottish girl, glad she was there. “Lady Elspeth, so kind of you to stop,” she said, sliding onto the bench beside the blonde, relieved to have some distance from Fin, if only for a moment. But her mind was awhirl, and she needed time and little bit of space for her tho
ughts to unjumble themselves.

  “Is the road terribly bad?” the Scottish girl asked, a bit of panic in her voice.

  “It’s a bit bumpy,” Lissy replied. “With more light, I’m sure it’s safe enough.”

  Lady Elspeth nodded quickly. “Just in a hurry to get home,” she said as Fin climbed inside the coach and Lord Ericht called out instructions to his driver.

  The look Fin cast Lissy as he dropped onto the opposite bench heated her skin, and she wished she had a fan on her person at the moment. Heavens, what had she gotten herself into now? She turned her attention back to Lady Elspeth and said, “I am too, in a hurry to get home, that is.” And they’d been quite close in reaching that goal. Prestwick Chase was just a few hours away. They’d almost made it tonight.

  “Juliet will be fine.” Fin’s voice washed over her and Lissy struggled not to shiver.

  Good heavens, what was she going to do about him? Part of her wanted to throw her arms around his neck, hold him close and throw caution to the wind. That kiss, that soul-searing kiss had been like nothing she’d ever experienced before. And Fin was…Well, Saint Fin was the only truly perfect man she’d ever known. In another life perhaps…

  Lissy tried to put those thoughts from her mind. She couldn’t throw her arms around Fin’s neck. She couldn’t hold him close or throw caution to the wind. Doing so was reckless, to both him and to her. And she’d been quite reckless enough in her life.

  Lord Ericht climbed inside the coach, settling on the bench beside Fin. “Lucky we happened upon ye, Carraway.”

  Lissy met Fin’s gaze and the smile he bestowed upon her said better than words could ever have done that he’d have been quite happy if they hadn’t been stumbled upon at all. “Lucky indeed,” he agreed.

  “Ian,” Lady Elspeth began as the coach lurched into a turn, “we have to leave at morning’s light. Promise me.”

  “Aye.” Her brother sighed. “We’ll get home as soon as we can, Ellie. But I’m not going to kill myself getting there.”