The earl smiled ruefully and said, “Right then, lass. Why would the fop stop ye? He had naught to do with the Gypsy as far as I could tell.”
“Well, as to that, we don’t really know, do we? For instance, what was a fop doing at the inn? He didn’t stay to eat or drink, did he? He left immediately after his encounter with us.”
“Stands to reason he would.” The earl grinned.
She smiled at him. “Indeed, but then why did he stop there?”
“No doubt he had a bit of lunch before we arrived. Have ye no thought of that, lass?”
She sighed heavily. “I have and discounted it. Don’t ask me why. Female intuition.”
He frowned. “What then does that intuition tell ye?”
“When the nasty Gypsy opened the back of his wagon, a boy tried to get out. He had something, a rag, I think, stuffed into his mouth, and he looked frightened. That is what my eyes witnessed. What should my intuition tell me after that?”
The earl’s entire body stiffened. “Are ye saying the lad was a captive?”
“I don’t know. I am saying that he was young and appeared to be in trouble, and I shouldn’t have allowed that stupid dandy to stand in my way.”
“Now, this is punch!” said Robby, bringing over two glasses and offering them to Bess and the earl.
The earl and Bess took up the glasses, but both of them were deep in thought. The earl, however, sipped the punch and pronounced it to be quite tolerable.
“Tolerable? I say …” Robby, who had taken up a glass by then, answered, but then saw that the earl was jesting. He chuckled, threw his own down, and then complained that the punch glasses were absurdly small.
The earl turned to Bess and said, “Doona think of it for now. Mayhap I shall look into this in the morning.” He touched her chin and whispered, “Ye have the sweetest smile, lass. It must always be an object of mine to see that nothing interferes with yer pleasure, when ye are in m’company.”
“You are being quite outrageous again, my lord,” Bess returned in a lively manner. She had to protect herself. He didn’t really mean what he was saying. He was being gallant at best and wildly flirtatious at worst, nothing more.
“Outrageous? Why is that, lass? Why wouldn’t I want ye to be happy?”
He made it all sound so simple and easy. He made it all sound as though she read too much into it, which was precisely what she had been telling herself. He didn’t really care. She put up her chin and raised one brow at him. “You, my lord, are an accomplished flirt. I have only one season of flirting in my pocket. Therefore, you take unfair advantage.”
He laughed and then lowered his voice to tell her, “Doona think that, m’darlin’ lass. I mean what I say to ye, this I swear.”
She almost believed him but then wrapped herself up in a protective armor and insisted her heart go and hide. “Cad!” she accused on a light laugh. “You do it so well, but one season was enough to teach me who to be wary of. I am a green girl, yes, but certainly not a fool.”
“Tell him,” Robby said with a laugh. He had returned with a larger glass of punch to grin at their exchange. “That’s right. Run him through, put him to earth. It is just what he deserves.”
“And ye call yerself m’friend, ye blood-thirsty blackguard,” the earl said with a hearty laugh.
Much jesting and rallying followed this, and the Gypsy, his brightly painted wagon, and the boy within its walls were temporarily forgotten.
Bess’s father arrived in time for dinner and announced his intentions of collecting his wayward crew in the morning and returning home.
The earl would hear none of it. “Never say so, for Lady Bess’s horse is not ready for the journey,” he argued reasonably.
The viscount eyed him consideringly and shrugged. “A problem, but not one we cannot overcome. I shall hire her a mount for the trip home—”
The earl cut him off. “Hire?” He shook his head. “So that is what you think of my hospitality? You would hire before you would take one of my own on loan?”
“John,” Bess’s father reproved gently, “you are too good. I must return to the Grange in the morning. There is nothing for it. I have some things I cannot put off to my bailiff.”
“Then be comfortable. Leave your daughter with us, and return as soon as you may. Searington is, after all, just a bit more than an hour’s ride.”
Bess put on her ‘unconcerned face’ but secretly wanted her father to agree to the earl’s suggestion.
Her father’s brow arched, and after a long look at his daughter said, “I have no doubt what your answer will be when I ask. What say you, my daughter?”