Page 54 of A Remarkable Rogue

Her eyes locked with his. “Am I still nothing to you but bait for your trap?”

Nate clenched his jaw. He didn’t know how to answer without hurting at least one of them.

Danby scurried into the room, huffing and puffing from running at her call. “My lady?”

“Have my carriage brought around,” she ordered. “Ask the lead groom for a change of clothes for the captain. They’re about the same size. And send my maid up to my rooms to pack a bag. I need to leave immediately.”

He bowed and retreated toward the door, his round face red from the exertion of the morning’s events. “Yes, my lady.”

“Danby, stay that order.” Nate stopped the retreating butler with a cutting glance. Then he turned back to the woman at the heart of all his troubles. “You are not leaving this house.”

He expected her to argue with him or at least jab her chin stubbornly into the air. Instead, her lips parted softly, and a deep vulnerability glistened in her eyes.

Damnation…the soft side of her was more effective against him than her fierce arguments.

“Please, Nate,” she whispered. Her fingers clenched at his bicep as if he were the only anchor left to her in the world. “This is all my fault, and I have to make certain Robert’s safe. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to him because of me. Can you understand?”

Nate’s chest sank. He couldn’t argue against that. In exasperation, he demanded, “Can you sit a horse?”

“Expertly.”

“Astride?”

She nodded, and his shoulders slumped. He knew when he was beaten.

“Disregard the order for the carriage,” he commanded Danby. “Have the groom saddle her horse instead, with a proper saddle, too, and not some damned sidesaddle. Andyou.” He settled a hard look on her. He would brook no argument about this. “Get dressed for riding. Wear those boys’ clothes you donned for your midnight visit to the Horse Guards, and put a greatcoat over you this time.”

She turned to a stunned Danby who glanced nervously between the two of them, not knowing which one’s orders to follow. “You heard the captain.” She shooed the butler from the room. “Go—quickly!”

Danby ran from the room toward the rear stables, although Nate suspected his speed was more to flee from the tension between the two of them than to give orders to the grooms.

As Sydney began to leave, Nate took her arm and pulled her against him until her soft body melted against his.

“We’re going to ride hard,” he warned, his mouth so close to hers that her warm breath tickled his lips. “If you slow me down, Iwillleave you behind.”

“I certainly hope you do.” Her eyes glistened again, this time with gratitude. “You’re saving Robert’s life. I can’t thank you enough.”

“You can thank me by ending the lies.” Including the ones she was telling herself. “Allof them.”

Nate released her and stalked from the room.

***

Less than twenty minutes later, their two horses waited at the front gate, saddled and ready to ride. Nate had changed into the groom’s work shirt and jacket and was now carefully checking the saddle girths and bridles one more time to make certain they were secure. He trusted no one, not even the staff inside Sydney’s own house.

Taking her with him was madness, but he knew one thing for certain about Lady Rowland—when she set her mind to something, heaven help the man who tried to stop her.

Sydney rushed from the house and down the steps toward him. “I’m ready!”

She wore the stable boy’s clothes and boots beneath a groom’s greatcoat that was too large for her. With her hair pulled up beneath the wide-brimmed hat, she once more looked like the tempting ghost who had appeared to him at the Horse Guards.

He sucked in a deep breath.Heaven help me.

With a grimace, Nate swiped down with his hand to grab a fistful of mud from the ground.

“Look at me,” he ordered.

She sputtered speechlessly as he smeared it across her face. “What are youdoing?”