Page 74 of The Miracle of Love
“No, you’ll need to stow it in a valise or a sailor’s duffle.”
“I noticed a shop up the street,” Lorcan said. “We’ll find suitable luggage. Then we’re going to hop on the next mail coach from Eastbourne to London. It’s the fastest way to get us back there. As soon as we arrive, we dump this thing on Wooton’s desk and return to celebrating with the family.”
“But what about your horses?” Grace asked. “Will you just leave them behind?”
“No,” Donal said. “We’ll make arrangements to have them returned to Ronan’s stable. They are his horses, after all. He won’t be too pleased with us if we simply discard them.”
Deklan took her hand again and gave it another squeeze. “Grace, we deal with this all the time in our work. Those horses will not be neglected. I promise you.”
Their meeting broke up soon after.
She and Deklan immediately rode off because he wanted to get her out of Eastbourne as quickly as possible. They would have no more than an hour or two of daylight left, not enough time to get them to Brighton. However, he had mentioned a nice little place along the coast where they would spend the night.
Another night pretending to be husband and wife.
Any woman would be thrilled to be spending time with Deklan, sleeping in the same bed, and likely doing a lot more than merely sleeping.
But it was truly wearing on her heart.
He must have sensed her dismay, for he glanced over at her and arched an eyebrow. “Grace, you are fretting again.”
She sighed. “Being on the run is starting to get to me.”
“Be brave a little while longer. You have been wonderful throughout this assignment.”
Yes, she was merely an assignment to him.
They reached an inn off the beaten path just as the sun was setting.
Grace ought to have been used to the pretense of passing as a married couple, but she still felt the shame of it so deeply and had to keep herself from crying as Deklan introduced her as his wife. “Right this way, Mrs. Driscoll,” the innkeeper’s wife said, pointing to a set of narrow stairs leading to the guest chambers.
She followed the woman while Deklan took a moment to attend to their horses. “It is our finest room. You won’t have much of a view now that the sun’s gone down, although you might catch the last rays of light on the horizon if you look quickly. Come morning, it will take your breath away.”
“I look forward to it. My husband spoke highly of your inn and its charm.”
“Oh, Captain Driscoll has stayed here before, has he? It must have been when I was off visiting my mum. I visit her regular because she’s old and ailing. And we’re usually quiet here after the summer months. No, I would have remembered someone as handsome as him if I’d been here.”
Grace followed the kindly proprietress as she lumbered up the stairs and continued to chatter even though the climb left the woman a little breathless. “We’re very quiet here tonight. Not that we have a lot of rooms. We’re a small establishment. Five guest rooms in all. Yours will be the only one occupied tonight. We do a brisk business with our kitchen though. Local fishermen mostly. And our taproom is quite popular no matter the time of the year. Our specialty is fish soup. Doesn’t sound like much, does it? But it is quite hearty and as thick as stew. Like a bouillabaisse, the French call it. It’s very popular.”
“Sounds delicious.”
“Will you be dining in your chamber or do you prefer to have your supper in the common room?”
“I’ll let my husband decide.”
“You look tired, love. Been traveling far?”
“Yes, a bit. It has been a busy week for us.”
Deklan returned before long and they shared supper in their quarters. The inns he chose were all of fine quality, even this small one, and they had no lack of comfort. But this made Grace think of her mother and siblings, which saddened her all the more because she knew they were suffering and there was nothing she could do about it yet.
Also adding to her unsettled feelings was the realization that her time with Deklan would soon come to an end. He seemed to think it could take weeks and perhaps as long as a month for the matter of the stolen crown to resolve. Were it not for the need to assist her mother, she would not care if they were in hiding for an entire year.
Or a lifetime.
But her time with him was going to end and she had to decide what she was going to do about it.
Was there anything she could do?
