Page 7 of Snowbound with the Scoundrel
The words died on Rupert’s lips as the carriage jolted, jerked to a halt, and tilted precariously.
The sudden change in momentum sent Clarissa flying forward into Rupert’s seat.
He caught her by the shoulder before her face smashed into the thinly cushioned seatback.“Whoa, there.Are you all right?”
She didnotneed Rotten Rupert’s help.Flushing, Clarissa extricated herself and returned to her seat.“I’m fine.What’s happening?”
Outside the carriage, she could hear the driver and guard conferring.After a moment, the door opened, ushering in a blast of even colder air.“Apologies, miss, sir,” the driver said, touching the brim of his hat.“But one of the wheels has broken.Must’ve hit a rock or some such.”
Clarissa bit down a trace of panic.She was already freezing, already longing to reach the next waypoint where she could exchange her cold brick for a hot one.The last thing she needed was to be stuck out here in the cold.“What will you do?”she asked, pleased that her voice was steady in spite of the fear welling in her chest.
“We’ll ride ahead to the next village and fetch the wheelwright.It’s only about an hour on.”
An hour.That meant it would be another hour back, plus whatever time it took for the wheelwright to rouse himself, collect his tools, and repair the wheel.
Now, Clarissa was feeling more than a trace of panic.“Is there a farmhouse nearby where we could seek shelter?”
The coachman looked apologetic.“I’m afraid not.There’s nothing for miles.”He turned to Rupert.“We’re unhitching the horses now.You could go on with us, sir, if you don’t mind riding bareback.”He turned to Clarissa.“Apologies, miss, but we don’t have anything like a sidesaddle.”
The words that emerged from Clarissa’s mouth were, “That’s quite all right.”Because she prided herself on being stalwart and undaunted.She was self-reliant to a fault and didn’t have it in her to succumb to hysteria, even when she was honestly terrified that she was about to succumb to the cold.
“Kind of you to offer,” Rupert told the coachman, “but I don’t like the thought of Miss Weatherby being out here all alone.I’ll stay with her while we await your return.”
The coachman bowed.“As you like, sir.I’d best be getting on, then.Sooner we start, the sooner we finish and all that.”
“Of course,” Rupert answered.“Godspeed to you both.”
The coachman shut the door, and Clarissa once again found herself alone with Rupert Dupree.
She wanted to ask him about what he had said before they hit that rock—about his plan to make things right.But after the blast of cold air that had entered the carriage when the coachman opened the door, her lips weren’t working as well as they ought to have been.
Her brain wasn’t functioning very well, either.Her thoughts felt sluggish, which was the most alarming thing of all.Because she was Clarissa Weatherby.Her thoughts wereneversluggish.
Wrapping her cloak more tightly about her shoulders, she uttered a silent prayer that she would make it through the night.
Chapter4
Rupert peered at Clarissa across the dim carriage.Her eyes looked a bit muzzy, and her color wasn’t very good unless your favorite color happened to be blue, in which case, her color was excellent.
“I say, Miss Weatherby, are you all right?”
“Fine,” she gasped.“Just fine.Why do you ask?”
“Because you’re looking like one of those Pictish fellows.”
“Oh?”Clarissa looked like she was nodding off.“H-how so?”
“Mostly that you’re blue.”He patted the bench beside him.“Why don’t you come and sit over here?My cloak is big enough to spread over both of us.”
“That’s probably wise,” Clarissa muttered, but instead of coming over to join him, her eyes drifted closed and she slumped down in the corner of her own seat.
Rupert had the feeling this was not a good idea.It was like they’d told him when he visited Switzerland—if you were hiking in the Alps, no matter how tired you thought you were, the one thing you didn’t want to do was lie down in the snow for “just a minute.”People who lay down in the snow for “just a minute” didn’t get back up.
Gad, but this was improper.But she looked to be pretty far along the path toward freezing to death, soimproperwas somewhat low on his list of concerns.
“Here,” he said, taking her by the shoulders.She was a little thing, but she was pretty well insensible, and it was deuced awkward maneuvering her dead weight across the cramped space.
But after a minute of giving it the old heave-ho, he managed to settle Clarissa on the bench seat next to him.Only then did it occur to him that he could’ve just gone and sat next to her.Ah well, wasn’t that the way it always happened with him?
