Page 89 of Lord of Mischief
A fuming Eve sat in the cart, arms folded.
He rounded to her side of the cart and put up his hands.She refused to take them.When he began to laugh, she wished she could beat him with her fists.
“They are not coming after us.I promise you that,” he said.
“And how can you tell?Can you read the minds of evil men?What is to stop Osmont Firebrace from coming around that bend and shooting us both on sight?”she angrily replied.
“Because the men with the carriage are taking it back to London.I only hired them and the carriage for the week.Any longer and I shall lose my deposit on the carriage.The horse I rented for a few weeks longer.”Freddie held her gaze.“Oh, and as for Osmont Firebrace, he was arrested long before anyone else, held along with several other men at a secret location outside of London.The rest of the members of the Bachelor Board assumed they fled the country and tried to follow.The men in the Tower of London were caught trying to seek passage onboard ships bound for Ireland.”
A slow burning anger began to grow in Eve’s brain as her mind processed what he had said.
“Now, would you like to come down from the cart so we can talk this out?”he said.
Eve clenched her fists, silently wishing she had a knife or a gun hidden somewhere in her skirts.She batted away his offered hand and jumped down from the cart.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, she spun round and landed a well-thrown punch in the middle of Freddie’s chest.“You bastard!You bloody bastard!You had me kidnapped!”she roared.He had set the whole thing up.
She walked away, the roar of anger in her ears making her deaf to his words.For two days she had feared for her life, all the while desperate with worry as to what had happened to Freddie.Two days during which he had followed the carriage, until deciding on the opportune time torescueher.
Freddie followed her.Once she reached a field of flat, green grass, she gathered pace.
“Stop.Stop.”
She whirled round as he took a firm hold of her cloak.“How could you?How could you do that to me?Do you have any idea how frightened I was?”she bellowed.
The laughter was gone from his face.In its place was a hard seriousness she had never seen before.
“Yes, I know you were frightened.I told you not to come to the house, knowing full well you would ignore my words of caution.Why did I do it?I did it to make you understand.”
“What?What do I need to understand?”
He sucked in a deep breath.“The whole time I have known you, you have been furiously pushing boundaries.You constantly chase the thrill of scandal and danger.You lust after it.I gave you exactly what you wanted.I took your virginity while you were bent over a kitchen table, which is as about as scandalous as it gets with an unwed woman of your social standing.Then I showed you real danger by having you kidnapped.I gave you exactly what you wanted, Eve,” he replied.He let go of her cloak and did not follow her as she walked farther into the field.
Once far enough away from him, she sat down on the grass.The view back toward the cart was very much like the one on the road from Rosemount Abbey, where she had sat and raged over his cruel heartbreak.This time it was Freddie, not her mother, who was standing in the middle of the field wondering what an angry Eve would do next.
She pulled at a blade of grass and sat rolling it between her fingers.When Freddie moved closer and sat beside her, she ignored him.
It hurt to know he had caused her pain once more.That he had seen through her game of continually upping the ante with more and more scandalous behavior.
What hurt most of all was that he was right.
She had a taste for danger.Even now she was forced to accept the passion that had heated her blood the previous night with him, had been a result of having been abducted.In his arms she had exalted in the knowledge she had cheated certain death.Sex with him in their bed at the inn had been soul-changing.
“I hate you,” she said.
“I hate you, too.I also hated lying to you, but I did it to make you see sense and stop blindly chasing danger.I don’t regret it.You have to ask yourself, what if this hadn’t been a fake kidnapping?You have to learn to trust that I am here to keep you safe, but in that you have a role to play.”
She reached out and took a hold of his hand.It was a gentle hold, offering unspoken forgiveness.He had beaten her at her own game.It was time she conceded.
“Now what is to happen?”she asked.
If he had planned her kidnapping so well, then he would have other plans no doubt.She was still mad as hell at him, but true to nature, she was keen to know what else he had in mind.
He got to his feet and stood in front of her.Her heart began to thump in her chest as he went down on bended knee.“Evelyn Saunders, I love you.I want to spend the rest of my life with you.I want us to forge a life together being respectable members of society, while at the same time allowing us to privately indulge in all that sets our blood on fire.Will you do me the greatest honor, and agree to be my wife?”
She had to hand it to him.He had a gift for the unexpected.A marriage proposal in a field in the middle of nowhere was not something she had considered.It, of course, was scandalous.He had not asked her father’s permission.They were not on any formal footing when it came to courting.They were well and truly outside the boundaries of acceptable behavior in the eyes of theton.
It was perfect.
