Page 32 of Black and Silver

“I suppose, if you insist,” Lord Otho said, gesturing to the carriage.

Minerva wasted no time stepping forward and allowing one of the footmen to hand her into the carriage.

“I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality, Lady Jessica, Lord Otho,” Lawrence said goodbye for both of them, bowing to Lord Otho and kissing Jessica’s hand. “I am grateful for what has been a truly lovely visit.”

“Yes, yes,” Jessica said with a sigh, clearly ready for him to go. “You must visit us again soon.”

Lawrence smiled at her, but the moment he’d turned his back to head for the carriage, he rolled his eyes. If he never saw Jessica again, it would be too soon.

“I am more than glad to be done with that,” he said once he was settled in the carriage and they were on their way.

Minerva merely hummed as she looked out the window, one hand rested on Clarence’s pate.

Lawrence frowned, his heart quivering with worry again. Had the bloom already gone off the rose between the two of them? Had Minerva taken what she’d wanted from him and immediately lost interest? It would most definitely not have been the first time he had lost the good favor of a woman so quickly.

“Minerva, are you quite well?” Lawrence asked, feeling as though voicing the question was taking an immense risk.

Minerva pried her eyes away from the rolling countryside to look at him. “I thought we were moments away from being found out,” she said, her expression grave. “I believe it has unsettled me.”

Lawrence did his best to smile. He even reached out to rest a hand on her knee as she sat opposite him. “All is well,” he said. “We have endured the awkward visit and obtained what we came for.”

“Yes, I am happy for that,” Minerva said stiffly, then cleared her throat and swallowed awkwardly.

“And now we can continue on with our intended journey,” Lawrence said, his smile difficult to keep in place for some reason. “The rest of the road lies ahead of us, and our destinations are secure.”

For some reason, that simple statement caused Minerva to pinch her eyes closed for a moment with a look of what Lawrence could only describe as despair. Perhaps it was regret. It made him sick to think that Minerva, the most magnificent woman he’d ever met, regretted a moment of their acquaintance, especially those particular moments last night.

But he feared that was the case. By the time they were a mile away from Tidworth Hall, things were back to what they had been at the very beginning of the journey. The two of them sat in silence across from each other, each lost in their own thoughts, as much strangers to each other as they’d ever been.

Chapter Eleven

Minnie had never regretted gloomy weather and prayed for sunshine as much as she did for the rest of the day, as the overburdened carriage made its way back toward the main road to Wales.

At least, she hoped they were traveling toward the main road to Wales. At one point in the afternoon, Silas stopped the carriage and Lawrence stepped down to have a word with him.

“Is all well?” Minnie asked when Lawrence rejoined her five minutes later and the carriage started forward again. In a different direction.

“All is perfectly well,” Lawrence said with a tight smile. “Silas is unfamiliar with the roads in this part of the country, and with the sun hidden behind such thick clouds, he was having difficulty ascertaining our direction.”

Minnie sucked in a breath, then nodded. She had to fight the feeling of dread that had steadily been growing in her gut since she awoke that morning.

She’d awakened with the first rays of dawn light, tucked cozily against Lawrence, an arm and a leg thrown over him as if he were a pile of pillows…feeling decidedly off. Her body felt too warm, and her throat, while not sore per se, was noticeable. Even though she had not engaged in any such activity focused around Lawrence’s manhood that might cause such a thing.

The odd feeling had propelled her out of bed to fetch a glass of water from the small table in the corner of the room. Once she was up, she felt compelled to move rather than to rejoin Lawrence in bed. As much as she might have wanted to rejoin him. She’d dressed, busied herself packing, and been entirely too aware of her body not feeling right.

It could not be the unintended results of their nightly activities, she was certain. She had just finished dealing with her monthly courses, and she was educated enough to know she would not be immediately fertile. Aside from which, at her age, though most definitely not impossible, she believed an actual pregnancy to be less likely.

That did not prevent her from feeling slightly feverish and most definitely out of sorts as the morning progressed, however. As dear and sweet as she found Lawrence to be when he awoke and missed her, a niggle at the back of her head warned her not to transfer whatever malady seemed to be creeping up on her to him. She remembered the fever that had closed the inn across from where they’d stayed a few days before. If she had somehow contracted that, she did not want to pass it along.

And then came Lady Jessica and Lord Otho’s offensive statements and behavior at breakfast. By then, Minnie had been feeling worse, and while Lawrence had handled the awkward interaction expertly, all she wanted to do was be gone from Tidworth Hall. Teasing Lady Jessica with Clarence had been the final act of defiance she’d managed before she began to feel decidedly unwell.

“We can stop at the next inn we pass to inquire after our direction,” Lawrence reassured her with a tremulous smile when Minnie failed to make conversation about the possible waywardness of their journey. “If the hour is late, we can rest there for the evening.”

Rest sounded like the loveliest thing Minnie had ever heard of. She tried to smile at the idea, but doing so drew further attention to the increasing tickle in her throat.

Several more minutes passed as they rattled on at a slower pace than ever before. Minnie stared out the window, wishing that the rain would hold off as long as possible to make their journey swifter. She was eager to reach Bristol and the culmination of her plot to disappear.

At least, that was what she told herself.

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