Page 23 of Meet A Rogue At Midnight
She balked. “Leave Plumtree?”
“Come now, you’ve never been missish. There’s a whole world out there. You ought to know that from helping your father.”
True. She was bold in every other aspect, yet when it came to Jonas, her heart thudded and her legs stuck in place. Behind her, the room was cleared. Fiddle music hummed the first notes of a reel. Shoes scraped the floor as men and women lined up.
“Do you want him?” Mrs. Bainbridge asked.
“I do.”
“Then don’t stand there like a lost lamb.” The proprietress shooed her away. “Go after him.”
She rushed to the door and snatched her cloak off the hook. Throwing open the door, horses and dog carts cluttered the village road outside. A few coachmen tarried in the cold by finer vehicles, hands cupped over their mouths. The skies were clear, a thousand stars glimmering from heaven.
Where was Jonas?
She ran to the middle of the road and spun around. She hadn’t asked how Jonas came to the inn. By horse? One of the carts? Or did he borrow the Captain’s flat cart once used to deliver furniture?
Hooking the frogs under her chin, she called out to the coachmen. “Pardon me, gentlemen, have you seen a tall man in black exit the inn?”
“A big gent.” The coachman tapped his ear. “Had a gold earring right here?”
“Yes, yes! That’s him.”
A lanky arm stretched to the east end of the road. “He went that away, miss.”
She barely said her thanks before grabbing handfuls of her cloak, her legs pumping hard. She sprinted up the road, leaping over deep ruts. Tight stays manacled her ribs. There was nothing ladylike and proper about her mad dash through Plumtree. The main road curved east with a fork heading north to Halsey and Braithwaite land. She took the northern turn, and it was there she spied Jonas, his stride eating up the road. Blast it, but he was fast.
“Jonas!” she yelled, her run easing to a trot until she stopped from a stitch in her side.
He halted his progress and slowly turned around. Her feet were made of lead, and her heart lurched. Lungs billowing, she let go of her cloak and smoothed it if only to occupy her hands. Jonas stayed put, all six feet and several inches of him. The brim of his hat shaded his face, yet shefelthis blue-eyed gaze rake her from head to toe.
A shiver skipped her spine.
Was it possible a man’s hostile stare could keep a woman in place?
Jonas was a good twenty paces from her, and she dare not venture any closer. Not that she could. A horrible stitch pinched her side.
“Please. Don’t go.” The heel of her hand pressed the cramp. “I, I want to talk with you.”
Starlight touched Jonas as he put one long leg in front of the other, making his way to her. Heaven help her but, she cringed. His forbidding glare, the gold earring gleaming like a sharp point…Jonas could be a landlocked pirate bearing down on her. He stopped a few paces away, his breath huffing clouds.
“About what?”
She rubbed the pained spot harder. “I want, I want…to be with you.”
“Why?”
She shut her eyes at his icy voice. Never had she known him to be this abrupt with her. She understood the distance. He was hurt. So was she. In a matter of days, years of childhood friendship sailed full speed ahead into exciting, choppy, mysterious waters.
“Because I have feelings for you, and making sense of them is easier if we have a decent conversation.”
“I’m sure your betrothed wouldn’t appreciate that sentiment.”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s an unofficial arrangement. Nothing legally binding…more of an understanding.” The words tasted like paper in her mouth, bland and silly. Jonas wouldn’t quibble over the status of her arrangement. The distinction of unofficial or not didn’t matter; the fact of another man did.
The whites of his eyes were wide. “You weren’t honest with me.”
Wincing, she stopped rubbing the cramp at her waist. She deserved the pain. “I know.”
