Page 88 of Rules for a Bastard Lord
“Into the ocean!” she wailed.
Dicky patted her hand. “Lost everything. But what notes we could clutch as we waded to shore.”
“Waded?” Bram asked. Bloody hell, they hadn’t made it more than a few feet off shore!
Dicky’s words were rushed. “Swam. We swam to shore.”
“I nearly drowned!” Clarissa gasped.
“Well,” continued Dicky, “nothing on Earth would induce me back into the water after that. Not with those thieves!”
Bram folded his arms. “Lost your passage money, didn’t you?”
“Stolen!” gasped Clarissa.
Bram had no words. He couldn’t fathom why these two had decided he was their savior. There was only one thing he cared about. One small detail and he’d wash his hands of them.
“Where is Mina?”
“Who’s Mina?” asked Dicky. Clarissa was too busy pretending to cry into her crumpled handkerchief.
“The horse. Where’s the carriage and horse?”
“That horse!” huffed Clarissa.
“You should have told us it was such an ugly thing,” Dicky admonished him. “We would have waited while you found a more appropriate one.”
“More appropriate? A high-stepper, perhaps, in Hull. I thought you were trying to flee without anyone noticing.”
Dicky stiffened. “Don’t take that tone with me. Just because we’re relocating doesn’t mean we should be subjected to that mongrel horse.”
“Where is Mina?” he ground out.
“Stabled just down the road. Filthy place. Don’t know why you abide it.”
“Because I don’t have a horse.”
“Well, you do now. I’ll not have that hideous creature as one of my own.” He lifted his chin. “You owe me three hundred pounds.”
“Like hell I do.”
“Bram!” Dicky huffed. “I must insist that you watch your tongue.”
“Or what? You’ll throw me out of my own home?” It was late, he was tired, and he was in no mood to deal with these two. “What do you want, Dicky?”
“Well, as to that, do you think everyone’s forgotten about us by now?”
Bram blinked at the man. He couldn’t possibly be that stupid. “It was a week ago. Even thetoncan remember last week.”
Clarissa sniffed louder into her handkerchief.
Dicky sighed. “We knew that was possible, Clary.” He patted his wife’s shoulder. “Good thing we have another plan.”
A plan. Wonderful. He didn’t know whether to be elated or terrified. “What is it?”
“We can’t go anywhere on water. And everyone thinks we’re in Scotland. Jeremy hasn’t come looking for us, has he?”
“No,” Bram said slowly, and that worried him. “But I’ve only just returned to London.
