Page 51 of Eight for Losing, One for Loving

“I am. Can I help you?”

“Yes, sir, for your wife left a note for you.” She handed it to him, bobbed a quick curtsey, and hurried away before Leo could ask her anything further.

Relieved beyond measure to discover he was on the right track, Leo tore the sealed note open.

Leo,

Jenny turned her ankle at the last change, and though she has been terribly brave, she’s in a deal of pain. I have taken a private parlour here and paid a girl to look out for you. I have told them I am Mrs Hunt. Please come inside. It is not at all the adventure I had hoped for, but I need your help.

Your Vi. X

Leo’s heart gave an erratic thump as he read the words I need your help. Never in all his life had he believed he would hear those words from Vi, who would rather die than admit she needed anything from him, let alone wanted anything. Yet she had signed it your Vi.

With his heart feeling lighter than it ever had before, Leo told the grooms to hold off on the horses and hurried inside. He found someone to help him and lost no time in following their instructions to the parlour. He knocked and, upon hearing a familiar soft voice answer and bid him to come in, pushed open the door.

“Vi!”

“Oh, Leo!” Vi rushed from her seat and ran to him, taking him quite by surprise by hugging him tightly. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

Leo looked down at her, finding a foolish smile curving over his mouth. “Are you really, Vi?”

She blushed, suddenly shy as she looked away from him, but she nodded. “I really am. We’re in a bit of a fix, Leo, for I’ve no luggage, save for what Jenny brought, and the landlady was not very kind. I was terribly embarrassed by the way she spoke to me. I believe she thinks we are no better than we ought to be. I persuaded her to allow us to take tea in a private parlour and to send for a doctor to treat Jenny’s ankle but paying for it all used every penny I had left.”

“Never mind, love. I’ll deal with that.” He squeezed her hands. “Are you all right, Jenny?” he asked the girl, who was looking a little woebegone, her ankle propped up on a stool with a cushion atop it.

Mau sat on the empty chair beside her, an alert look in his eyes, his nose twitching at all the interesting smells that had drifted in when Leo opened the door.

Jenny brightened at his enquiry, returning a game smile. “I’ll mend, sir. Only I’m so s-sorry to spoil Miss Spencer’s splendid plan. It was ever so r-romantic, too,” she said, snivelling and wiping eyes that looked to have already done a fair bit of weeping.

“Now, now, Jenny, none of that,” Vi said severely. “I told you, it’s not your fault in the least. These things happen. Now Leo is here, all will be well. You’ll see.”

Leo felt a foot taller than usual at Vi’s certainty. She had never given him the slightest reason to believe she thought him capable of anything but causing chaos, but now here she was, saying he would make everything right for them.

“Leave it to me, love,” he told her, kissing the back of her hand and holding her gaze as she blushed prettily, looking like an innocent girl. His heart gave an uneven thump. She was going to marry him. She’d said so. He had it in black and white, and he would not give her any reason to back out.

Leaving Vi to comfort Jenny, he went out and asked to speak with the landlady at once. The woman arrived, looking somewhat harassed. She was a skinny creature with a stern face and lines around her mouth that suggested she scowled more than she smiled. Judging at once that a charm offensive would not cut any ice with the formidable dame, Leo kept his tone crisp.

“Are you the landlady?”

“I am, sir. My husband, Mr Rogers, and I run this establishment.”

“Then perhaps you would inform me why my wife and my maid have been treated with less than cordial attention,” he asked coldly. “We were due to meet my mother-in-law, Lady Trevick in Tadlow. Our luggage is already en route to The Queen’s Head, but Mrs Hunt was forced to stop here as her maid has turned her ankle. It is sheer luck that I stopped here myself to change horses, and now I discover that you have had the temerity to put her quite out of countenance.”

The lady paled in the face of his annoyance, more so when she realised the Countess of Trevick was the lady’s mama.

“I-I beg your pardon, sir. I did not know, only it looked a little strange, the two of them alone in the tilbury with no luggage and that great big horse—not the sort of thing you usually see ladies driving, you must admit—and with that peculiar cat too!”

“The cat is mine,” Leo replied dryly. “And my wife is a capable whipster. Now, if you believe propriety has been served, I need two rooms, one for myself and my wife and one for her maid. I understand a doctor is on the way?”

“Yes, sir, indeed, sir,” Mrs Rogers said hurriedly. “I will see to it all at once.”

“Excellent,” Leo said, pressing a more than generous sum into the woman’s hand. “Put that towards our account. In the meantime, where might we go to furnish ourselves with what we will need to spend a night here?”

“Mrs Fanshaw is the closest modiste. Just two streets away. She’s very well regarded in these parts,” Mrs Rogers said, eager now to please. “And the apothecary carries soap and brushes and the like. He’s only a few doors up from her establishment.”

“Very good. Please have someone help my wife’s maid to her room once it’s ready and see she has everything she needs. There is a small valise in my curricle, which I will require as well. I will escort my wife to Mrs Fanshaw.”

“Yes, sir, at once, sir.”