“You swine! You despicable knave! How dare you! How could you! I was a maiden, you wretched beast! I-I’ll have you hanged for this!”
Hugh stopped and chuckled. “You truly don’t remember, do you, sweet? I may be a knave and a swine, but I’m not so base that I’d take advantage of a half-conscious female. If you were a maiden last night then you are a maiden still.”
“And I may be an ignorant girl, Hugh Caldwell, but I’m not a fool!” she cried. “You touched me!”
Hugh inclined his head. “ ‘Struth, I did indeed touch you, lovely Rosaleen, and enjoyed every moment. But touch is all I did. You were restless and cried in your sleep. I only tried to comfort you. That’s all. Most gentlemanly of me, do you not think?”
Rosaleen didn’t believe him. The memories she had of his hands and mouth moving over her were dim, true, but they were there all the same. “You did m-more than t-touch me, you lecherous fiend!”
Hugh’s grin was fully masculine. “A little more, yes, my lady. I considered it repayment for my kindness in taking care of you.” He eyed her appreciatively. “Verily, sweeting, I have never been so pleased with any recompense in my life. Shall we get started for London, then?”
“You’re an animal!” she shouted, pointing at the door. “Leave then, you wretched, unchivalrous rat! Get out! I wouldn’t go one step in your company, you…you…ravisher!” Hugh laughed and turned toward the door. In a rage, Rosaleen followed. “And when I get to London, I’ll have a warrant put out for you, signed by the king’s own hand, you…you…defiler! I swear by God’s holy name, I shall!”
“Good lack, woman! If this is the kind of abuse you heaped upon your uncle’s head, it isn’t a wonder he beat you so!” He stopped at a small table near the door and dug his coin bag out of his tunic. “Here,” he said, placing several coins down. “I shouldn’t be so merciful to such a shrew, but this ought to be enough to—”
“How dare you!” she screeched from right behind him, so that when Hugh turned he bumped into her. “First you abuse me, you…you…seducer! And then you try to pay me off like the veriest whore, you…you…”
“God’s bones, I did not ravish you!” Hugh insisted, barely ducking in time when she picked up the coins and threw them at his head. “Calm yourself, Rosaleen! I only meant to help you, not hand you an insult.”
“The only way you can help me is to get out of my sight!”
“All right, all right! I’m going!” He picked up Amazon and reshouldered his bag. “First you say I can’t go, and then you throw me out. What a wild creature you are, Rosaleen no-name. Your gratitude for my care these past two days is overwhelming, indeed.”
“Oh!” she gasped, taking a swing at him. “How dare you, you…you… great randy goat! If you think to wait until I thank you for deflowering me, then you’ll be waiting until Satan’s breath blows cold!”
“I did not,” he said with growing anger, “deflower you! If you don’t quiet yourself, my sweet, I’m going to take you back to that bed and show you exactly what I did do!”
“Get out!” she shouted. “And when you get downstairs I wish you to send up one of the friends who stood with you the other night. Surely one of them will be chivalrous enough to help a lady in plight.”
“You are quite right, my lady. Any one of my friends would have been pleased to play the good chivalrous fellow for you, more fool they, but they are gone, having left yesterday morn, as I, myself, should have done and now wish to God that I had!” He drew in a breath, then said more calmly, “I fear you shall have to seek London on your own, as you did before you ever came to this place.”
Rosaleen froze, staring at him in surprise, as though he had struck her, and then she did the inexplicable. Her face crumpled and her eyes filled with tears.
“But I can’t.”
Hugh looked away, thoroughly aggravated. “You were planning on going alone before,” he said gruffly. “If you’d let me leave you a little money you could still do it.” It was a damned lie, and he knew it. A woman on the open road, alone, was as defenseless to every rogue and knave who came her way as a newborn mouse might be against Amazon.
She shook her head and spoke more to herself than to him. “I learned very well two nights ago that I will need protection. I must get to London. I must.” She turned and walked back to the bed, wringing her hands. Sitting on the mattress, she bowed her head and was quiet.
Hugh cleared his throat. “Well, you’ll be fine. Goodbye, Rosaleen. Good luck.”
She said nothing, only kept her head bowed. Her fingers laced and unlaced in a worried rhythm.
“I said goodbye, Rosaleen. Godspeed.”
“Yes, yes,” she mumbled tearfully. “Goodbye.”
He opened the door and walked out, shaking his head to rid it of the memory of her sitting so unhappily on the edge of the same bed where he had spent some exceedingly enjoyable hours with her. Well, he’d be damned if he’d feel guilty about that, he told himself as he made his way down the stairs to the main room. She had enjoyed herself quite as much as he had, though she didn’t remember it yet. And he had considered it repayment for all the trouble he’d gone through. There wasn’t anything wrong with that. She was a beautiful girl; any other man would have used her much differently had he had the chance.
The innkeeper was standing behind his serving board when Hugh walked in, and the little man smiled in greeting.
“Well, sir, are you on your way, then?”
“Yes, I’m on my way,” Hugh replied. “The lady is feeling better this morn, and would like some food to break her fast with. She also wishes the use of a brush and needs clean linen to cover her hair. See that she has all she desires.” He tossed the innkeeper a couple of gold coins and watched with disdain as the man pocketed the money with lusty greed.
“That I will, my lord,” the man promised quickly. “The lady be well satisfied, I vow. Will there be anything else, my lord?”
Hugh gave the man a considering glance and wondered how far he could trust him. The innkeeper was willing enough now, when a fighting man was present, but how would Rosaleen fare once he’d ridden away? Aside from that, he hated the way the man spoke of her, as though Rosaleen were naught but a whore flaunting herself as something better.
He struggled for a long moment, telling himself sternly that he was going to regret this. If he only could have expelled the image of her sitting so defeated and miserable on the edge of that damned bed, he might have won.
“The lady,” he said curtly, emphasizing the word, “will need a good mount. Is there anyone in this godforsaken village who owns a decent horse he’d be willing to sell?”
“I am not taking you to London.”
They’d been traveling together for only half a day, and already Hugh felt like strangling her.
“You needn’t be so intemperate, sir,” Rosaleen stated from where she rode beside him on a tiny brown mare that made his own magnificent black steed look like some mighty and fabled creature. “It certainly wasn’t my idea that we go anywhere together. And if you think that escorting me to London will stop me from issuing a warrant for your arrest, you are sadly mistaken. I intend to go straight to the king regarding the matter of my ruin, and when he hangs you, I shall be at the very front of the crowd, cheering the executioner on.”
Hugh gritted his teeth and wondered what sin he had ever committed to make him suffer this fate.
“Rosaleen,