Lord Melvedere's Ghost Read Online Free

the
carriage.
    “ Cecily, come on, wake up,” Jamie murmured gently. The bones of
her shoulder were hard beneath his fingers and he mentally cursed
her father once more. He made a mental note to instruct the
housekeeper to find out what Cecily liked to eat, and make whatever
she wanted, whenever she wanted it. He hated to wake her, she
looked so peaceful. The much needed sleep had erased some of the
dark smudges beneath her eyes, and restored the colour to her
cheeks somewhat. Still, he was aware that she hadn’t eaten in
several hours and it was imperative to all of them that she takes
on food as quickly as possible.
    “ What is it?” Cecily mumbled around a yawn. Her heart lurched
when she lifted her eyes and found Jamie mere inches away. The
intimacy of their situation wasn’t lost on her and she pushed
herself upright, ducking away from his imposing masculinity. She
pushed the wild tangle of her hair out of her eyes with one hand
while she smothered a yawn with the other. “Where are
we?”
    “ Coming into a small town,” Jamie replied, watching regretfully
as she scooted along the seat to put distance between them. “We
need to change the horses.”
    Cecily
blinked and took a deep breath. She was glad she had slept but now
felt slightly fuzzy around the edges, and struggled to find
anything to say to him. This afternoon had to be one of the most
humiliating of her life but, and she mentally checked, her stomach
had at least settled down somewhat.
    “ Tell me, Cecily, do you ride?”
    “ What? Horses?” She mentally winced at the stupidity of the
statement.
    “ Do you ride anything else?” Jamie retorted and wondered if she
was awake yet. She clearly had no idea of her double entendre and
he mentally swore. She was adorable at the best of times now
though, she was so damned gorgeous that he had to move to the
farthest corner of the carriage in a desperate attempt to keep his
hands to himself.
    “ I-I don’t know, I have never tried,” Cecily replied, frowning
across at him. “Do I need to?”
    Jamie
nodded slowly. “We are losing too much time travelling by coach. By
sticking to the roads we are at serious risk of attack.” They had
seen neither hide nor hare of anyone for several long miles, but
his warrior instincts were warning him that it wouldn’t last.
Danger was nearby, he could practically smell it.
    “ I could try, I suppose,” Cecily replied, wondering how one
went about riding a horse at all, let alone across country. “I
won’t have to jump things on it, will I?”
    Jamie
blew out his cheeks and shook his head. “I hope to God you don’t,”
he muttered, glaring out at the small row of houses that appeared
out of the window. The coaching inn they were going to use was on
the near side of the town but, within minutes, Jonathan had
smoothly navigated the nearly empty roads and they pulled into the
yard.
    The
carriage hadn’t even stopped before Jamie slammed the door open,
and ordered her to remain where she was. He slammed the carriage
door behind him and turned to study the assembled buildings. The
inn’s ostler moseyed toward them, a beefy sandwich clenched in his
huge fist. A small, thin stable hand ran behind him and immediately
began to unharness the horses.
    “ You lookin’ at stayin’?” The ostler asked, glaring at the
horses accusingly.
    “ No, we want three of your best horses,” Jamie snapped, drawing
his pouch of gold coins out of his pocket. He smothered a sigh when
the ostler immediately snapped to attention at the sight of the
promised coinage. Jamie lifted hard eyes to the beefy man, his gaze
promising retribution if he failed to carry out instructions.
“Three of your best horses, understand?” His voice was cold and hard as he stared
at the ostler’s greedy gaze.
    “ Aye. It’ll cost ya though,” the ostler warned with an air of
satisfaction.
    “ Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Jamie mused wryly and watched
as the ostler shouted orders to a stable