“I did wait outside! But then I wondered why I ought! How long does it take to ask after a horse, I ask you? Why did you tell them such a thing?” she asked, and batted at his arm like a kitten. “As if my situation isn’t desperate enough, you would say that?”
“I didn’t think it would do to announce that I was traveling with a young woman who was not my wife or my sister and, furthermore, someone I scarcely know.”
“Oh,” she said, the fire leaking out of her.
“Shall we go and find this O’Grady fellow, then?” he asked curtly, and dipped down to gather their bags. He walked on with them, not looking back.
A moment later, Miss Cabot appeared at his side, shuffling along in her unsuitable shoes.
“Where is this Mr. O’Grady?” she asked crossly after a half hour of walking north on the road.
“I’m not entirely certain.”
They walked in silence. Every so often, Miss Cabot would sigh. She pulled her bonnet up on her head once more, which Roan didn’t care for—he liked looking at her.
After some time, she whimpered a little. “I can’t...that is, I don’t know if I—”
“There,” Roan said, pointing. He could see a meadow ahead, and in it five horses grazed. “That must be it.”
That news prompted her to quicken her pace, and she hobbled along at an impressive clip.
The meadow had been fenced with rocks, where Miss Cabot promptly sat, removed her shoes and sighed.
“Now the challenge will be to locate the man who has pastured these horses,” Roan said. “He can’t be far.” He glanced down at his charge. “Can I trust you to remain here, on this fence, while I have a look about?”
“Yes,” she said, her gaze on her feet.
Roan looked at her feet, too. Her stockings were damp with the fluid of her blisters. He squatted down beside her and took one foot in his hand.
“No!” she gasped. “What are you doing?”
He began to massage the bottom of her foot, and Miss Cabot’s entire body sagged with relief.
“You really shouldn’t,” she said weakly as she inched her other foot next to the one he massaged. “It’s inappropriate,” she added, her eyes closed.
He smiled, enjoying her expression of bliss as he continued to massage her feet. “What is inappropriate is that you are trying to walk across England in these awful shoes.”
“They are from France, Mr. Matheson,” she said staunchly.
“What has that to do with anything? They are useless.”
“Well, of course! They aren’t meant for walking about,” she said with breathless indignation, her eyes flying open.
Roan paused in his ministrations to her feet to argue, but Miss Cabot nudged him with her other foot to continue his work. “I never intended to walk across England in them,” she said as he began to massage the second foot.
“You’ve no other shoes in your bag?”
“Yes,” she said. “Silk ones. I suppose in America you all strap bits of cowhide to your feet to match the cowhide of your pants and strut about as if that were the fashionable thing.”
Roan couldn’t help himself—he laughed. “Pardon me,” he said through a chuckle. “I never meant to impugn your fine French shoes.”
“Hmm,” she said, and closed her eyes again.
When he had massaged her second foot as thoroughly as the first, he let it go and stood up. Miss Cabot stretched her legs long and began to point and flex her feet.
“Now, then. Can I trust you?” he asked.
“Yes. I’m going with you,” she said, her head tilted to one side as she examined her feet.
“What? No! You’re not listening.” He leaned over her, grasped her chin in his hand and forced her head up.
Miss Cabot smiled.
“No. You will stay here, on this fence, exactly where you are sitting, while I have a look about.”
She calmly wrapped her fingers around his wrist and gave his hand a strong yank, removing it from her chin. She sat straighter, bringing her head so close to his that Roan could see the flecks of brown in her very fine hazel eyes. “I’m going. You’re foreign and you don’t know how to do things.” And then she swayed back and turned her attention to her feet.
But Roan was confused. “I don’t know how to do what, exactly?”
“Speak to crofters.” She winced as she slid her feet into her shoes, ignoring his stare of disbelief.
“Stay,” he said.
“No.” She began to roll her ankles about, her small stocking feet pointing toward the road. Then she placed her hands delicately in her lap and looked up at him. “Do you intend to stand there and stare at me all day, or shall we find a horse?”
Roan sighed. He knew the look of a stubborn woman and held out his hand to her.
They walked across the pasture and studied the horses as they grazed the grass. They were not young horses, and one of them had a peculiar bump over his right hindquarter.
“Oh dear,” Miss Cabot said.
But Roan thought they looked affable and strong enough. “They’ll do.”
At the other end of the pasture in a meadow just below, Roan spied a few cottages with smoke curling out of the chimneys and some barnlike structures. He paused.
The Scoundrel and the Debutante (The Cabot Sisters #3)
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