Twice Tempted by a Rogue (Stud Club #2)

She slid the fried eggs onto a plate, then placed it in front of her father, switching out the coddled ones for herself. After pouring herself a mug of coffee, she sat down across from him. For a few minutes, they ate in silence.

When the eggs had fortified her sufficiently and she felt up to addressing the subject, she said, “Father, listen to me. Please don’t get carried away with wild ideas. We can’t be sure Rhys is here to stay. He’s a gentleman having a lark pushing stones about the countryside. When the amusement wears off, what then? He may decide his ‘fate’ lies elsewhere and leave.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Why wouldn’t he?” She lowered her voice and tried again. “Haven’t you noticed, Father? Everyone who can leave this place, does.”

His brow creased. “When did you become so jaded, Merry?”

Ten years ago. When I married a man several years your senior, just to put a roof over our heads.

“I’m not jaded. I’m being realistic. Someone has to be.” Unfortunately, it seemed that someone must always be her. It certainly wouldn’t be Rhys, with his strange insistence on destiny. Would fate get the laundry done?

She pushed back from the table. “Mrs. Ware will look after anything else you need. I’d best gather the linens for Betsy.”

She went upstairs and gathered the bedclothes from each room, beginning with her own cramped, simple quarters, and continuing to her father’s slightly larger room, then proceeding through every guest room, whether they had been occupied in the past week or not. Meredith knew that people of means typically traveled with their own sheets, but she made it a point to dress the beds in clean linens, as a matter of aesthetics and pride.

She saved Rhys’s bedchamber for last, telling herself to invade the unoccupied room, whisk the sheets from the mattress, and make a quick retreat. But of course, the corner of one sheet snagged on the bedpost, and she had to climb atop the mattress to tug at it … and deuce it, the sheets were pitifully clean, when by all rights they should have been marked with passion.

And she was so very tired.

For a moment, she contemplated flopping onto the bed, snuggling into what lingered of his spicy male scent, and taking a long, luxuriant rest. She could all too easily imagine him lying next to her. She had a fair amount of practice imagining that. Except now, she had the benefit of much more information. She knew how his body fit against hers, solid in every place she was soft. She knew how his skin felt to the touch—weathered and sun-warmed atop his forearm, supple as kid on the inner side of his wrist.

She knew the taste of his kiss.

Oh, Rhys.

With a sharp yank, Meredith pulled the stubborn sheet free and roused herself from her fantasy. She understood dreams, sometimes even reveled in them. She wasn’t jaded, like her father had suggested. But she knew where to draw the boundary between dreams and reality.

The familiar titter of the washerwoman’s laughter floated up from the courtyard. Meredith tied the dirty linens in a bundle and went to the window, calling to catch Betsy’s attention. She stuffed the heap of linen through the window, and Betsy swooped quick to catch it in her basket—a move that earned her appreciative calls from a few of the men nearby.

“Excellent aim, Mrs. Maddox!” Darryl waved to her from the stables. The hounds yipped and wrestled at his feet.

Meredith smiled in return, but didn’t linger to join the fun. Instead she left the window to hurry downstairs. She’d caught sight of Robbie Brown rolling into the courtyard with his wheelbarrow of peat for the fires. She’d need to assemble his payment in coin and bread. After that, she’d speak with Mrs. Ware about the day’s meals, depending on what sort of meat the Farrell boys brought in.

She had an inn to run and a village to support.

When she entered the public room, she found it near full already, despite the early hour. A few travelers were taking a light meal before continuing on their journey. Village men were meeting over coffee to gossip and discuss trade. Even Harry and Laurence were here, eating breakfast.

She stopped in her tracks. What were the Symmonds boys doing here? The two of them never saw this side of noon, unless they’d been up all night keeping watch for Gideon. And last night, she hadn’t even needed to chase them out at closing time. They’d gone home unusually peaceably, at the early hour of half-ten.

“Rough night, boys?” Hands propped on her hips, she approached their table.

Harry looked up from a plate laden with eggs, bacon, rolls and jam. “Suppose you could say that.” He exchanged glances with Larry, and the two began chuckling.

Their laughter was echoed from a few other tables. Meredith slowly pivoted, taking the measure of her clientele. Now that she noticed it, a fair number of these men never darkened her door before midday.

“What?” she asked sternly. “What is it?”

The laughter only grew.