by Rebecca King
The inn keeper was a little dazed beneath the force of the questions being fired at him and looked at Barnaby’s colleagues nervously.
“She was on her own, I think, but I can’t be sure. I didn’t see if she got on the coach. She showed me her ticket and asked when it left. It was about to leave so I told her to get on it. She disappeared after that so I assume-”
He fell quiet and watched in shock as the tall, threatening man vanished before he had finished his sentence. Thankfully, the rest of the men with him all followed. A stunned silence fell over the tavern’s patrons while they all listened to the thundering of their horses’ hooves disappear into the distance.
“I wonder what she has done then,” a man at the bar murmured with a frown.
“I don’t know, but I don’t want to be around when they catch up with that woman,” the inn keeper grumbled before he staggered behind the bar and helped himself to a large brandy.
Rose cried out when the coach suddenly slammed to a stop and she nearly toppled off the seat. The other travellers crammed into the tiny space began to bluster and protest at the poor driving while they resumed their seats and waited to see what was happening.
“What the Devil-?” an elderly gentleman beside the window grumbled as he slammed the window down and leaned outside.
“I wonder if a wheel has fallen off?” A woman suggested, nodding as though she knew this for a fact.
Rose wasn’t paying attention. Her heart hammered wildly in her throat. She placed a hand over her stomach, which churned with nerves. She knew deep down inside that this had nothing to do with any accident; the coach had been stopped by the people who were now talking to the driver. The low rumble of voices filtered through to them but it was difficult to hear what was being said. Whoever it was, Rose doubted it was anybody from the Star Elite. Reg and Ben had no idea which coach she had taken.
Was it Chadwick, or any of his men? Nervously, she waited.
“I am going to see what’s what,” the elderly gent grunted as he let himself out of carriage, ignoring the protests of his wife to stay inside where it was safe. Before he could reach the door, it was yanked open by someone outside.
“Get out of the carriage, Rose,” Barnaby growled suddenly.
Rose’s eyes popped open. Her stomach dropped to her toes. She was so shocked that for a moment, she couldn’t quite comprehend that he was actually there. How had he found out? Who had told him?
“Now.” The harsh command in his voice echoed around the carriage.
The other passengers quickly began to disembark amid whispers of ‘who is she?’, and ‘what do they want with her?”
When it was evident that Rose wasn’t going to budge, Barnaby climbed into the carriage and slammed the door closed behind him. He sat directly opposite her and braced his elbows on his knees, and allowed the silence within to thicken.
“Just what the Hell do you think you are doing?” he said calmly.
Too calmly for Rose’s peace of mind. She studied the enigmatic look on his face but could not pick up any trace of emotion to give her any clue whether he was angry, or just there to retrieve her so he could go back to his Star Elite business.
“I am leaving. I refuse to spend my life being dragged up and down the country. I can’t. I won’t. This battle with Chadwick is your battle, and the Star Elite’s. I cannot sacrifice weeks of my life because I decided to take some air at a ball one evening.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper when emotion threatened to overcome her. If she allowed him to see just how upset she was, Barnaby would spirit her away to another safe house no matter how much she protested.
“You cannot leave like this,” he murmured.
“I have not committed any crime. I don’t see why I should be detained,” she protested.
Barnaby stared at her. “Is that how you see what has happened?”
“How could I not?” she whispered. “It isn’t your fault. You are just doing your job. Chadwick is a criminal who should be behind bars. I am just a problem you think you have to take with you. But you don’t.”
“Rose.”
“You don’t, Barnaby,” she persisted. “I need some semblance of a life. I can’t do this.”
She felt tears gather on her lashes as she looked at him and made no apology for them. He might not have been affected by what they had shared last night but she was and she couldn’t hide it.
“It’s too late to go back now,” he said flatly. “I did warn you yesterday that once we shared a bed we couldn’t go back to the way things were. I thought you understood that.”
“I do,” she replied. “I am not asking you for anything. But neither should you expect me to go along with whatever you decide to do. This is my life too. I can’t spend the rest of it paying the price for what we did.”
“Well, it is too late because you must,” Barnaby replied.
He didn’t know when he had fallen in love with her but he had. Totally. Completely, and with everything he had. It was every fibre of his being now; this woman was an essential part of his very existence. The flight across country to find her was one of the most fraught he could ever remember. The thought that Chadwick had her had left him coldly furious and desperately worried.
To think she had run to try to get away from him left him more than a little shaken. In fact, he was horrified.
“I don’t have to do anything,” she reminded him.
“You are under my protection,” Barnaby countered. “So you must.”
“So last night was your protection was it?”
“No, it wasn’t,” Barnaby replied. “It was much more than that. I confess that the timing was lousy but I do firmly believe it was the right thing to do.”
“Why?” she whispered.
“Because I love you,” he said bluntly and ignored her startled gasp. Now that he had opened up and started to talk about his feelings nothing was going to stop him – not even Rose. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but there is something – an invisible connection of some kind; an attraction if you will – that drew me to you right from the very beginning. Even up on that balcony the first night we met I knew I couldn’t just allow you to re-join the guests. If I am honest, it wasn’t entirely because of Chadwick either.”
Rose stared at him in stunned disbelief and watched his smile grow. She tried to be angry but didn’t know what to think. Unsure if she should trust him she studied him closely, but saw nothing but honesty in the somewhat adoring look he was giving her.
“Do you mean to tell me that I could have stayed at the ball and Chadwick might never have found me?” She asked weakly.
Barnaby coughed uncomfortably. “It is safe to say that I was more of a threat to Chadwick than you, and he and I knew it. He would have passed you off as a passionate entanglement and come after me if I had made my presence known to him.”
“But you carried me off into the night like a sack of flour. You got me shot at,” she cried.
“I realised that Chadwick had seen you, but other women in that ball were wearing dresses made of light material like yours. If I had altered your appearance slightly, which was entirely possible, and sat you with your relatives, you could have left that ball, gone home, and told the magistrate about what you witnessed in the morning. However, as soon as I saw you I knew that you weren’t likely to do that. Your curiosity got you into a difficult situation, Rose. If you had left that ball you would have been looking for Chadwick all the time.”
She tried to deny it but knew she would have done exactly that. Given what she witnessed, it was human nature for her to be wary about stepping outside again just in case the killer was still around. She would have been constantly checking if he was there, she didn’t doubt it.
“A man like Chadwick would not make mistakes. He would look for you. If you had been scared or worried and continually looking around you nervously when you left the ball he would have followed you home. I could have monitored your safe return home from a di
stance if I wanted to.”
“But you didn’t,” she finished for him.
Barnaby slowly shook his head. “Now, please understand me when I tell you that I am not in the habit of carrying home any stray female I come across, especially one who makes life difficult the way you do.”
“I think I was perfectly reasonable given what you expected me to do,” she protested.
Barnaby grinned. “I don’t think Chadwick knew what had hit him. He certainly has called in far more reinforcements than he usually would to try to get his hands on you.”
Rose stared at him unsure whether she should be offended or not. While it was immensely reassuring to know that he wasn’t angry with her she was at a loss to know what to do now.
“But you dragged me into the night without a care for my reputation,” she murmured.
Barnaby nodded. “I did. I think that I acknowledged then, deep down inside, that you were different to other women I have ever met. Most women would have stood on that balcony and screamed hysterically when they watched those two men being cut down like that, but you didn’t. You controlled yourself and dealt with the situation as logically as I would. Even when I appeared beside you, you were resilient and strong, and so damned beautiful that I spent more of my time focused on you than what was going on in the yard.” He shrugged and looked a little bashful. “It is why you had to come with me. Partly because I just can’t concentrate if I don’t know where you are and what you are doing at every given moment, but also because you were the only true witness to what went on in that yard. I can’t remember everything that happened because I was too busy watching you. Unfortunately, once I had you I realised that you were a very credible threat to my very existence. Everything that I have lived to do, everything that I have always been, was suddenly under threat. I became wary and tried to warn you against making me accept those changes but it was no use. It was too late. I was already in love with you, I just didn’t know it.”
“It is why you left the hut,” she whispered in complete understanding. “You didn’t want to acknowledge how you felt.”
“Feel,” he corrected her with a nod. “I began to suspect that I had fallen deeply in love with you even then. It stunned me because I had only just met you. I wanted to give you time to realise what you were letting yourself in for, but I also needed to give myself time to make sure that the way I was starting to feel wasn’t a figment of my imagination or something. It quickly became obvious that the feelings I have for you are real, and so I decided to make it clear that I am my work. I am not the easiest man to be around sometimes. My work can be harsh because we often deal with men like Chadwick. It is difficult to walk away and close it out when I do get the chance to go home.”
“Where is home?” she whispered.
“London.” Barnaby looked rueful. “It is why I want you to go there to see if you like it.”
Rose stared at him. Of all the explanations she had expected him to give she hadn’t anticipated this at all.
“You want to know where I am all of the time?” She frowned. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of that.
“I need you with me, Rose. All of the time. Here. Now, but also forever, and it has nothing to do with Chadwick.” Barnaby sighed and nodded to his colleagues who motioned to him that the guests wanted to get back into the carriage and be on their way. “I have to confess that I want you to feel as intensely about us as I do. I don’t want you to consider me as just someone who will protect you. I will, obviously, but I want you to see me as a man.” His eyes met hers. “I want you to see me as the man you can spend the rest of your life with and maybe one day, hopefully, love back just as much as I adore you.”
Rose blinked but couldn’t see much beyond the tears which overflowed and slowly began to trickle down her cheeks. She couldn’t speak because words failed her. It was all she could do not to sob like a baby. He had just handed her the world – a new world – her world and she was stunned. All she could manage was laughing sob as she launched herself across the carriage at him.
“I love you too,” she whispered as she peppered his face with kisses. She knew she was being terribly wanton but was helpless against the tide of emotion that flooded her to her very core. “I love you too,” she repeated over and over.
Humbled, and hugely relieved that she wasn’t furious with him for everything he had put her through, Barnaby hugged her tightly and returned the kiss.
He was busy assuring her of his need for her when a less than discrete series of coughs filtered through the carriage walls.
Barnaby looked tenderly at the woman in his arms. “We need to leave. I think the coachman is eager to keep to his schedule,” he murmured, suddenly eager to be on his way was well.
Before she could speak, Rose was swept out of the carriage and settled high atop a huge bay mare. To her surprise, Barnaby settled behind her.
“Am I not to ride my own horse?” she asked.
Barnaby grinned and looked down at her dress. “While wearing a dress like that you will have to settle to sharing with me.”
“I think I can manage that,” she murmured as she nuzzled closer. “Where are we going now?” she asked aware that Edinburgh was behind them somewhere, and Barnaby appeared to be heading in the opposite direction.
“London,” he whispered. “I want to go home. Not only so you can speak with Sir Hugo about what you saw Chadwick do, but so you can see where I live and decide whether you like it or not. If you don’t then we shall decide together where we want to live. First, though, we have a slight detour to make.”
Rose groaned. “Don’t tell me – another safe house.”
“You don’t like them?” He asked with his brows lifted.
“Well, the only one we haven’t been driven out of was barely habitable. It would be nice to stop in a house I don’t have to leave again within a day or so.”
“You need somewhere more permanent,” he murmured lovingly. “It can be arranged.”
“Can it?” she asked.
He grinned. “I work with the Star Elite. We can do anything.”
The only shadow lurking within her brilliant morning of happiness was the threat of the man they were trying to avoid.
“What about Chadwick?”
“He is being watched by my colleagues for now. It doesn’t matter how many more reinforcements he recruits, they will all be arrested before they can leave Edinburgh.”
There was an air of satisfaction in his voice that made her look at him. She knew there was more he wasn’t telling her but suspected it was best he didn’t tell her. What did matter was that he was there and cared just as deeply about her as she did about him.
“Do you think we will be alright?” she asked a little warily.
“What do you mean? Of course we will be alright. What makes you ask?” Barnaby murmured around the tender kisses he placed on her temple, cheeks and lips.
“Well, we hardly know each other. The first night we met I seemed to get on your nerves a lot,” she mused with a smile.
Barnaby boomed a laugh. “I have to confess that you were very vocal but then if some strange lunatic hauled me into the night I think I would protest as well. It wasn’t my best work, I can assure you.”
Suddenly, all humour vanished. He looked intently at her and waited for her to meet his gaze. “But then again, I think it was my best work yet,” he whispered.
Rose smiled at him. After several moments of contented silence she turned her attention to where they were.
“Just where are you taking me now?” she asked with a curious frown.
Barnaby lifted his brows at her and grinned. “Ever heard of Gretna Green?”
Rose pestered him for a little while but he adamantly refused to tell her what Gretna Green was. In the end she gave up. Whatever Gretna Green was, whatever was there, she knew this man beside her wouldn’t lead her into anything he wasn’t prepared to face with her. She trusted him – his strength, his judgement and yes, h
is honesty.
“Alright, Gretna Green it is,” she murmured only to squint up at him suspiciously when he began to laugh.
“What? What is it? Tell me,” she demanded, playfully whacking his arm.
“Gretna Green is a place where people get married. This is Scotland, Rose, where things are done a little differently to England. We can marry here without the legal requirements, broadsheet notices, or requisite waiting period England demands. I want you to marry me just as soon as we can get there.” He paused when his voice turned husky. “We should be there soon. Marry me and we can go to London together as man and wife. You can stay in my house there, with me, without risking censure from anybody because of anything we have done on this trip. You can then write to your parents and tell them that you ran away with me. With the protection of my name they cannot touch you, or demand your return. I shall, of course, countenance no support of them,” he warned.
“I don’t want you to,” she replied. “I have only just realised how sadly my life has been lacking of, well, life. I would be happy if I never went back to their house again.”
“So Gretna Green and then London it is?” He asked hopefully.
Rose saw the love that shone brightly in his eyes. Smiling softly she daringly leaned up and kissed him, right there and then in front of his colleagues, who whistled and cat-called in teasing celebration.
“Gretna Green and London it is,” she whispered; her cheeks aflame. “I love you, Barnaby. Whatever the future holds for us I know this is right. I don’t how I know, I just do. With you by my side I can face anything,” she assured him.
“Good, because I want at least three or four children and a big house in the countryside somewhere. I can change my work around a little so that I am not away from home for long periods of time, but I need to keep working with the Star Elite.”
“I know,” she replied tenderly. When he lifted his brows at her, she smiled in loving reassurance. “Having experienced first-hand just what kind of men you work to put behind bars I fully appreciate the need for the work you do. I don’t mind, really, because I have spent the majority of my life with my parents fending for myself. I shall wait for you to come back to me whenever you can.”