Free The Second Seduction of a Lady by Miranda Neville Page A

I’d shown I was too young to be out so I was going to have to come back in again until next year. No trip to Bath and no more evening parties till we go to London. So we leave tonight for Gretna Green.
    Cousin Elizabeth hadn’t disappointed after all. She’d behaved with predictable narrow-minded stupidity and driven Caro to rebellion. With rising dismay Eleanor read her way through an account of the juvenile couple’s elopement plans to the sorry conclusion that proved Caro’s lack of readiness for marriage.
By the time you read this, I daresay I shall be married and should sign myself
    Caroline Townsend.
     
    P.S. Finally I’m leaving Somerset.
    P.P.S. I’m so happy!
    P.P.P.S. Love is delicious . You should try it.
    Eleanor tore upstairs and started packing. A decade of visiting all over England had given her an extensive knowledge of roads, distances, and travel arrangements, and a much better grasp of timing than Robert Townsend and his feckless friends. According to Caro, she and the four young men would travel first to Lord Kendal’s family estate to borrow a carriage. Eleanor had cast her eyes to the ceiling when she read that Robert lacked sufficient ready money to travel post all the way to Scotland. There was little chance they would arrive at the border for another two days. When they did, Eleanor intended to be there, to prevent this most disastrous of matches.
    “Off already, my dear?” was all Mr. Hardwick had to say when she went to his study, garbed for the road.
    “Caro needs me.”
    “The little girl? Did her foot get worse?”
    Explanation was futile. “I shall take the carriage to the Red Lion and engage a post chaise. I’ll write and let you know when to expect me home.”
    Unlike Robert Townsend, Eleanor always had a supply of guineas in the house, ready for a journey. Sixty-odd miles by post would be expensive and curtail the purchases she’d planned for her London wardrobe. Caro’s future was worth the loss of a gown or two.
    She entered the Red Lion Inn, where she was a frequent and well-respected customer. “Good morning, Clitheroe. I need a carriage. I’m going to visit my cousin near Carlisle.” No need to mention Gretna and give rise to undesirable speculation. And no need to explain the absence of a traveling companion. Her own standing in the county, her frequent travel, and advanced age should be enough to quell impertinent questions.
    “I’m sorry Miss Hardwick. You should have sent word,” the landlord replied. “This gentleman just engaged the last one.”
    She hadn’t even noticed the large figure lingering in the shadowy hall. “Good morning, Miss Hardwick. Fancy meeting you here.”
    She almost betrayed herself into expressing the moment’s joy she felt at seeing his reassuringly large figure. He’d come after her! “Mr. Quinton. What a surprise.”
    His expression conveyed no reciprocating pleasure. She’d never seen Max so grim.
    “You know this gentleman?” Clitheroe asked. “Happen he’s headed for Carlisle, too. Pity you couldn’t share the carriage but it wouldn’t be fit, what with you being alone without your maid.”
    “Certainly not.” So he hadn’t come to find her. In fact he must be on the same mission as she.
    “If you’re concerned with propriety,” he said curtly, “I can take you as far as the next change where you can hire your own chaise.”
    Clitheroe nodded at the happy solution and Eleanor had to admit it made sense. “Very well, Mr. Quinton. I accept your offer. I’m sure I can hire my own carriage at Burton.”
    The advantage of speed when traveling post was balanced by the cramped quarters offered by the light carriage. Especially when one had to share it with a large man with whom one was scarcely on speaking terms.
    She was the first to break a charged silence. “I take it we are on the same mission.”
    “Why else would I have undertaken a two-hundred-mile journey?” His voice was flat and brisk, quite unlike his