Page 8 of Outrageous

Eva barely felt a twinge at his words. Barely. “And I think you really do have the death wish everyone says you do,” she countered. “Why else would you taunt a person holding a loaded gun on you?”

The carriage slowed abruptly and they both looked out the window. A wooden sign proclaiming THE CROWN AND ANTLER passed by the window.

He turned incredulous eyes toward her. “Good God. We’re on the bloody North Road.”

Eva felt a flicker of worry at his disbelieving tone and forced herself to swallow it. She probably should have kept him blindfolded, or at least tied up. Not that it really mattered if he knew where they were, she supposed.

The carriage rolled to a stop and a moment later a shadow fell across them and James’s face appeared in the window. His eyes went comically wide when they landed on the gun.

“Open the bloody door, James,” she ordered.

He hesitated, but then opened it the merest crack. Visel began to lower his hand from the strap.

“I don’t think so, my good man,” she said, turning the barrel toward him and gesturing upward. “Keep your hands up.”

James made a piteous noise. “Awww, Lady Eva, why’d you go and get out the gun?”

“Do you work for this woman?” Visel asked.

James’s eyes became—unbelievably—even larger.

He opened his mouth to speak but Eva said, “That is hardly any of your concern, my lord. James, fetch us some food while they change the horses.” She kept her gaze fixed on Visel.

“You are helping your mistress kidnap a peer, James. If you stop now, I might be able to put in a good word for you. But if you insist on—”

“Do as I say, James.” Her voice was sharper than she would have liked, but it spurred the huge young man into action. The door shut with a click and Visel turned back to her.

Eva sneered at him. “Perhaps the next time you think to enlist his help, you might wait until my back is turned, you—you bounder.”

He appeared amused, rather than affronted, by her insult.

“You might not care about your own neck, my lady, but it is ill done of you to expose a loyal servant to such punishment.”

Eva ignored the wave of guilt his words elicited. “Save your worry for your own neck, Visel. I shall take good care of James, don’t you fret.”

He leaned back against the squabs, his disconcerting eyes roving her person. “So, we are on the North Road. Let me guess, we are headed to Scotland? I am abducting you and whisking you off to Gretna Green.”

“What a clever man you are. Who would have ever guessed it after your stupid behavior this past Season?”

His smile was one of utter unconcern.

“Don’t worry, my lord, we won’t actually get there. I have even less interest in marrying you than you do in marrying me.”

“I doubt that.”

Eva glowered at him. “If that is true, then you’d better do exactly as I say and don’t draw attention to your predicament. If you behave sensibly, we can all get out of this without leg shackles of either the marital or legal sort.”

“And what are you going to do if I don’t behave? Are you going to stop somewhere along the way, knock me on the head, and get that big lummox to dig a hole for me?”

“You’d better mind your mouth, my lord. James may be a groom, but he is my friend and I value him far more highly than I do you. And you should also stop giving me good ideas—although I daresay I’d have you dig your own hole before I knocked you on the head.”

His eyes widened and then he laughed, a great, big belly laugh that must have hurt his aching head because he winced. Eva didn’t know what kind of response she’d expected to receive to her threat, but it had not been this.

“You should see your face,” he said, his words a mocking echo of her earlier words.

She frowned. “Why. What’s wrong with it?”

He leaned forward, his eyes suddenly hooded, his face slack and sensual. “Nothing, darling. Not a damned thing.”