She knew she should have married Dover. At least he would have tried to help her with the bear. Mr. Dover would have—
She swallowed a sob. Poor Mr. Dover. He wouldn’t ever be helping any bears after this. And it was all her fault. How was she ever going to atone for that sin?
She’d only begun to imagine all the punishments she deserved when the carriage with Jack returned, this time pulling a cage on wheels behind it. Maddie stared at the cage, then broke into a huge smile.
The bear was inside. Jack had the bear!
The carriage door opened and Jack stuck his head out. “Get in before the owner changes his mind.”
Maddie scampered forward and jumped in. Jack rapped on the coach’s roof and they were off.
Her husband started to say something, to chastise her, she was sure, but Maddie didn’t let him say a word.
She climbed in his lap and kissed his frowning lips until, finally, he kissed her back.
“JACK, WE HAVE TO STOP in Carlisle,” Maddie said.
Snuggled on his lap, her face buried in his neck, she couldn’t see his scowl, but he made sure she knew about it. “No, we don’t,” he said. “We’re getting as close to London as we can before dark.”
He’d barely whisked the woman out of Gretna Green in one piece. He was not letting her free in Carlisle. Who knew what mischief she would find there?
Not to mention that he didn’t know if Bleven was still looking for them. Jack assumed the duke had returned to London after his defeat a few days ago, but he couldn’t be certain. He didn’t want to run into Bleven on the road in the middle of the night. He wanted to confront the Black Duke in London, when the time was right, and the advantage was his, not Bleven’s.
So they weren’t stopping in Carlisle. They’d travel as far as they could, and then he’d tuck Maddie away at an inn, where he could keep her safe for the night.
And where he could make love to her until dawn. He’d had her in the water and on the soft straw of the stable—she’d been too delicious to resist last night—but he’d never had her in a bed.
“I don’t want to stop, either,” Maddie said, interrupting his pleasant thoughts, “but Mr. Dover . . . ” She looked up at him, those big blue eyes full of unshed tears.
Oh, Jesus Christ! How was he supposed to fight against tears?
“I want to know what happened to him, Jack.
And if he’s—if he’s d-d—” She swallowed loudly. “—gone, I have to pay my respects.” She buried her head against his shoulder. “This is all my fault. I might as well have been the one who pulled the trigger.”
At least that’s what Jack thought she said. It was hard to understand her words under all the blubbering.
“You weren’t responsible,” he said, trying to sound reasonable. “Dover knew the risks.”
“You don’t understand, Jack. He didn’t want to marry me. I persuaded him.” She looked up at him again. “I can be very persuasive. Poor Mr. Dover. He never had a chance.”
Jack thought Dover was probably swayed more by Maddie’s good looks and ample charms than her rhetoric, but kept his opinion to himself. If she wanted to canonize Dover, he knew that arguing with her would only make him look bad.
“And he has two little children. Poor babies. How will they survive without him?”
“We don’t even know if Dover is dead,” Jack argued. “For all we know, your father missed.”
Maddie grabbed his coat and hauled herself up. “Do you think so? Really?”
The hope in her eyes undid him—more even than the tears.
Bloody hell.
“Fine. We’ll stop, and I’ll make inquiries about the professor. But you are to stay in the carriage. Understand? No bears—” He glanced at the bear ’s cage behind the carriage and rolled his eyes. “—no dogs, no bunny rabbits.”
Maddie nodded violently. “Stay in the carriage. I promise.”
Jack gave the coachman instructions to stop in Carlisle, outside the posting house. It wouldn’t be a total loss. While he made inquiries, they could change horses.
