Page 23 of How To Tempt A Bodyguard

Silence. He could feel her gaze, recalculating.

"That's not very gentlemanly," she said finally. "Turning it back on me."

"I’m not a gentleman."

"That’s obvious.” She leaned towards him a little. “I was making an observation."

"So was I."

Another pause. When she spoke again, her voice had lost some of its teasing edge.

"You're more difficult than I anticipated, Mr Collins."

"Thank you."

"I didn't say it was good."

"Didn't say it was bad either."

He heard her exhale. Something between a laugh and sigh.

"Three weeks," she murmured almost to herself.

"Three weeks."

The words hung between them. Not a promise. Not a warning. An acknowledgment that whatever this was, it wasn't going away. They'd both noticed. Neither knew what to do about it.

Matthew watched the clouds gather on the horizon and told himself it didn't matter.

Professional distance. That was what he needed.

Even if she was making it very, very difficult to maintain.

Chapter seven

Arrival at the Inn

Matthew

The rain caught them three miles from the village.

It came without warning. A cold, driving downpour that turned the road to mud within minutes. Matthew shouted for the driver to push on, but Cobb was already urging the horses faster, his hat pulled low against the deluge.

The carriage was enclosed, thank God, but the trunks were strapped to the roof and rear. Canvas sacking was over them, but canvas only did so much against this kind of storm. Matthew watched Mrs Archer's face as she listened to the rain hammer above their heads, knowing she was thinking about those trunks. Those three trunks in particular.

"They'll be soaked through," she said. Not panicked. Just stating fact.

"The canvas will hold for a while."

"Not long enough." She was already calculating. "If we stop at an inn, I can't leave them outside. Not overnight. Not in this."

"All seven?"

"The three that matter."

"Can you consolidate? Put what you need into one trunk?"

She hesitated. He could see her running through the contents in her head. What could be combined, what couldn't, how to keep the evidence together and accessible.