4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

W ill swallowed his moan as his cock pulsed, cum spilling over his hand and onto his belly. His breath rasped in and out, and when the crisis finally passed, he dropped his head on the rolled-up coat he used as his pillow.

He hadn’t been able to keep Adelaide— Miss Kimball, you boorish oaf —out of his thoughts since she left his side. His subconscious had played a fiendish trick on him with a dream recreation of the scene in Adelaide’s book, although he somehow filled both male roles rather spectacularly. He’d taken himself in hand halfway through the night and again as the earliest light of dawn broke through the slats in the stable loft.

If she were merely pretty, he could put her out of mind. He had seen beautiful women before, but none who so perfectly fit the voluptuous ideal of femininity he’d first glimpsed in the art books his father kept in the vicarage library, hidden behind treatises on the Book of Lamentations. The Italian masters had known beauty when they captured it on canvas, and Will Shipley knew it when he saw her in the carriage.

But the way she’d spoken to him—his chest ached at the thought of it. No one ever treated him as though he were smart. Somehow, his profession precluded any semblance of intelligence on his part. But of course, he had ruined it by being so discombobulated by her brilliance and beauty that he’d stammered like a simpleton.

A clamor outside the stable burst through Will’s melancholy thoughts, and he rushed to clean himself up as he listened.

“Doc got here right quick, didn’t he?”

A rumble of assent was accompanied by hoofbeats, the sound of leather being unstrapped. “Aye, but a woman like that isn’t happy with a country doc. She’s callin’ for someone from London. ” The stable hand said the last like it was a slur, and the first man chuckled.

“Cor, if it’ll stop her from screaming—”

Will had already clamored down the ladder and dropped the remaining distance to land just behind the speakers. “Who is screaming?” he barked, and the men jolted as they spun around.

The one holding the reins flapped his gums like a fish, and the other swallowed hard before answering. “’Twere the rich lady you came in with. She was wailin’ half the night, she was.”

Will was running before he even made sense of the words, blasting through the stable and into the weak morning sun.

Adelaide had to be well, she had to be. The thought of her lovely face contorted in pain sent his insides twisting. He crashed through the front door of the inn and heard a plaintive sob coming from above. His stomach coiled and blood thrummed as he darted up the stairs, around the corner, and—

Almost slammed into Adelaide.

She shrieked as he grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling backwards, barely resisting the compulsion to wrap her in his arms. His ribcage unknotted, and he felt the most peculiar urge to laugh in relief. Their eyes held, and he thought he saw her lips twitch up at the edges.

But if Adelaide wasn’t ill, who was?

“Mrs. Bumbletwit,” she whispered, as though she anticipated his question. “She started griping hours ago, and it’s only gotten worse. The innkeeper summoned the doctor, but…” Adelaide winced as she trailed off, glancing through the open door into a bedroom that seemed to be the source of the cries.

“He’s a fraud, he is! A quack!”

Will stepped away from Adelaide as a gentleman carrying a dark leather medical bag stormed from the room and slammed his hat on his head. Mr. Bumbletwit followed close on his heels, shaking his fist. “A fraud! Won’t do a thing for my poor wife, wants to see her suffer!”

The doctor stopped in front of Adelaide and exhaled sharply. “The woman is suffering from kidney stones. Relatively harmless but painful. There is nothing to be done but keep her comfortable until they pass.”

Adelaide’s brows furrowed. “How long will that take?”

“A few days, perhaps as much as a week.”

“A week! ”

Mr. Bumbletwit drove his fingers through his thinning hair and bellowed like he was on stage on Drury Lane. “You’re leaving while my poor wife continues to suffer!”

The doctor shot the man a glare. “Good day, sir,” he ground out before departing for what Will hoped was a better end to the day than the start of it.

Adelaide stepped in front of Bumbletwit, stopping his wild pacing. “We can’t wait a week.”

Bumbletwit held his hands out to the sides. “I’m sorry, Miss Kimball, but I cannot continue, not when my wife is in such a grievous state.”

“The arrangement you made with my father,” she interrupted, her cheeks red, “was to have me at Barrington Hall by Friday. He won’t pay if you don’t get me there in time.”

Something unpleasant shifted in Will’s gut. “In time for what?”

Adelaide’s eyes lit up as they transferred to him. “ You can take me.”

Will shot a glance at Bumbletwit, whose expression similarly brightened. “I’m not going to Barrington, only Saltford.”

The man waved this aside like an errant insect. “Saltford is at least a day’s ride away. There must be a telegraph office somewhere nearby, and I’ll arrange for someone to take her the rest of the way.”

“Someone?” Nothing about this felt right, and he was ready to wrap Adelaide up and carry her away from this imbecile. “You know a reputable chaperone in Saltford?”

Another wave of his hand. “I know people everywhere, son, everywhere.”

“But I don’t—”

“Just get her to Saltford. I’ll have everything arranged when you get there. And I’ll give you this.”

He dug into his jacket and withdrew a heavy purse, then poured a handful of coins into his palm. Will’s breath caught.

“Aaah, now I have your attention.” Bumbletwit grinned as he made a show of dropping the money in Will’s waiting hand. When had he extended it? “There’s always a price. You seem like the honorable type, so I know you won’t toss her on the side of the road.”

Will attempted to object, but he couldn’t find words as his fingers wrapped around his sudden wealth. He would have taken her somewhere safe for nothing, but now a day’s drive would nearly double what he’d tucked away to start his new endeavor, his new life . But could he withstand her allure without a chaperone reminding him to keep his distance? His attention shot once more to Adelaide, who stared at him with wide, eager eyes.

“Miss Kimball,” he started, but she’d grabbed his hands.

“Please, I need—” She stopped, inhaled sharply. “It’s imperative I’m in Barrington by Friday, and I might not make it if we don’t leave now. Will you help me?”

He was treading into dangerous territory, traveling alone with such an entrancing, but unobtainable woman. But a day of restraint would bring him much closer to reaching his dream.

“I—yes, I’ll take her to Saltford.”

“Splendid.” Bumbletwit beamed, as though he hadn’t been bemoaning his lot in life mere moments earlier, and gave Will a nod before striding into his wife’s bedchamber like a man who had solved all of life’s problems.

Will dug his fingers through his hair, wondering if he would regret this decision. But he only needed to get her to Saltford, and the rest of his life would begin. Nothing on the road could possibly change his course.