Simply Unforgettable Read Online Free PDF Page A

with unshaven jaws and chin and a voluminous nightcap—in the middle of the afternoon—peered out and bellowed something back.
    â€œTime to wade into the fray, I believe,” Lucius muttered, opening the door and jumping out into the knee-deep snow. “What is the problem, fellow?”
    He interrupted Peters, who was in the process of informing the man of his startling and quite uncomplimentary pedigree from his perch on the box of the carriage.
    â€œParker and his missus has gone away and not come back yet,” the man shouted. “You can’t stop here.”
    Peters began to give his unbidden opinion on the absent Parkers and on unshaven, bad-mannered yokels, but Lucius held up a staying hand.
    â€œTell me that there is another inn within five hundred yards of this one,” he said.
    â€œWell, there ain’t, but that ain’t my problem,” the man said, making as if to shut the door again.
    â€œThen I am afraid,” Lucius said, “that you have guests for the night, my fine fellow. I suggest that you get dressed and pull your boots on unless you prefer to do some work as you are. There is baggage to carry inside and horses to attend with more on the way. Look lively now.”
    He turned back to hand down Miss Allard.
    â€œIt is a relief at least,” she said, “to see your ill humor turned upon someone else.”
    â€œDo not try me, ma’am,” he warned. “And you had better set your arm about my shoulders. I’ll carry you inside since you did not have sense enough this morning to don proper boots.”
    She favored him with one of her shrewish glares, and it seemed to him that this time the reddened tip of her nose did indeed quiver.
    â€œThank you, Mr. Marshall,” she said, “but I shall walk inside on my own two feet.”
    â€œSuit yourself,” he told her with a shrug and had the great satisfaction of watching her jump down from the carriage without waiting for the steps to be set down and sinking almost to her knees in snow.
    It was very hard, he observed with pursed lips, to stalk with dignity from a carriage to a building several yards distant through a foot or more of snow, though she did attempt it. She ended up having to wade, though, and flail her arms in order to avoid falling after one inelegant skid just before she reached the door, which the nightcapped occupant of the inn had left open.
    Lucius grinned with grim amusement at her back.
    â€œWe picked up a right one there, guv,” Peters commented.
    â€œYou will keep a civil tongue in your head when referring to any lady in my hearing,” Lucius said, bending a stern gaze on him.
    â€œRight you are, guv.” Peters jumped down into the snow, looking quite uncowed by the reproof.
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    â€œIt looks as if I may indeed have my ale,” Mr. Marshall said. “And it looks as if you may have your tea if we can get a fire going and if there is tea hidden away somewhere in the kitchen. But I despair of my beef pie—and my suet pudding.”
    They were standing in the middle of a shabby, cheerless taproom, which felt no warmer than the carriage, since there was no fire burning in the hearth. The servant who had opened the door to them and then not wanted to allow them inside despite the inclement weather came lumbering in with Frances’s portmanteau and deposited it on the floor just inside the door together with large clumps of snow.
    â€œI don’t know what Parker and the missus will have to say when they hears about this,” he muttered darkly.
    â€œDoubtless they will hail you as a hero for hauling in extra business and double your wages,” Mr. Marshall told him. “You have been left here all alone over the holiday?”
    â€œI have,” the man said, “though they didn’t leave till the day after Boxing Day and they are supposed to be back tomorrow. They give me strict orders not to let no one in here while