Morrow Creek Runaway

“Today, for you, I’ll make an exception. Please.” Valiantly, Rosamond cast about for a proper inducement. Now that she almost had this man right where she wanted him—in a position to reveal whatever he knew about Miles—she didn’t intend to quit. “I have tea! You must be thirsty after your travels.”

His posture sharpened. “My travels?”

His wariness confounded her. “You’re carrying a valise.”

“Ah. Yes, I am.” He lifted it in a rueful gesture, his tense shoulders easing with the motion. “It holds everything I own, some of what I’ve borrowed and none of what I need.” His gaze shifted to her household, then arrowed in on her parlor doorway with no effort at all. “Right now, I need tea.”

That meant she’d won, Rosamond knew, and felt curiously buoyant. If she could not see Miles Callaway again, at least she could find out what had become of him. After all, she would likely not be the only one who’d left the Bouchards’ employ.

Miles, as she remembered him, had loved an adventure. He’d also possessed a lightheartedness she’d envied on occasion.

This man did not seem quite so sanguine.

But then, he wasn’t her Miles, was he? He couldn’t be. She and Miles were thousands of miles apart. Neither of them had the means to cross that distance. Rosamond herself had only done it through extraordinary and trying circumstances. It was preposterous to think that an ordinary stableman could have followed her this far—or that he would have wanted to.

All the same, he very much seemed to be Miles! Rosamond needed a closer and clearer look at him to know for sure. She intended to get herself that closer, clearer look at him, too.

Just to be on the safe side. Just to indulge her silly, woebegone sentimentality at this mysterious stranger’s expense.

“Excellent. Right this way.” Rosamond indicated the way forward, watching alertly as he preceded her.

She had not come this far by trusting lightly, though. Nor by skipping any of the necessary precautions. So she signaled for Seth to fetch Bonita, added an extra bit of cautionary instruction to her request for tea service and then joined her new guest in the parlor.

Chapter Three (#ulink_b53c9485-9e0f-56e6-9c09-e31c30a33f89)

Miles had never felt more jubilant in his life.

He’d found Rosamond. He’d found her. At long last, his Rose was seated directly across from him on her fancy upholstered armchair in her fancy Morrow Creek parlor, looking beautiful and pert and just a little bit thinner than he remembered her.

Worriedly, Miles examined her more closely. The experience jarred him. He’d never seen Rosamond in anything but a tidily pressed housemaid’s uniform and her requisite cap. While she’d lent a definite sparkle to those stiff and unbecoming duds, it was still odd to see her wearing a high-necked dress with a tight bodice and a full bustled skirt. Her gingery hair was a little more tumbledown than she probably intended it to be.

She seemed older. Wiser. Infinitely more cautious.

Also, she seemed, just then, to be distinctly blurry.

Confused, Miles blinked. He gestured at his teacup. Sitting on the polished tabletop before him, it was now empty of the sweetened hot liquid Rosamond had so adroitly served him earlier. He’d swilled it all in record time and then polished off a refill, too, unexpectedly dry-mouthed and in need of something to do to settle his big, restless hands.

“Is there any more tea?” he asked.

“There is. But I’m not sure you should have more. It seems to be affecting you quite strongly. More strongly than usual.”

Her words made sense, given how peculiar he felt. It was as if his head were floating a few inches above the rest of him. He hadn’t had enough ale at the saloon to be drunk. What was this?

The truth was, though, Miles felt too good to care.

Because he’d found Rosamond. She was all right. She was safe. Everything he’d done till now—everything—had been worth it.

“Looking at you, I feel like dancing a damn jig,” he told her. All three of her. “You’re well. I’m thankful.”

Thankful scarcely described the depth of relief he felt. He wanted to bawl at the depth of relief he felt. But a man did not weep. So Miles only uttered another grateful swearword, shaking his head in wonderment as he went on studying Rosamond.

If only she weren’t pretending not to know him...

“Hmm. Yes, I am well,” she said. “Given our situation, I’ll forgive you your coarse language just now, too. I can see the jubilation on your face.” She peered wistfully at him. “For a variety of reasons, I believe what you’re saying is true. I believe you are glad about something.”

Serenely, Rosamond folded her hands atop her skirts. Even while scrutinizing him as if he was her long-lost love, she seemed the very picture of ladylike decorum.

Miles told her so.

She smiled. “Thank you. You seem the very picture of someone I once knew. He was a stableman and driver in Boston.”

There was that disingenuousness in her again. It had begun when Miles had taken off his hat and coat, and hadn’t abated since. He didn’t like it. But two could play that game.

“Boston? Pfft.” He waved again. “The only good things in Beantown are rivers and bridges and a mother’s love.”

She seemed to find that amusing. “Then you’ve been there?”

“I’ve come from there. To find someone.”

“To find Miles Callaway, you said. The thing is, I am very struck by your resemblance to the Miles Callaway I once knew.”

Her tense posture suggested she didn’t trust that Miles Callaway. That’s why Miles didn’t own up to being himself straightaway. That and the tales he’d been told of Rosamond having visitors from her past hurled forcibly from her house.

Launching a scuffle with her security men would not endear him to her. Nor would being made to explain—too soon and in too much detail—exactly how he’d come to be there in Morrow Creek.

This was not the sort of reunion he’d been hoping for.

“Mmm. I reckon I have that kind of face.” He had the kind of face, it occurred belatedly to him, that felt weirdly numb. He stroked his bearded jaw, then cast a suspicious glance at his teacup. Rosamond’s tea had tasted strange, but he’d been too polite to say so. On top of his long travels and the ale he’d already consumed at Jack Murphy’s saloon, that tea had not done him any favors. He felt...odd. “So do you. You look a lot like a housemaid I once knew. Her name was Rose. My Rose.”

Her face swam in his vision, doubling and then coming clear again. Miles shook his head. He frowned at her “assistant,” Miss Yates, who’d helpfully taken his valise from him and was now rummaging through its contents. Vaguely, that struck him as inappropriate. He had the impression someone may have riffled through his pockets, too. That beefy kid, Judah, who’d roughly taken his hat and coat after he’d come in? Had the bastard tossed him?

Miles was usually much savvier than this. Clearly, seeing Rose again had done him in. Despite her attempts to persuade him otherwise—despite the cat-and-mouse game they’d been playing thus far—he knew she was Rose, too. Rosamond McGrath Dancy. In the flesh. In a pretty pink dress. Her freckles still enchanted him. So did the sound of her voice.

He felt desperate to touch her, to reassure himself she was real. But after what had happened between her and that knuck Gus Winston earlier, Miles knew better than to touch her. Also, he wasn’t sure he could stand up without toppling over. He might wind up facedown in her high-buttoned shoes.

Then it hit him. “You drugged me!” he accused.

Her virtuous demeanor didn’t waver. “I think the stableman I knew was a bit...taller than you, though. Better looking, too.”

“Better looking? Humph.” He was “better looking.”

“Yes.” Another assessing, faraway look. “For one thing, my Miles had shorter hair. He was also clean shaven.” She gave a dreamy sigh. “He always wore a clean, pressed uniform, too.”

She was goading him on purpose. He knew it. But her musings didn’t distract him overmuch. Partly because Miles knew damn well he was tall enough and “better looking” enough to suit any woman—especially one who’d haunted his thoughts for years.

Why hadn’t he told her before how he felt?

His beard and hair and clothes could be changed. Not that he truly believed Rosamond pined for braid-trimmed trousers and jackets with epaulets at the shoulders. Arvid Bouchard had dressed his staff in the most ostentatious livery possible.