The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(197)

"Aye, you're right as usual, wife."



She took his hand and trudged on. Yet after walking for some time, they had still found nothing.



"Those clouds look pretty ominous," Will said with a grim glance over his shoulder. "We really need to find shelter, Elizabeth."



"Where's a good cave when you need one?" she said with a pert smile.



He wrapped his arms more tightly around her and they struggled up the road against the battering wind for another five minutes until he pointed.



"Look, a slate roof. Over there."



"Good."



"Can you make it, or do you want me to carry you?"



She laughed and shook her head. "I've never felt better."



Another five minutes brought them to a curious low-roofed structure in the shape of a triangle. Will wrapped on the wooden door in the middle of one wall and waited.



They looked at each other and he tried again.



"Do we dare go in?"



By way of answer, hail began to pour down out of the sky.



Will swung open the door in an instant and ushered his wife in hurriedly. They ran over to the hearth, and warmed themselves, listening to the hailstones pound on the roof overhead.



"Just in time. I hope they don't mind--"



"I'm sure they'll understand, given the weather. They probably headed out for a visit or something and got caught themselves,and decided to stay wherever they were to wait until the storm passed."



She shook out her coat and bonnet, watching the hailstones bounce and hiss into the fire. She would have run her fingers through her hair, but halted as she felt the mere stubble from where they had had to shave her head after her accident.



Will caught her chagrined look, and kissed her on the bristles. "It will grow again, and you've never looked more lovely to me than you do now, alive and well, and all the secrets of the past put behind us."



"Thank you, darling."



When they were warm they decided to explore the hut further. It was much larger than at first glance from the outside, and there was a water pump and tub and sink in one corner, next to the long wall which held the fireplace.



Opposite the fire was the table, and adjacent to it a surprisingly clean and comfortable looking feather bed. There was a goodly spread of food on the table, including fresh bread, meat and cheese, honey and wild strawberry preserves, with freshly churned butter and cream. On the hearth a pot was simmering gently over a peat fire.



Will lifted the lid of the cauldron carefully.



"Mmm, rabbit stew. It smells divine."



"It does. And look, some wine, ale, and water."



"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm famished." He clinked a generous number of gold coins down upon the table. "Whoever lives here must have got called out into the fields for an emergency. But I'm sure he'll understand two weary and hungry travellers needing to take their ease."



She took the two pewter charges from off the table where they had been set.



"Two people live here. Two plates," she noted.



"Two brothers? Both farmers out trying to cover their potato drills or something, perhaps, or tend to the livestock before the storm hit?" he guessed aloud as he stirred the pot.



"We'll leave enough for them to have something if they come back."



"Aye, there seems to be plenty."



He ladled the hot food onto the pewter dishes she had brought over, then removed their damp cloak and coat to spread them in front of the fire to dry.



He banked up the fire from the full creel of turf which was sitting nearby the hearth, and joined her at the table. They said Grace, and Will made his usual toast.



"Don't you save that for special occasions?"



"Your birthday is one. And so is All Hallow's Eve, of course. We need to go to Church tomorrow to remember the souls of the dead."



She nodded. "Aye, indeed. And to thank the powers that be for all our blessings."



He kissed her hand and they turned their attention to the meal.



"My, this is delicious," she said after her first bite.



"I never had anything this good in all my time on the Continent," Will agreed.



They ate hungrily for some time. When his plate was clean, he looked at the pot hopefully.



"Any more?" he asked.



"I think we can manage and still leave them a goodly portion."



She ladled out two more portions, and they ate bread and cheese and roast beef, and had the honey and jam on another slice of bread each.



"More wine?"



"Yes, please, seeing as it's my birthday."



They listened to the hail thrumming on the roof. Thunder rumbled overhead, and they could hear a sharp crackle of lightning nearby. "I hope they people who live here are all right. And our driver and the horses."