Honeymoon from Hell IV (8 page)

“G-get out,” Mr. Bridgett all but
whispered as he took a healthy step away from Robert until he had a
small tavern table between them with his sister by his
side.

“Just as soon as you tell me where my
wife is,” he drawled, giving the man’s sister a look that told her
that she should count herself lucky that he didn’t hit
women.

“She’s in the back doing the dishes,”
she said in a stern voice that obviously expected to be
obeyed.

Giving the brother a pitying look,
Robert walked past them and headed towards the back hallway, and
found his wife, perhaps one of the strongest woman that he’d ever
met, sobbing quietly as she stood there sadly scrubbing a cracked
plate clean.

It was just….

The saddest thing that he’d ever
seen.

She just looked so helpless and sweet
standing there, silently sobbing as she continued to try and wash
the crack away, making him wonder just how long it had been since
she’d slept. When her bottom lip quivered as a tiny little sliver
broke free from the crack and hit the floor without a sound, he
just couldn’t take it anymore.

It was just so damn sad….and so damn
cute…

He knew that his wife’s near breakdown
was serious and that he really shouldn’t really find anything cute
about this, but damn if that little lip quiver didn’t have him
biting back a smile and making him forget that he wanted to wring
the neck of the inn keeper and his greedy sister.

Almost.

Sighs, another sliver fell to the
ground, earning another lip quiver and a little sniffle that had
him shaking his head and walking over to his wife, who was quietly
sobbing over an old cracked plate. Shaking his head, wondering why
he hadn’t put a stop to this sooner, he gently took the plate away
from Elizabeth’s trembling hands and set it on the counter. He
pulled her into his arms.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he
promised her as he pressed a kiss to the top of her
head.

Although she did nod in agreement as
she grabbed onto his coat and buried her face against his chest,
something told him that she had no clue what he’d just said. It was
just another sign that he should have put an end to this
sooner.

Taking care of twin boys, cooking,
cleaning, taking on sewing and other chores to help make extra
money for them as well as taking care of the gardening was too much
for any one person to handle. He’d pointed out that she was doing
too much in the past, but every time he voiced his concern it was
met with a stubborn glare as she took his words as a challenge to
do more.

He’d been too damn exhausted to argue
with her and to be honest, he hadn’t wanted to fight with her.
Things were going so well between them that he hated risking saying
or doing anything that would destroy this beautiful truce between
them. He liked having his minx in his life and would do whatever it
took to keep her there, even keep his mouth shut when he knew that
she was pushing herself too damn far.

That all ended today.

*-*-*-*

“Do you want to stop for a bit?” Robert
asked softly even though he was already leading her towards a copse
of trees and gesturing for her to have a seat on one of the rotted
logs blocking what appeared to be a well-worn path.

“I-I’m fine,” she thought she may have
mumbled, but to be honest, she was too tired to know what she was
saying or doing. The only thing that she was sure of was that her
hands hurt, her legs and feet were sore, she was starving and she
was so tired that just the thought of taking one more step made her
want to cry.

God, she couldn’t keep doing this for
much longer, but she knew that she didn’t have a choice if they
were going to make it home before midnight. She just needed a
break, just a small one, and she would be okay.

“Why don’t we just sit down here for a
few minutes, hmm?” he asked in that tender voice that he’d been
using on her since he’d found her standing in the kitchen,
struggling to hold it together and wondering why she couldn’t wash
the crack in that poor plate away.

“Close your eyes, minx,” Robert said
seconds later as she felt his large arm wrap around her and pull
her closer.

She wanted to argue with him, to remind
him that they needed to start moving again, but sometime between
the time that they’d sat down and the time he’d put his arm around
her, her eyes had shut of their own accord and her head had somehow
found its way onto his shoulder where it was more than happy to
stay.

“Relax, sweetheart,” he said in that
damn soothing tone that she just couldn’t resist.

Well, she did try to resist, but he
just felt so incredibly comfortable and she was so tired that she
really couldn’t help but take him up on his offer. Just for a few
minutes, she decided as she found herself curling up against him,
savoring the irresistible warmth that emanating from
him.

He felt so good, she had to admit as
she reached up and gently gripped the lapel of his coat, promising
herself that it was just for a few minutes. She just needed a few
minutes and she’d be good. Just a few minutes…

“Morning, minx,” that incredibly sexy
voice that she loved said what felt like seconds later. “It’s time
to get going.”

Unable to give him the proper response
that he deserved, she settled for grunting her displeasure, shoved
away from the warm body that she normally loved to curl up against,
and rolled over onto her side, taking the coat that smelled like
Robert with her and snuggled against the rotting log, uncaring that
it smelled or that it was probably covered in bugs. She was just
too tired to care.

Later, she would care, but for right
now she was just going to enjoy Mother Nature to its fullest and
return to that wonderful dream where she never had to leave her
bed. It was the best dream she’d ever had and one that she hoped
would one day come true. Perhaps today? she hoped with a small sigh
and a sleepy little smile as she prepared to return to that
beautiful dream.

The warm chuckle was not appreciated
when the coat that she’d been snuggling up with was suddenly
removed, leaving her at the tender mercy of the cold damp ground.
Refusing to accept that her short reprieve was really over, she
snuggled in closer to the rotten log, pretending that the small
pile of leaves rotting beneath her head was her favorite pillow and
that she was back home in her warm, comfortable bed.

“Are you hungry?” Robert asked, for
some reason sounding amused as he gently ran his fingers through
her hair, pausing every few seconds to carefully pull at something
and earning a groan of displeasure as she turned back over and
tried to go back to sleep, but Robert wasn’t having it.

“Are you hungry?” the persistent
bastard asked, earning a growl of warning, but unfortunately for
her, it came out as more of a whimper and a pathetic moan more than
anything.

“No,” she groaned, pulling her arms up
over her head to protect her poor eyes from the early morning
sunlight threatening to destroy her and her illusion of comfort
even though she probably was starving.

Actually, there was no probably about
it. She was starving simply because she’d refused to be stuck
working at that inn until the end of time paying off their debt.
She’d made sure that Robert was fed and got what he needed, but
she’d refused to be worked like a dog over a bowl of porridge. She
wasn’t the weak English woman that they’d taunted her for being.
She was strong, independent and could take anything that they’d
dished out to her because-

“You have a spider in your hair,”
Robert said, interrupting her inner monologue of triumph and
determination and reducing her to a hysterical woman, screaming
like a lunatic as she jumped to her feet and ran blindly through
the woods, not really caring about where she was going or that she
kept running into branches, tripping over her own two feet or the
fact that Robert had fallen to his knees, barely able to breathe
because he was laughing so hard.

Oh, but once she’d made sure that the
spider was dead and gone, she would care…

And so would her insensitive
husband!

Chapter 8

“You’re going to catch pneumonia,” he
absently pointed out with a chuckle when his incredibly beautiful,
and extremely angry, wife shot him a look that should have
rightfully killed him on the spot.

Then again, he had absolutely no doubt
that the little minx was planning on beating him to death once she
was done with her impromptu dip in the pond. Not that she’d
consciously made the decision to take a bath after her mad dash
through the woods when he’d foolishly mentioned the tiny spider
crawling on a strand of her hair.

He should have remembered that time
when they were kids and a spider had fallen from the ceiling during
tea, landing on her arm, making her scream her little head off and
admittedly scaring the hell out of him…

That is until he realized what happened
and started laughing and hadn’t been to stop without the help of
his mother shooting him a glare that had quickly helped him regain
control. Unfortunately for him, his mother hadn’t been here to help
him this time and he’d wound up laughing his ass off at his wife.
Now, in his defense he’d tried, God, how he’d tried, to stop
laughing, but every single time he thought he had it under control,
she would scream hysterically when a leaf brushed her hand, or when
she swatted blindly at her tangled hair, twigs, a squirrel that had
made the mistake of coming down a tree to get a closer look at the
mad woman screaming and running blindly through the woods, tripping
over her own two feet every few seconds until she finally stumbled
through the woods, slipped on a patch of mud, tripped over her
skirts and did a nose dive into the pond.

That’s when he’d stopped laughing and
moved his ass to save his bride, but it was too late by then. Not
only had she’d seen him laugh, but she probably also blamed him for
the spider. Again, he considered pointing out that it was a very
tiny spider, barely big enough to hold on to a strand of her hair,
but he knew better. She was exhausted, hungry, humiliated and
pissed and he was the reason why.

So, to make sure that he didn’t make
this any worse, he planned on standing here, guarding his wife and
waiting for her to calm down. It also didn’t hurt that he was
safely out of her reach here or that her aim was off when she was
pissed, otherwise he’d probably be covered in mud balls and have
welts covering him from head to toe from all those rocks she seemed
to find at the bottom of the pond every few seconds and liked to
throw in his direction with a murderous glare.

“We are not speaking,” she reminded him
with that same frightening glare as she stopped trying to clean her
tangled hair in the dark murky water and returned her attention to
finding another rock to chuck at him.

“Why not?” he asked innocently, simply
because seeing her this pissed off at him was entertaining
him.

It probably shouldn’t, not with the
truce they’d agreed on, but God, it just made his day to see her
this riled up and angry with him. She’d always entertained him and
he was glad to see that would probably never change, especially
since the angrier that she got with him, the worse her aim became.
Christ, he’d lost count of how many times that simple fact had
saved his ass over the years.

Her beautiful eyes narrowed to slits as
she reached down, grabbed another handful of mud and rotten leaves
and chucked it in his direction. It landed five feet away, landing
harmlessly between two trees and scaring the hell out of a couple
of birds. A little muscle beneath her eye ticked as she blindly
reached for another handful of mud.

“I hate you!” she snapped, tightening
her hold around the handful of mud and rotted leaves she’d managed
to scoop up.

He opened his mouth, admittedly to
taunt her just a little more, when something about that handful of
mud caught his eye. He shut his mouth, swallowed hard and moved to
go to her, but unfortunately for him, at that same moment, his
beautiful, brave wife realized what she was holding and
promptly…

Passed out.

*-*-*-*

“Don’t open your eyes!” Robert, her
normally levelheaded, calm and extremely rational husband snapped,
sounding somewhat hysterical and bringing up her level of terror to
a whole new level she’d never thought possible.

“Are they gone?” she whispered, almost
too afraid to say it any louder, terrified that it would either
make her pass out again or vomit, because if she thought about what
she’d seen for even one second, she would probably lose
it.

Kind of like the way that Robert was
apparently losing it right now.

She’d known him since she was a baby
and she’d never seen him like this, heard terror in his voice
before and considering everything that she’d done to him over the
years, that was-

Actually, not a very comforting
thought, because she’d done some really disturbing and mean things
to him over the years. Never once had he reacted like this before
and honestly, she prayed that it never happened again.