Read Online An Officer but No Gentleman by Bronwyn Scott - Free Book Online

followed. Elowyn eyed the gray sky. “Perhaps what I should be thinking about is where we’re going to shelter for the night. It looks like rain.” Again. There’d been plenty of rain on this trip and plenty of mud.
    “There’s a village five miles ahead if the last road sign is to be believed, but I don’t think the rain will hold off that long.” A fat, heavy drop fell on Grahame’s nose in concurrence. He wiped it away. “There was an abandoned barn a mile back.” He raised his dark eyebrows in question. “What do you think? The barn or the village?” The drops were starting to fall with more frequency. The village meant an inn, a dry bed. Elowyn curled her fist in her glove, feeling the press of the gold ring she’d worn on her fourth finger for the sake of validating Grahame’s presence in her room whenever they encountered inns. But they’d be soaked to the skin before they reached it. An abandoned barn wasn’t much better. It meant they were at nature’s mercy, dependent on the quality of an old roof. But there would be absolute privacy, a chance they would reach it and still be relatively dry. A barrage of cold raindrops decided it. “The barn.”
    The barn was in better condition than the last one they’d taken shelter in. The roof was tight and they were able to find a corner that wasn’t wracked with draught from the cold wind. Elowyn set up “house” as she privately liked to think of it. After multiple nights on the road, she had her routine. While Grahame settled the horses into the vacant stalls and searched out clean hay, she set up their belongings—their two tin cups and eating things, acquired along the road when it became apparent they wouldn’t always have an inn at their disposal. She went outside to gather firewood. There’d be a fire pit to make and food to lay out—cold meat pies from the little town they’d passed through that morning and a jug of ale.
    Elowyn shook out their blankets and reached for Grahame’s valise. He’d be wet when he came in and he’d want his dry shirt. Normally, his spare shirt was on top but today she had to hunt for it. There it was! Elowyn pulled out the shirt and a folded letter fluttered out, too. She bent to pick it up. The heavy paper felt expensive in her hand. She should let it be. This wasn’t her business but resisting curiosity had never been her strong suit.
    Elowyn opened the letter and read, her eyes drawn immediately to the letterhead at the top. The Spanish Riding School! And here she’d been worrying about a job for him. She read a little further, noting the date of the interview just three days away. Her mouth tightened into a grimace. The date explained the urgency both in London and in Dover. He couldn’t wait. He’d lose his chance.
    This was the reason he’d taken on the job of escorting her to Vienna. This was his secret. There was another secret, too, one that hit Elowyn full force with its layers of implications. He was staying in Vienna. The affair didn’t have to end when the road ended and yet he’d chosen to let her believe it would. They were just two days away from the completion of their journey and he’d not brought up any plans for future continuation. Worst of all, he’d known all along. It seemed patently unfair that he’d known from the start he’d be staying when she’d assumed the exact opposite. It just went to show how little she knew about him.
    In regular cases that would be fine. The less she knew about someone, the easier it was to control the relationship without emotional attachment getting in the way. But it hadn’t worked that way with Grahame and now she was standing in a leaky barn feeling betrayed. She had to be fair here. She’d broken her own rules and this was what she got for her efforts.
    Tears smarted in her eyes. There was only one reason why he hadn’t told her. He didn’t want to continue the arrangement beyond arrival. If he told her about remaining in the city, he