Suzette immediately sighed into his mouth and slid her arms up around his neck, her body arching into his with a rather flattering eagerness. An eagerness borne of the belief that he intended to marry her, Daniel reminded himself grimly and was about to put an end to this when he was distracted by the door opening behind her.

Stilling, he opened his eyes and then almost sighed with relief when he spotted Richard in the open door and not someone else. The other man paused at once on spying them, but then just stood there looking unsure what to do. Deciding it would be better for everyone if Suzette didn’t realize they’d been discovered, Daniel waved him away. Richard hesitated another moment, but then apparently decided to trust him and backed silently out of the room, pulling the door closed again.

The moment Daniel heard the soft click indicating it was fully closed he broke their kiss and began trying to disentangle himself. “Suzette, we have to stop now. I should go. It’s not proper for me to be in your room like this.”

“Oh, but we have to discuss when we should do the deed, my lord,” Suzette protested.

Daniel had removed her hands from around his neck and was turning toward the window when she said that, but the words stopped him cold. The term “do the deed” immediately brought to mind a variety of images that he was sure she hadn’t meant. All of them included her naked and—

“It does not have to be right away this evening, but it does have to be soon. Father only has two weeks to repay the debt and I think it takes at least two days to get to Gretna Green and then only if you travel day and night. It may even be three days and nights.”

Daniel sighed. Of course she wasn’t talking about the deed he would prefer. She was talking about leg shackling him. He really needed to clear up this confusion about his presence meaning he intended to marry her. And then he had to get out of the house, find Richard, collect George and—The thought of George made him glance toward the window he’d tossed the man out of and Daniel’s eyebrows shot up as he spotted movement on the ground below. Leaning closer to the open window, he squinted into the darkness, just able to make out Richard down below, rolling George back up in his blanket.

“What’s that?”

Suzette was suddenly beside rather than behind him and he straightened at once and caught her arm to urge her away from the window, but she tugged at her arm and peered over her shoulder, craning her head to try to see.