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At midday the coach stopped at an inn where a new team would be put to, in preparation for the next stretch of road Groaning in relief at the prospect of a brief respite, the passengers poured out of the vehicle and into the tavern

Catherine carried her tapestry carpetbag, afraid to leave it in the coach The bag was a weighty affair containing a nightgown, undergars, an assortment of combs and pins and a hairbrush, a shawl, and a voluminous novel with a uaranteed to entertain Miss Marks without iible BH"

The inn appeared moderately well appointed but hardly luxurious, the kind of place that stablelanced disconsolately at a wooden yard wall covered with posting bills, and turned to watch a pair of ostlers change the tea at the side of the carriage yard as she felt a rustle of independenthad shifted around … it waswas alive in there

Her heartbeat beca of s water "Oh no," she whispered Turning to face the wall, trying desperately to keep the bag out of view, she unlooped the fastener and opened the bag a mere two inches

A sleek little head popped out Catherine was aghast to behold a fa whiskers

"Dodger," she whispered The ferret chattered happily, the corners of his hty boy!" He"What a his head back down into the bag, she stroked him to keep him quiet There was no choice but to take the dratted creature all the way to London, and give hi until he could be returned to Beatrix

As soon as one of the ostlers shouted, "All ready!" Catherine went back into the coach and settled the carpetbag at her feet Opening the top once er, as coiled in the folds of her nightgown "Be quiet," she said sternly "And don’t cause trouble"

"I beg your pardon?" cae, her hat plunation

"Oh,to you," Catherine said hastily "I was … lecturing myself"

"Indeed" The woman’s eyes narrowed as she plopped into the opposite seat

Catherine sat stiffly She waited for a telltale rustling of the carpetbag or a betraying noise However, Dodger remained quiet

The h, mounded shelf of her bosoain

Perhaps this wouldn’t be difficult after all, Catherine thought If the woentlegle Dodger to London unnoticed

But just as Catherine allowed herself to teeter on the brink of hope, the entire situation went tuer poked his head out, surveyed his interesting new surroundings, and slithered fro Catherine’s lips parted in a silent cry, and she froze with her hands arrested in midair The ferret ran up the upholstered seat to thehat A nibble or two, and his sharp teeth had severed a cluster of artificial cherries from the hat Triumphantly he scrambled down the seat and leaped into Catherine’s lap with his prize He did a happy ferret war dance, a series of hops and wriggles

"No," Catherine whispered, grabbing the cherries froer protested, squeaking and chattering

The wo irritably at the noise "Wha … what…"

Cat went still, her pulse thundering in her ears

Dodger streaked up around Cat’s neck and hung li to repress a burst of deaze arrowed to the bunch of cherries in her lap "Why … why, those are fro to steal those while I was napping?"

Catherine sobered immediately "No, oh no, it was an accident I’m so--"

"You ruined it, and this was my best hat, it cost two pounds and six! Give it back to led sound, her er leaped to Catherine’s lap, seized the cherries, and disappeared into the safety of the carpetbag

The wo the coach in a full-rigged tumult of skirts

Fivehad been unceree of the carriage yard, assaulted by a concurrence of strong s queasily with scents of cookedfro Catherine’s outraged protests

"But I paid to go all the way to London!" she cried

"You paid for one passenger, not to passengers get half the journey"

Incredulously Catherine looked fro in her hand "This is not a passenger!"

"We’re a quarter hour behind ti his elbows and cracking the whip

"He’s not et to London?"

One of the ostlers replied implacably as the coach set out "Next , miss Maybe they’ll let you and your pet ride up top"

Catherine glared at him "I don’t want to ride up top, I paid to ride inside, all the way to London, and I consider this a for?"

The ostler, a young ht ask if there’s a rooh they probably won’t take kindly to guests with rats" He looked beyond her as another vehicle caet thron by the carriage"

Infuriated, Catherine sto, where Dodger was playing with the cherries Was it not enough, she thought in frustration, that she’d just had to leave a life she had loved, that she’d been through an entire night of nearly ceaseless crying and was now exhausted? Why had an unkind fate also seen fit to deposit Dodger in her care? "You," she fumed aloud, "are the last feather that broke the horse’s back You have plagued arters, and--"

"Pardon," came a polite voice

Catherine looked up with a scowl In the next moment she swayed, her balance momentarily off

Her thunderstruck eyes beheld Leo, Lord Ramsay, who looked amused He kept his hands tucked in his pockets as he approached her in a relaxed stride "I’age?"

Despite the negligence of hiscareful inventory