Lady Be Good (Wynette, Texas #2)(4)

“What’s this?”

He looked exasperated. “The key chain. You said you liked the cowboy.”

“The key chain was for you!”

“Now, why would I want a key chain with a cowboy on it when I’ve got a perfectly good Gucci in my pocket?”

He took off down the corridor, and she could have sworn she heard him whistling “Hail Britannia.”

Twenty minutes later, they were standing in the parking garage while Emma stared at his car in dismay. It was a large American luxury automobile, a late-model champagne-colored Cadillac Eldorado. “I can’t possibly afford this.”

He unlocked the trunk with a flick of his wrist. “Beg pardon?”

Emma did an excellent job managing St. Gert’s finances, but a poor one managing her own. Since the old buildings were expensive to maintain, there was never enough money, and when the school desperately needed a new copying machine or piece of laboratory equipment, Emma had developed the habit of dipping into her own pockets. As a result, she was operating on a tight budget.

She couldn’t quite hide her embarrassment. “I’m afraid there’s been some mistake, Mr. Traveler. I have a limited budget. When I told Francesca I could only afford to pay my driver fifty dollars a day, she indicated that would cover your services. But it can’t possibly be enough for the use of a car like this.”

“Fifty dollars a day?”

She wanted to believe her head was pounding from jet lag, but she’d always been a good traveler, and she suspected her headache came from frustration. Communicating with this gorgeous fool was more difficult than dealing with her slowest students. Not only did he move like a snail, but he didn’t seem to understand any of her instructions. Even after the incident with the key chain, it had taken her forever to get him to baggage claim.

“This is quite embarrassing. I thought Francesca would have discussed all this with you. You’re expecting more than fifty dollars, aren’t you?”

He lifted her two heavy suitcases into the boot with surprisingly little effort, considering that, only moments earlier, he’d acted as if carrying those same bags out to his car posed a major threat to his skeletal system. Once again, her eyes strayed to the well-developed muscles his T-shirt didn’t quite conceal. Wouldn’t a person actually have to expend energy to build muscles like that?

“I guess it depends on what all besides driving that fifty dollars is supposed to cover.” He took her carry-all and tossed it next to her suitcase. Then he regarded her handbag. “I’m surprised the airlines didn’t make you check that thing. Do you want it in the trunk, too?”

“No, thank you.” Her headache had traveled from her temples to the back of her neck. “Perhaps we should return to the terminal where we can sit down and discuss all this.”

“Too far to walk.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the trunk.

As she considered how much to tell him, she gazed at the cheery April sunshine outside the parking garage and thought what a contrast it provided to her dismal thoughts. “I taught history before I became headmistress at St. Gert’s, and—”

“Head Mistress?”

“Yes, and—”

“You really go around calling yourself that? A Head Mistress?”

“It’s what I do.”

He looked vastly amused. “For proper people, you British sure do have some racy job titles.”

If another American had twitted her about this, she would have laughed, but there was something about his manner that made her get as starchy as Helen Pruitt, the chemistry teacher. “Be that as it may . . .” She paused as the stuffy phrase echoed in her ears. She even sounded like Helen Pruitt. “I’ve spent the past year working on a paper about Lady Sarah Thornton, an Englishwoman who traveled through Texas during the 1870s. She also happened to be a St. Gert’s girl. The paper’s nearly done, but I need access to several of the libraries here to finish it, and since I have a break between the spring and summer terms, this seemed like a good time for the trip. Francesca recommended you as my guide, and she indicated that fifty dollars a day would pay for your services.”

“Services?”

“As my guide,” she repeated. “My driver.”

“Uh-huh. Well, I’m glad to hear that’s all you’ve got in mind, ’cause when you said services, I thought you might have meant something else, in which case fifty dollars wouldn’t nearly cover it.”

He still looked amused, although she didn’t understand why. “There’ll be quite a bit of driving. In addition to Dallas, I need to visit the library at the University of Texas, and—”

“Driving? That’s all you want.”

It wasn’t nearly all she wanted, but now wasn’t the time to mention that she would also need him to introduce her to the seamier side of Texas life. “It is a large state.”

“No. I meant no other services.”

“What other services do you offer?”

He grinned. “Tell you what. I’ll start you out with the basic package, and then we can talk about add-ons later.”

With her limited funds, she wasn’t comfortable with uncertainty. “I always think it’s better to clear up things right from the beginning, don’t you agree?”