“And we got lost,” she added in a mumble.
“Did you? That must have been interesting.”
“Not in the least.”
“You got lost because of the snow covering the road up here?”
“No, that was the only thing that got us here. We finally found wagon ruts left in the snow and followed them. But I assumed your driver had been here before. Only after he got us lost did he admit he hasn’t worked for you for very long and he’s never been this far north in his life. The odious fellow could have said something about that sooner.”
“Most of my servants are new, Mandy. I didn’t retain too many of the old ones when I left for Europe. Now how did you find out I was here?”
“I assumed you went home to Norford Hall. I sent your footman there to find out what was keeping you, and he came back to say you didn’t go home a’tall after Summers Glade, that you sent them word that you were coming here instead. I couldn’t believe it. Why would you come here, of all places, and at this time of the year?”
He shrugged. “Why not?”
“But you’re missing the Season!”
He chuckled at her. “I could care less about the Season. You’re the one looking for a good matrimonial match, not I. Did you find one yet?”
She made a look of disgust. “No. Half the men I’m interested in barely notice me.”
He laughed. “What a whopper!”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence, but it’s quite true. All they want to do is talk about that haughty Ophelia Reid and ask if I know why she hasn’t returned to London yet. It didn’t take long a’tall for the news to reach town that she didn’t marry Duncan MacTavish after all. Do you know why?”
“They decided they wouldn’t suit” was all he was going to say about that.
“That is so disappointing.”
“Why?”
“Don’t be obtuse, Rafe. Obviously because now she’s back in the competition again and there aren’t that many perfect men to go around, you know.”
He grinned at her reasoning. “Does your husband have to be perfect?”
“No, of course not—well, a little. But I’ll be second in line now, with her shopping for a husband again.”
“Vanity and jealousy in the same breath. Shame on you, Mandy.”
She blushed. “Don’t tease. We’re discussing the rest of my life here.”
“No, we aren’t, we’re discussing your impatience. If you’d just relax and enjoy your first Season in London, the right man for you will come along before you know it.”
“And fall in love with her instead,” she said in a petulant mumble.
“You really are jealous, aren’t you?”
She let out a long sigh. “I can’t help it. Good God, she’s so beautiful she glows with it. It’s bloody well blinding!”
He choked back the laugh that that comment elicited from him and merely said, “I quite agree.”
She blinked, then narrowed her eyes on him. “Don’t you dare say you were smitten too.”
“Not a’tall.”
“Good, because she’s not a nice woman, you know, certainly not nice enough for you. She’s vain and snide and too proud for her own good.”
“Is that the current gossip making the rounds?” he asked curiously.
“No, the only gossip about her right now is that she’s back on the marriage mart and has delighted so many men because of it. That was my own observation from when I met her at Summers Glade. You know she had the nerve to tell me I was wasting my time there? She wasn’t even reengaged to MacTavish yet when she said it. She was just positive that he would take her back.”
“As it happens, you were wasting your time there. Duncan was already in love with his neighbor Sabrina. It just took him a while to realize it.”
“Well, good for him. So that’s why he and Ophelia broke it off again?”
“Part of it. But getting married was never their own idea, it was arranged by their families, so they were both glad to find a way out of it. Now, remove your coat, have a spot of tea, then go home.”
“Don’t be a bore, Rafe. Did you forget you invited me to spend the Season with you?”
“Not here.”
“No, course not.”
“And not even with me,” he corrected. “The invitation was for you to use my town house, since Father doesn’t keep a house in London. I didn’t mean that I’d be spending the Season there with you.”
“Well, I like that!” she huffed. “I assumed you would be there. I’ve missed you. You were away on the Continent for nearly two years. I thought you’d want to spend some time with me, now that you’re back.”
“And I will, when I return to London.”
“But when are you coming back? You still haven’t said what you’re doing here, of all places.”
“It didn’t occur to you that I might be here with a guest?”
She blanched. “Good God, I never thought! I am so embarrassed. I’ll leave at once—as soon as I warm up.”
“Good.”
“Good? You aren’t going to try to convince me to stay—at least the night?”
“Not a’tall. It’s early enough for you to reach an inn before dark.”
She sighed as she finally removed her coat and joined him on the sofa. She took a small pile of letters out of her pocket and handed them to him.
“I brought your mail, in case any of it was important.”
“You mean you were hoping there was an invitation to a party here that would interest me.” He glanced briefly through the letters. Only the one from Ophelia’s father interested him. He opened it and quickly read exactly what he’d expected.
“That too,” Amanda agreed, then got right back to the previous subject. “And it’s not that early, you know. The inn I used last night is a good six hours from here.”
He glanced back at her to point out, “You got lost, remember?”
She sighed again. “Very well, four hours from here. But it will be close to dark by the time I get there. I’d as soon get an early start in the morning. And who is she? Anyone I know?”
She tossed out those last questions abruptly, hoping to catch him off guard, no doubt. It didn’t work. And he could only hope that Ophelia wouldn’t pick that moment to make an appearance.
“Yes, you know her, and, no, you can forget about finding out who she is. That, m’dear, is none of your business. But it’s not what you’ve just assumed. I’m not having a lovers’ tryst here.”
“Oh, certainly,” she said doubtfully. “You come to a place with a woman that’s so remote it could be in another country, but it’s all perfectly innocent?”
“Exactly that. Aunt Esme is even here to make sure of it.”
“She is?” Amanda exclaimed in delight. “Wonderful, I haven’t seen her in ages! You really have to let me stay now and visit for a few days.”
“You saw her just two months ago at father’s birthday party. And, no, you’re not—”
He broke off, staring out the window. He’d had his nose in a book before Amanda walked in, so he hadn’t seen her coach arrive, but he had no trouble seeing it leaving now.
“Tell me you aren’t up to tricks, Mandy, to force me back to London? Did you send my coach home?”
She huffed indignantly at his accusing tone. “When I’ll be riding back in it? Certainly not.”
“Bloody hell,” he said as he shot off the sofa.
Chapter Seventeen
O PHELIA WAS SO NERVOUS WONDERING if she’d made good her escape that it was quite a while later before she noticed how cold it was in the coach. Finding nothing but cold ashes in the brazier wasn’t alarming, but after a quick search under the seats and even inside one that lifted up, she was definitely disturbed. Not a single chunk of coal to be found anywhere in the coach.
There was a lap robe. Small consolation but she quickly curled into it. Would that be enough? Not to make her comfortable, but it would have to do. The driver had even les
s warmth, she reminded herself, so she could withstand a little cold. And she didn’t need to tell him to hurry. She’d made it perfectly clear that haste was imperative.
She still couldn’t believe that she was actually on her way home! But the immense satisfaction and triumph she was feeling had nothing to do with going home, and everything to do with the simple fact that she’d outwitted Raphael!
She had come downstairs and heard the voices in the parlor. She’d almost entered the room, sure that it was Raphael’s sister’s voice she was hearing, not his aunt’s. A stroke of luck made her pause long enough to realize that if his sister was there, she had to have come in a coach, and that the coach might be right outside, still hitched to its horses, and providing her with a means of escape.
Getting past the open parlor door to find out wasn’t a chance she could take though. Nor could she leave as she was, wearing no more than her day dress. So she’d run back upstairs for her coat and reticule, then raced down the servants’ back staircase, hoping to find Sadie in the kitchen. No luck there and she had no idea where her maid might be at this time of day. Such a dilemma! Should she look for Sadie and risk losing the opportunity to leave, or leave without her, feeling reasonably certain that Raphael would make sure that Sadie got back to London.
There really was no choice to make. This was her only chance to get away from this place, and it wasn’t even a certainty yet that she could. She had to act at once, before the horses from the new coach were led away to the stable as the others had been.
She slipped through the kitchen and out the side door while the cook was busy rummaging about in the pantry. And just in time! The new coach was just now being driven across the side path toward the stable.
She hadn’t realized it was snowing again, but it was, lightly. The previous snow had been melting before the temperature dropped again, so there was now ice too to contend with, but not enough to change her mind.
“Wait up!” she’d called to the young man on the driver’s perch.
He heard her and stopped. He even hopped down to the ground as she hurried toward him, trying not to slip on any ice under the newly fallen snow. He would probably have doffed a cap if he’d been wearing one, instead of a bunch of woolen scarves under the hood of the extra cloak he had on. His expression was typical of most men who saw her face for the first time—dazzled and incredulous at what he was seeing.
And to keep him that way, she gave him her most brilliant smile. “I need someone to drive me back to London. Would you be able to help me?”
It took the young man nearly a full minute to recover from his bedazzlement. She only had to repeat herself once.
He finally frowned regretfully and said, “I don’t think I can do that, ma’am, not without Lord Locke’s permission. This here is his coach.”
“What’s your name?”
“Albert, ma’am.”
“Will twenty pounds change your mind, Albert?”
He winced. “That’s a lot o’ coins to a bloke like me, but it’s sure to get me fired or tossed in gaol if I take off with this coach.”
Her impatience was rising. She didn’t have time to cajole him. At any moment, Raphael might show up, and then she wouldn’t be going anywhere.
“You wouldn’t be arrested,” she assured the fellow. “I can promise you that.”
He was still frowning regretfully. “I brought his sister here. She’ll probably be returning home in a few days. She’s a nice lady. She’d let you join her for the ride, I’m sure.”
“That won’t do. I need to leave immediately. Fifty pounds!”
“I don’t like this job much,” he admitted. “Took it in the summer when it weren’t so bad. Now I find I’d rather be working indoors this time o’ year. But fifty pounds ain’t enough to get me tossed out on the street.”
The devil it wasn’t. That was more money than he was likely to see in two or three years. “One hundred pounds,” she said impatiently.
“Where did you want to go?” he asked, and immediately opened the coach door for her.
“London. With all speed. And I mean that. Haste is mandatory.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am. I’ll be racing to the nearest inn and a warm fire, since I won’t be getting warmed up here. We can stop at an inn, right?”
“Yes, certainly,” she said, guessing that’s why it had cost her so much. He simply wanted out of the cold. “I don’t expect you to drive at night.”
It was a good thing she’d already told him to make haste, she thought, her teeth chattering. The inside of the coach probably wasn’t getting any colder than it had been, yet it certainly seemed to be, now that she’d been sitting in it for several hours. The lap robe wasn’t really much help when her velvet coat was so thin. How long before they reached a town and a warm inn? Probably no more than another hour or so considering the reckless speed at which Albert was driving the team of horses.
At least Raphael wouldn’t be able to stop her now before she reached civilization again. He’d made sure no one, himself included, could leave his Nest immediately when he’d had all the horses hidden away. She smirked at the thought, and how annoyed he was going to be when he discovered she’d escaped. He might find her before morning if they stayed at an inn, if he was persistent. But it wouldn’t do him any good. She’d be back among people who didn’t know him and wouldn’t tolerate his trying to force a screaming woman into a coach, and she would most definitely be screaming.
It was just annoying that she’d had to leave Sadie behind, as well as her own coach and her clothes. But Raphael would have no reason to stay at Alder’s Nest now, and he’d have to use her coach to get him and everyone else back to their respective homes. If he didn’t actually return the coach to her, well, she’d worry about that once she was home and was assured that she’d never have to deal with that devil again.
It was the last thought she had before she was bumped off her seat onto the floor. Briefly tangled in the lap robe, she barely noticed the coach oddly sliding to the side. But the floor was a good place to be as the coach bounced about on its way into a ditch.
She’d barely gotten to her knees when the door was thrown open and Albert, looking horrified, asked, “Are you all right?”
“Yes, barely bruised,” she assured him. “Just tell me that you didn’t really slide us off the road into the ditch, did you?”
His face turned quite red. “I didn’t see the bump, I swear I didn’t. If I wasn’t pushing the horses to top speed, I might’ve, then again, there’s new snow covering the old, so I might not have seen it either way.”
“And?”
“Coming off the bump, the wheel lost its traction and slid. The ditch didn’t look that close, but I guess it was. And then it broke.”
“What did?”
“The wheel,” he said, embarrassed. “Snapped right off as it landed in the ditch.”
“Are the horses all right?”
“They’re fine, ma’am.”
“Then they can pull the coach back on the road?”
“Yes, but it isn’t going anywhere with that broken wheel. Of all the bloody rotten luck!”
He could say that again, she thought with a sigh. In hindsight, it had been stupid of her to tell him to push the team in weather like this. But hindsight only helped to avoid future disasters, it did nothing a’tall for current ones.
“What would you normally do in a situation like this?” she asked.
“Get a new wheel.”
“Well, go and get one.”
“We’re not exactly close to town yet. It might be dark before I get back.”
Her first thought was she didn’t want to be left alone there on the side of the road, in the cold, especially after dark. But the alternative was to try to ride one of the horses herself, without a saddle, and more than likely fall off it repeatedly, get hurt, and be in even more dire straits. Or wait for the weather to improve and freeze in the meantime? Or wait for Raphael to show up and gloa
t that he’d found her? That was if he showed up. He might not bother to come after her. He might just as easily decide that he’d given it his best shot and wasn’t going to any further lengths to try to “help” someone who obviously didn’t want his help.
So she said, “Then don’t waste any more time.” And hoped she wasn’t making yet another mistake.
Chapter Eighteen
R APHAEL COULD BARELY SEE TWENTY feet in front of him, the snow was coming down so heavily now. It could have been called a blizzard if the wind were a little stronger, but thankfully, there was hardly any wind at all, just enough to make him feel just how cold it was—and make him think about giving up. After all, considering how long it had taken him to fetch a horse from Bartholomew’s home, get it saddled, and gather some coal, since he knew the brazier in the coach was empty, he didn’t really expect to catch up with Ophelia before she reached the nearest town. He merely wanted to find her before she got back to London, but he could have done that tomorrow, after the snow stopped—if it stopped.
He almost didn’t see the coach in the ditch. Covered in white, it blended in with the snow around it. It was the horses that drew his eyes in that direction. The snow wasn’t sticking to their warm, dark-coated bodies any more than it was to his own mount. Fear rushed through him as he took in the wreck. It was stronger than any he could ever recall feeling, but thankfully it was brief. As soon as he realized one of the four horses was missing and saw that the coach was upright, if tilted a bit, but not wrecked at all, he was sure no one had been hurt. Ophelia and his driver had obviously decided to share the one horse to continue on.
That was his only conclusion, so he almost didn’t go down in the ditch to check. But he knew he’d be kicking himself, wondering about it, if he didn’t, so he dismounted long enough to open the coach door for a quick look inside. Nothing left in it but a bundle of…Why the deuce do you only have one lap robe in your coach? his sister’s words came back to him with a shock. One lap robe wouldn’t make a pile that big.