Page 21 (1/2)

Chapter 1

“I’ bit out as she surveyed the stretch of eorse and rocky hills, desperate to catch a glimpse of her errant driver

An icy wind pulled at her bonnet Her fingers, stiff and aching fro beneath her chin Even horribly out of fashion, the straw confection was her best bonnet and she wasn’t inclined to lose it

“Looking out thatagain?” Nettie asked

Falling back against the seat, Portia heaved a sigh and announced, “We’re stranded John’s not co back”

“He’ll be back,” her maid replied with a decided lack of worry as she stretched her generous curves along the threadbare squabs “Take a nap”

Portia frowned at Nettie “And let highwaymen take us unaware? Splendid idea, that”

Nettie yaidely, offering Portia a view of the tonsils far back in her throat She closed and opened her , “What’s got your nose out of joint?”

Portia gestured about the of frustration sweeping over her

“In case you failed to notice, we’ve been abandoned by our sot of a driver” She nodded to the here the sky deepened to a sht in this rickety carriage”

Nettie lifted a reddish brow and glanced out thePortia followed her gaze, eyeing the craggy li across the sky, distracted at the sight of such raw beauty Miles away from civilization Froe Her heart lifted, her precarious situation suddenly not feeling so cala her to take her first easy breath in years

Nettie clucked her tongue “You really did it this time for the ol’ bird to send you all the way out here”

Portia flicked a piece of lint off her blue ue “I don’t knohat youat all”

“Nothin’,” her cheeky ist of it Five years of nothin’ Well, your tih pleased “I heard what your grandmother said”

“Listening at keyholes again?” Portia accused

“Either you choose or they will And if you ask o”

“No one’s asking you,” Portia snapped

Shrugging, the round-cheeked er h nabobs in Town? Hardly see her coppery head, Nettie turned to glare at her in a way that left no doubt whom she held responsible for their ejection from Town

“Tell me we’re at least almost there”

“John didn’t say, but we ering down the road, his vow to return within the hour echoing hollowly even then Especially when issued through gin-laced breath “I should have taken the mail coach,” she muttered

Not that Grand never resorted to public transport No matter how desperate There were appearances to be kept, after all A Derring must not appear destitute Even if they happened to be

“Bet you wish you’d chosen one of those swells back in To, eh?”

Portia stifled a griain, careful not to reveal her decided lack of regret What was one suitor to fend off when she was accustomed to the dozens foisted on her by her family?

She gazed out through parted frayed curtains The sight of the bleak land, both orse and wind-ruffled heather, washed over her like a bal deep inside her—in a hidden, secret place that hadn’t felt anything in years

Theroolad for it

“Not especially,” she replied, inhaling clean air kissed by the lips of a vanishing winter A chance to get aas a rare treat, a reatest as to travel, to taste the freedom and adventure her mother experienced everyday

Being forced to entertain the attentions of a new suitor didn’t matter much Not when it meant escape from the tedium of another Season, fro

Fro her breath and waiting, watching, searching every roo her chest

Evenher mother, Portia could understand what drove her to depart for lands unknown

The hot breath of ruin didn’t reach so far as Italy, Greece, Spain, or whichever country her mother currently called home

Portia closed her eyes in one long blink and did her best to shake off the fetters of her world, to let the irons drop and pretend that this was a holiday of her own choosing and not just another foisted courtship

“Enough of this,” Portia announced, arranging her bonnet and repositioning her hatpin through the straith a determined twist

“Where you off to?”

“To find help” Portia grasped the latch and pushed the door open Like an ani it inward again She caught it with the pal “So her skirts in one hand, she added, “You’re welcoize you”

“I’ll be staying here where it’s warm and dry, thank you very much” With a sniff, Nettie curled up on the squabs, heedless of arranging her skirts to cover her plus

Glancing at the wild, ept landscape surrounding thethe feeling, she dropped to the ground, her feet sinking like two stones in water A wave of mud rolled its way inside her boots