Page 4 (1/2)

Ten e, alone with the dowager, trying to remember just why she’d told Thorander had:

Turned the carriage around

Shoved Grace out and to the ground, where she’d landed aardly on her right ankle

Sent the Willoughby sisters on their ithout the slightest explanation

Had the Wyndhaht around

Outfitted aforee foot the tossing had apologized as he’d done so, but still)

"Ma’a at a rate that could not be considered safe, but the dowager kept banging her walking stick against the wall, bellowing at the driver to ?"

"You know very well"

Grace waited one careful moment, then said, "I’er speared her with an angry stare

"We don’t knohere he is," Grace pointed out

"We will find hih!" the dowager ground out Her voice was not loud, but it contained sufficient passion to silence Grace ilance at the older woht, really, for a ride in the carriage, and her right hand was bent and angled like a claw, pulling back the curtain so she ht see outside

Trees

That’s all there was to see Grace couldn’t i out so intently

"If you saw hi into Grace’s thoughts, "then he is still in the district"

Grace said nothing The dowager wasn’t looking at her, in any case

"Which means," the icy voice continued, "that there are only a very few places heinns in the vicinity That is all"

Grace rested her forehead in her hand It was a sign of weakness, soer, but there was noto kidnap hih, who had never soto be party to what had to be a high crime "Dear Lord," she whispered

"Shut up," the dowager snapped, "and rit her teeth How the devil did the dowager think she could be useful? Surely anywould be perforulations, five feet eleven inches tall And no, she did not mistake their purpose on the journey When she had looked askance at the dowager, the reply had been a terse, "My grandson rowled, "Look out the ," speaking to her as if she’d turned idiot overnight

"You got the best look at hiratefully forfeit five years off her life just to be anywhere but inside this carriage

"Ma’am, I said - he was at the end of the drive I didn’t really see hiht"

Grace had been trying not to look at her, but at that, she could not help but stare

"I saw you kissing hier hissed "And I arn you now Don’t try to rise above your station"

"Ma’aer spat, "and he etting any ideas You are valued as my companion, but that is all"

Grace could not find the outrage to react to the insult Instead, she could only stare at the dowager in horror, unable to believe that she had actually spoken the words

The true Duke of Wyndhaestion of it was scandalous Would she throw over Thoht, of his very name? Wyndham was not just a title Thoer publicly chahwayine the depth of the scandal it would create The iitimate, of course - there could be no other outcoe would be done There would always be those hispered that ht not be so secure in his conceits, because he wasn’t truly entitled to theine what this would do to him To all of the slightly "You cannot think that this itier snapped "His hway and perfectly correct accent," the dowager retorted "Whatever his current station, he was brought up properly and given a gentleman’s education"

"But that does not er interrupted, her voice hard, "after he’d spent eight ht bloody months that were supposed to be four weeks He went to attend a wedding A wedding" Her body seeether at theJust soht theeoned their way into Eton, as if that could make them better than they were"

Grace’s eyes widened The dowager’s voice had descended into a low, veno to, Grace moved closer to theIt felt toxic to be so close to her right now

"And then" the dowager continued "And then! All I received was a three-sentence note, written in so such a fine ti to remain"

Grace blinked "He didn’t write it himself?" she asked, unsure why she found this detail so curious

"He signed it," the dowager said brusquely "And sealed it with his ring He knew I couldn’t decipher his scrawl" She sat back, her face contorting with decades old anger and resentht stupid, useless months Who is to say he did not marry some harlot over there? He had ample time"

Grace watched her for several ave every indication of haughty anger, but so and twisting, and her eyes were suspiciously bright

"Ma’aer said, her voice sounding as if it ht crack

Grace considered the wisdo, then decided there was too race, it sie despite the withering expression on the dowager’s face "This is not a humble country entail This is not Sillsby," she added, sing the lump that formed in her throat at the rave Of a dukedom Heirs apparent do not simply vanish into the mist If your son had had a son, ould have known"

The dowager stared at her for an uncomfortably sharp moment, then said, "We will try the Happy Hare first It is the least uncouth of all the local posting inns" She settled back against the cushion, staring straight ahead as she said, "If he is anything like his father, he will be too fond of his co less"

Jack was already feeling like an idiot when a sack was thrown over his head

So this was it, then He knew he’d stayed too long The whole ride back he’d berated himself for the fool he was He should have left after breakfast He should have left at dawn But no, he had to get drunk the night before, and then he had to ride out to that bloody castle And then he’d seen her

If he hadn’t seen her, he would never have re And then he wouldn’t have ridden off with such speed And had to rest and water his mount

And he certainly wouldn’t have been standing by the trough like a bloody bull’s-eye when soruff voice said

It was enough to set every pore in his body into fighting mode A man did not spend his life so close to the noose without preparing for those tords

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t see It didn’t matter that he had no idea who they were or why they’d coht, clean and dirty But there were three of theood punches before he was facedown in the dirt, his hands yanked behind his back and bound with

Well, it wasn’t rope Almost felt like silk, truth be told

"Sorry," one of his captorsup other ies

"Think nothing of it," Jack returned, then cursed himself for his insolence All his little quip earned him was a mouth full of burlap dust

"This way," so hi but obey

"Er, if you please," the first voice said - the one who’d ordered hi?" Jack inquired

There was quite a bit of hehed Minions never knew the is

"Er, can you step up?"

And then, before Jack could oblige, or even say, "Beg pardon," he was roughly hoisted into the air and tue

"Put him on a seat," a voice barked He knew that voice It was the old lady His grandmother

Well, at least he wasn’t off to be hanged

"Don’t suppose someone will see to my horse," Jack said

"See to his horse," the old lady snapped

Jack allowed himself to be moved onto a seat, not a particularly easy maneuver, bound and blindfolded as he was

"Don’t suppose you’ll untie my hands," he said

"I’m not stupid," was the old lady’s reply

"No," he said with a false sigh "I didn’t think you were Beauty and stupidity never go as hand in hand as one ht wish"

"I am sorry I had to take you this way," the old lady said "But you left me no choice"

"No choice," Jack mused "Yes, of course Because I’ve done so much to escape your clutches up to now"

"If you had intended to call upon me," the old lady said sharply, "you would not have ridden off earlier this afternoon"

Jack felt hily "She told you, then," he said, wondering why he’d thought she h?"

So that was her name

"She had no choice," the old lady said dis she rarely considered

And then Jack felt it A slight brush of air beside him A faint rustle of moveh The silent Miss Eversleigh

The delicious Miss Eversleigh

"Reoing to suffocate hi a lazy smile onto his face - it was not, after all, the expression they would expect, and thus the one he most wished to display He heard her h exactly, and not a groan, either It was sonation, perhaps Or maybe -