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It was going to crash

She was going to die

And it would be his fault

Panic consu on the roof, unable to stop hie slowed, as though the great, hulking mass of wood and metal understood his round before it stopped

The coach quickly to surprise, and King hated the wash of war his discoer to redirect any attention from his madness

The driver did not flinch "There’s so turned in the direction of the coach his hands hway that this precise turn of events had fleeced any number of travelers on this road Trick aoff to save the day, and es Not that there was anything in King’s carriage worth stealing Sophie Talbot had made sure of that

Either way, the itimately concerned "The mail coach is filled omen and children," he panted "They’ll be hurt Worse"

The nored the i doo to wager half his fortune that Sophie Talbot was on that exactlivery?"

Surprise flared "As awas in motion before the driver could finish his sentence She had annoyed the hell out of him, that much was true, but he couldn’t leave her to the nefarious doings of highwaymen on the Great North Road Da, certainly, but ladies of any kind of breeding did not take well to highway like a lunatic the moment the coach had been stopped That was if she hadn’t fainted dead away from the shock of the situation

With any luck, she’d fainted

That would keep her out of trouble

Criminals were less likely to murder unconscious fe ones

But if any wo began to run faster

He’d get to her, he proet her to safety And once he got her out of there, she’d be begging him to return her to London He supposed that was the silver lining in this damn inconvenient cloud

When he rounded the bend in the road to find the mail coach stopped dead in its center, however, it was to find that there were no silver linings whatsoever Indeed, the cloud became a hurricane

Lady Sophie Talbot was neither unconscious inside the northboundfrom within She wasn’t inside the mail coach at all

Lady Sophie Talbot stood at the center of a cri Eversley livery and her ridiculous yellow slippers, hands on her hips as though it was a perfectly ordinary afternoon