by Julia London
But the news his aunt and uncle had brought home trumped everything else. They were all desperate to find Aurora before she was lost to them, and Roan had put aside his own troubles to chase after her. What could he do?
He could curse Aurora for the weeks it had taken him to cross the Atlantic, that’s what. The longer Susannah Pratt thought he would be her husband, the harder it would be to disengage from her. Roan was even angrier with Aurora for not being in West Lee, or whatever the hamlet he’d been directed to, but in the other West Lee, north. That alone was enough to concern him. Did he really need to fret about another incorrigible, intractable, disobedient young woman?
No. No, he did not. He didn’t care that Miss Cabot’s eyes were the color of the vines that grew on his family’s house. Or that she had boarded this coach because she’d been attracted to him. Or that he’d teased her and embarrassed her and thereby was probably the cause of her running off.
She was not his concern, damn it. And yet, she was.
For the second time that day, Roan swept his hat off his head and threw it down onto the ground in an uncharacteristic fit of frustration. Damn England! Damn women!
He kicked the hat for good measure and watched it scud across the road.
And then, with a sigh of concession, he walked across the road to fetch it. But he discovered he’d kicked his hat into a ditch filled with muddy water. Roan muttered some fiery expletives under his breath. He’d find another hat in the next village. He picked up his bag and hoisted it onto his shoulder and walked on.
Now, to figure out where that foolish little hellion had gone.
CHAPTER FIVE
PRUDENCE HADN’T ACTUALLY intended to flee. She’d been as anxious as anyone to board the coach and be on her way. But as the repair work had dragged on, she began to imagine any number of scenarios awaiting her at the next village. Dr. Linford and his wife, first and foremost, their displeasure and disgust evident. Worse, Dr. Linford and his wife in the company of someone in a position of authority, who would escort Prudence back to Blackwood Hall in shame. She could just see it—made to ride on the back of a wagon like a convicted criminal. As they moved slowly through villages, children and old women would come out to taunt her and hurl rotten vegetables at her. Shameless woman!
That public humiliation would be followed by Lord Merryton’s look of abject disappointment. Merryton was a strange man. He was intensely private, which Grace insisted was merely his nature but, nevertheless, everyone in London thought him aloof and unfeeling. Now that Prudence had lived at his house and dined at his table these past two years, she knew him to be extraordinarily kind and even quite fond of her. But he did seem almost unnaturally concerned with propriety and if there was one thing he could not abide, would not tolerate, it was scandal and talk of his family.
As he had been her unwavering benefactor and her friend, Prudence could not bear to disappoint him so. She held him in very high regard and, shamefully, she’d not thought of him in those few moments in Ashton Down when she’d impetuously decided to seek her adventure.
She’d begun to wonder, as she sat on the rock, watching the men repair the wheel, if she ought not to find her own way back to Blackwood Hall and throw herself on Merryton’s mercy. To be ferried back to him by Dr. Linford, who would be made to alter his plans to accommodate her foolishness, would only make Merryton that much more cross. She decided it was far better if she arrived on her own, admitted her mistake and begged his forgiveness.
That’s why, with one last look and longing sigh at Mr. Matheson’s strong back and hips, Prudence had picked up her valise and had begun to walk. She wanted to thank Mr. Matheson for his help, but thought it was probably not a very good idea to draw attention to the fact she was leaving.
She had in mind to find a cottage. She would offer to pay someone to take her back to Ashton Down. And, if she reached the next village before finding a cottage, she could keep herself out of sight until Dr. Linford had gone on. He’d be looking for her coach.
She walked along smartly, trying to be confident in her new plan. All was not lost, she told herself. She was at least as clever as Honor and Grace. She would see her way out of this debacle.
She hadn’t walked very far when she heard the approaching coach, and her confidence swiftly flagged. It was surely the stagecoach, and the driver would stop, insist she board the coach. She hadn’t thought of that wrinkle. But Prudence was determined not to be delivered into the hands of Linford. “You will not falter,” she murmured under her breath. “You have as much right to walk along this road as anyone.”
Prudence lifted her chin as the coach rapidly approached. It wasn’t until the last possible moment that she understood the coach did not intend to stop and inquire about her at all, and with a cry of alarm, Prudence leaped off the road just as the team thundered by, cloaking her in a cloud of dust.
When the coach had passed, Prudence coughed and picked herself up with a pounding heart, dusting off her day gown as best she could. “He might at least have slowed to see if I’d been harmed,” she muttered, and climbed back on the road, squared her shoulders, and began to walk again.
She had no sooner taken a few steps than she heard the sound of the second coach. Now an old hand at navigating passing coaches, Prudence hopped off the road and stood a few feet back.
But this coach slowed. The team was reined down to a walk, then rolled to a stop alongside where she stood.
The driver, her driver, peered down at her a moment, then turned his head and spit into the dirt. “Aye, miss, wheel’s fixed. Climb aboard.”
“Thank you, but I prefer to walk,” she said lightly.
“Walk! To where? There’s naught a village or a person for miles.”
“Miles?” she repeated, trying to sound unimpressed. “How many miles would you say?”
“Five.”
“Well! Then it’s a good thing that I wore my sturdy shoes,” she lied. “A fine day for walking, too. Thank you, but I shall walk, sir.” She wondered if Matheson was sitting in the interior of the coach overhearing her, laughing at her foolishness. Was that why he hadn’t shown himself? Perhaps he didn’t want anyone to think he was in any way familiar with a featherheaded debutante who was walking down the road in slippers more fitting for a dance?
“Suit yourself,” the driver said, and lifted the reins, prepared to send the team on.
“Sir!” Prudence shouted before he could dispatch the team. “Will you see that my trunk is delivered to Himple?” She opened her reticule to retrieve a few coins and began to make her way across the ditch to the road. “Please. If you will leave it at the post station, someone will be along for it.” She climbed onto the road—slipping once and catching herself, then climbing up on the driver’s step. She held up a few shillings to him.
“You’re alone, miss?” one of the gentlemen riding behind the driver called down to her.
She ignored him. Her heart was racing now, not only with fear, but also with anger that was very irrational. She could imagine Mr. Matheson sitting in the coach, rolling his eyes or perhaps even sharing a chuckle with the boy. One could certainly argue that she deserved his derision given what she’d done today, but she didn’t like it one bit.
“You’re certain, are you?” the driver said, taking the coins from her palm and pocketing them.
“Quite. Thank you.” Prudence stepped down.
The driver put the reins to the team. Once again, Prudence was almost knocked from the road. As it was, she stumbled backward into the ditch, catching herself on a tree limb to keep from falling.
She watched the coach move down the road and disappear under the shadows of trees.
Five miles from a village.
She looked around. There was no one, and no sound but the breeze in the treetops and the fading jangle of the coach. Prudence had ne
ver been alone like this. But, as her poor, mad mother used to say before she’d lost the better part of her mind, no one could correct one’s missteps but oneself. The sooner one set upon the right course, the sooner one would reach the right destination.
Prudence would argue the point about the right destination, but there was nothing to be done for it now. And for God’s sake, she would not shed a single tear. There was nothing she detested more than women who resorted to tears at the first sign of adversity. Yes, walk she would, in shoes that were meant to wander about a manicured garden...just as soon as she gave her aching feet a rest.
Prudence dropped her valise and sat down on top of it, her knees together, her legs splayed at odd angles to keep her balance on the small bag. She folded her arms on top of her knees, pressed her forehead against her arms and squeezed her eyes shut. How could you be so stupid?
Reality began to seep into her thoughts.
Whatever made her believe she could be like her sisters? She’d never been like the rest of them, had never taken such daring chances, disregarding all propriety on a whim. What made her believe that she could step out of bounds of propriety now? Yes, she’d been at sixes and sevens of late, unsatisfied with her lot in life, but still! She was alone on a road, perfect prey for highwaymen, thieves or other horrible things she couldn’t even bring herself to think of. Gypsies! Prudence gasped and her heart fluttered, recalling the frightening tales Mercy had insisted on telling.
“Well.”
The sound of a man’s voice startled her so badly that Prudence tried to leap up and scream at the same time and managed to knock herself off her imperfect perch and onto her bottom.
Mr. Matheson instantly reached for her, and Prudence, in a moment of sheer relief, grabbed him with both hands, hauled herself up with such vigor that she launched herself into his person and threw her arms around his neck.
Perhaps he was as stunned as she—he caught her, but neither of them moved for one long moment. Then Mr. Matheson put his hands firmly on her waist and carefully set her back, staring down at her as if she’d lost her mind.
“I beg your pardon,” she said apologetically. “I was momentarily overcome with relief! What are you doing on foot?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Rescuing you.”
Prudence could feel the color rising in her cheeks, the thump, thump, thump of her shame and delight in her chest. “You gave me such a fright,” she said, pressing her hand to breast. “I thought I would perish with it.”
“Well, I think we’ve sufficiently delayed your ultimate demise for at least an hour or so,” he said. “What the devil are you doing here? Why did you leave the coach? Where in hell do you think you’re walking?”
“To the next village or cottage,” she said, gesturing lamely in that direction. “I mean to pay someone to return me to Ashton Down.”
He squinted down the road in the direction she gestured. “What a perfectly ridiculous thing to do,” he said gruffly. “Why would you? You had a seat on a coach!”
“Because I feared Mrs. Scales would not be able to restrain herself from reporting all that had happened since leaving Ashton Down, and she...might possibly utter my name.”
“I think the odds of that are excellent,” he said, nodding, as if it were a foregone conclusion. “And your solution to this was to, what, run away?”
“No,” she said, as if it were absurd to suggest she’d run, even though she obviously had. “My solution was to go at once and find someone who would return me to Blackwood Hall. I should rather my family learn of this...turn of events...from me.”
“Mmm.” He folded his arms and stared down at her with such scrutiny that her skin began to tingle. “So you thought you might march up to anyone with a conveyance and ask that they see you to this hall where you might report your folly?”
When he put it like that, it sounded ridiculous. Prudence sniffed. She scratched her cheek and gazed down the road, then looked at him sidelong. “Well, you needn’t look so smug, Mr. Matheson. You’ve made your point. I’ve been foolish.”
“I haven’t even begun to make that point, Miss Cabot, but I’ll happily do so as we trek into the next village and find that conveyance. At the moment, however, I’d very much like to turn you over my knee like a child, for God knows how childish you’ve been.”
“Yes, so it would seem!” she said, miffed. “You’re not my father, Mr. Matheson.”
“Your father!” he sputtered. “I’m scarcely thirty years old. And yet I have twice as much sense as you.”
“If you had twice as much sense, you might have made your way to Weslay instead of Wesleigh!”
He was momentarily disabled by the truth in that statement. “I will allow that,” he said, holding up a finger, “at least until I see you to some means for a safe return home.” He bent down, reaching for her bag.
But Prudence was faster and snatched it up before he could take it. “I will carry my own bag, thank you.”
“For the love of— It’s a long way to the next village.”
“I am aware of how far it is to the next village. It’s five miles. And I am perfectly capable of carrying my own bag!”
He muttered under his breath and hoisted his own bag onto his shoulder. “Shall we?”
“Do I have any other choice?” Prudence began to walk, her bag banging uncomfortably against her knee. “Where is your hat?” she demanded, wishing he’d stop looking at her so intently.
He frowned. “Lost,” he said curtly. “Why is it that you misses are all alike?” he added irritably, as if he was constantly running into unmarried women in the countryside.
“We misses? Have you some vast experience with misses, Mr. Matheson?”
“I have enough. Why do you think I am here in this godforsaken—”
Prudence looked at him sharply.
“Pardon. In this foreign land,” he amended.
“I don’t know,” she said insouciantly. “Presumably to instruct all of the young misses in proper behavior.”
“If only I had the time that would require. But no, I am here to instruct one miss. Imagine, it’s not even you! I am in pursuit of my incorrigible, equally headstrong and impulsive sister.”
Prudence tossed her head. “I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if she was trying to keep her distance from you and your opinions.”
“She won’t escape them,” he said flatly.
“I can’t imagine anyone could,” Prudence retorted pertly.
They walked in silence for a few moments while Prudence wondered what the sister had done, what had caused him to come in “pursuit” of her. “Where is she?” she asked.
“Yes indeed, where is Miss Aurora Priscilla Matheson?” he asked. “I very much hope she is at West Lee,” he said, gesturing impatiently with his hand at his failure to grasp the subtle differences between the names of the villages. “Shall I tell you the tale of this young woman? My aunt and uncle brought her to London last spring. It was a wedding gift of sorts, an opportunity to see a bit of the world before she marries Mr. Gunderson. But Aurora is quite impetuous, and she made many friends in London, some of whom, apparently, convinced her to stay another month or so more than was intended. When it came time to leave, she refused to return home with my aunt and uncle. She wrote my father and said she’d be along in a month or so.”
“She’s alone?” Prudence said, awed by the cheek of that.
“I assume so,” Mr. Matheson said. “That’s Aurora for you—she wouldn’t listen to reason, which surprises no one, and it has caused quite an uproar. Her marriage to Gunderson is very advantageous for my family. Almost as advantageous as—” Mr. Matheson suddenly stopped talking and looked away. “Never mind. Just believe me when I say that Mr. Gunderson was not pleased. And I was dispatched to fetch her before she does irreparable harm to her repu
tation, her engagement and to our family.”
“But how do you know where she is?” Prudence asked.
“I don’t, really. The last letter we had from her before I set sail said that she was traveling about, staying here and there—but that she’d been invited to visit the home of this Penfors fellow. Given the details of her letter and the date it was marked, we believe she ought to be there now.”
Prudence almost laughed out loud. It was impossible to believe, and in some respects a delight to know, that there was a young woman out there who was more incorrigible than any of her sisters. Abandoning her family for a foreign land, with no apparent regard for her virtue? Prudence would very much like to meet Miss Aurora Priscilla Matheson. She would like to lay eyes on the unmarried woman brave enough to do that—
Wait—was she truly feeling a bit of admiration for a woman like Aurora Matheson?
Mr. Matheson noticed it, too. “What’s that smile? Do my sister’s antics amuse you? Then she may count one person who she has made smile, because my family is not amused. Much is riding on her marriage. Not to mention, she is a fool.”
“One can hardly fault her for wanting a taste of adventure. Being an unmarried woman can be quite tedious you know. Always sitting about in parlors, speaking of the weather.” Prudence shifted her bag to her other hand.
Mr. Matheson snorted. “Aurora has never sat around a parlor,” he said. “She’s had as privileged a life as any young woman could expect in New York. She has squads of friends, attends all the social events—I would wager her derriere has not touched a parlor seat in months.”
Startled, Prudence looked at him.
“What?” he said. “Ah. I forgot. I’m not to say such things to the fragile English flower.”
“I am not a fragile English flower! Who has said so?”
“My aunt. She informs me you all have tender feelings and to be careful of them. She said the English debutantes are not as sturdy as American women. Fragile, she said.”
