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M iss Elaine Talbot gazed out of the window as her hired post chaise hurtled along the coast road toward Blackhaven. It was already dark, but the lanterns on the carriage showed her the familiar, harsh beauty of the rugged coast and the mysterious silver and black of the rippling nighttime sea.

The last change of horses had been the final one for the journey. They would arrive within the hour, and Elaine awaited the moment with weary eagerness. She wasn’t quite sure what had drawn her back here, alone and unattended, but it did feel a little like going home.

Foolish. She had only been to Blackhaven, the most northern of England’s fashionable spa towns, once before, and then just for a few weeks a little more than a year ago.

She had spent much of that year traveling from relation to relation, trying not to get in the way of her newly married brother and sister-in-law.

Or, since they were abroad now, not to miss them in the emptiness of her old home.

The carriage swept around a bend in the road.

Only a few more, and she would see the town laid out below her…

The chaise jolted, veering wildly to the right and slowing to the urgent cry of the postilion.

Through the window, Elaine glimpsed a young gentleman waving violently beside another, smaller chaise that stood at a drunken angle in the middle of the road.

A postilion on the ground held on to his horses, and a young lady was hurrying past them toward the gentleman who was presumably her escort.

Elaine had no need to rap on her chaise roof, for her own postilion and outriders had come to a halt.

One outrider was talking animatedly to the young couple while the other came round to talk to their postilion and examine the wheel that had clearly come off.

Elaine pulled down her window. “Is anyone hurt?” she asked.

“No, ma’am, by some miracle,” the young man said. “Unless you count my hat, which is in the ditch. I don’t suppose you could lend us your fellows for a few minutes to reattach the wheel?”

“I could,” Elaine said doubtfully.

“No point,” said her outrider, striding back to her. “The wheel’s broken, and I wouldn’t trust that axle either.”

The young man scowled, dragging his fingers through his mop of black hair.

In the lantern light he looked gaunt and dramatic and exceedingly handsome.

“Damn and blast,” he muttered. “Begging your pardon, ma’am.

Jenny,” he added. His companion regarded him with some humor.

Catching her eye, he gave a reluctant quirk of the lips.

“Perhaps, ma’am,” the young lady said, “we could prevail upon you to send help back to us? The postilion says Blackhaven is less than an hour away by carriage.”

“Is Blackhaven your destination?” Elaine asked.

“For tonight,” the girl said, again exchanging quick glances with her companion.

Elaine sensed a mystery. The girl could not have been much more than eighteen summers, and though dressed with the propriety of a lady, she was not remotely fashionable.

Her bonnet was old, her gown mended, and her traveling cloak lamentably threadbare.

Her companion presented a much more dashing figure, all Byronic locks and careless dress.

However, his overcoat was fine and new and must have cost a pretty penny.

Outwardly, they were an ill-matched pair, and the Byronic young man seemed to hold all the advantages.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” Elaine said pleasantly. “My name is Elaine Talbot, and I too am going to Blackhaven.”

The gentleman bowed with graceful civility. “Joseph Knight, ma’am, and this is Miss Smith. My cousin.”

Miss Smith? Have you no more imagination than that? “Perhaps I could offer Miss Smith a seat in my chaise? I am happy to take you to whichever friends await you.”

Miss Smith cast her a doubtful glance and opened her mouth to refuse.

But before she could, Mr. Knight said, “We have bespoken rooms at the King’s Head inn. But I confess I have never been there. Perhaps you know if it would be a safe place for Jenny—Miss Smith—to enter alone?”

It seemed he was being careful of her and, moreover, was not preventing her from being with other people. Elaine made her decision.

“It is a respectable house,” she said. “But I have a better idea if you will consider it. Why don’t you both come with me? It will be a bit of a crush, but I daresay we can cope. Then we can send help back for your postilion and the horses.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Miss Smith said, smiling with relief. “How very kind of you, Mrs. Talbot.”

“Miss Talbot,” Elaine said pleasantly, opening the door.

Miss Smith gave a crow of triumph. “There, you see, Joe?” she threw at Mr. Knight. “Unmarried females do not need to be escorted everywhere!”

“Well, I daresay I am twice your age, Miss Smith,” Elaine said dryly.

Joe laughed and handed Miss Smith inside. “I’ll just fetch the bags, if you don’t mind…”

The young couple were clearly traveling light, with merely one valise and a carpetbag between them.

Their postillion stayed with his horses, while Elaine’s outriders separated them from the chaise and moved the vehicle to a safer location on the verge further from the bend.

Then the larger post-chaise got underway, with Miss Smith squashed beside Elaine and Mr. Knight trying to tuck his long legs under the seat to keep them out of the way.

“It won’t be for long,” Elaine said apologetically. “Just long enough for you to tell me what you are up to.”

Again, the young couple exchanged startled glances.

Elaine sighed. “I stand in no authority over you. You are not obliged to tell me anything. Nor is my help dependent upon your doing so. But bear in mind that I am older and wiser, with no horse in this race, as it were. And you might be about to make a mistake from which there can be no recovery.”

“It’s not a mistake,” Mr. Knight said quickly. “And I assure you my intentions are entirely honorable.”

“You do know that eloping to Scotland is beyond the pale?” Elaine said. “No one at home will receive you, even if you are married. How far have you come?”

Joseph Knight met her gaze, not with defiance but quite without fear.

“You mean how many nights have we been on the road, and have I compromised Miss Smith? Three nights because we had to throw my guardian off our trail in case he decided to follow us. And of course I have not compromised her in fact , which is all that matters to us.”

“Sadly, it will not be all that matters to her family or to Society in general. Society might turn a blind eye to betrothed couples—er…anticipating their vows, but elopements of hundreds of miles are just too blatant. Hypocritical? Undoubtedly. But there it is.”

Knight stared at her—with no deliberate attempt to be intimidating, though she had the impression he hadn’t quite realized just how intimidating he could be.

Miss Smith said quickly, “You must not think we embarked lightly on this course. Our families made it clear they would never countenance our marriage, and in fact they meant to separate us.”

“When you are one and twenty, you will no longer need your family’s consent,” Elaine pointed out.

Miss Smith grimaced. “My uncle is a vicar who seems to correspond with every other clergyman in the country. Joe’s guardian has enormous influence.

Even of age and with a special license, I doubt we could find anyone to marry us in England.

You are a kind lady. I cannot believe you don’t understand our position. ”

Elaine only just bit back the platitude of their changing their minds when they grew up. She recalled only too well her own reaction to such assurances. In her case, they had been right, of course. She had had much more fun junketing about the world with her diplomat brother.

Over the years spent in some very interesting places, she had become a good and quick judge of character.

Often, she had had to be. The boy was wild and probably arrogant.

The girl was spirited, with humorous eyes.

Against her will, Elaine found she liked them both, although she postponed judgment on their future together.

“It would be better, I think, if I were some long-forgotten godmother,” she mused. “I daresay I have traveled with you since the beginning, requiring company in my quest to revive my health in Blackhaven. You, Mr. Knight, gallantly offered to be our escort.”

The young couple regarded her with some surprise and considerable awe. Their eyes met and began to dance.

“I like her,” Mr. Knight pronounced.

“So do I,” Miss Smith said warmly, “but we can’t really put her in the path of his—of your guardian’s—wrath. It would not be fair, considering her kindness.”

“I am not without influence myself,” Elaine said modestly.

“Perhaps they need never meet,” the young man said with an optimism Elaine could see he did not quite believe in. “Er…who exactly are you, ma’am?”

“My brother is Lord Linfield, who is well known in both ton and government circles, and his wife’s family is scattered all over Blackhaven, connected even to the Earl of Braithwaite himself. I would not make the offer if I didn’t imagine I could handle the consequences.”

Miss Smith swallowed. “Then for tonight, at least, we humbly accept your kind offer. Are you staying with your family?”

“No, I’m staying at the hotel,” Elaine said. “And I think you should stay there with me. It is much more than respectable. And we can easily send a message from there to the King’s Head.”

*

Unfortunately, Elaine’s boast about the Blackhaven Hotel’s respectability appeared to be woefully ignorant. Some very peculiar and eccentric people swept through the door while Mr. Knight handed the ladies down from the carriage.

“Oh dear,” Elaine said ruefully. “We seem to have arrived on Gaming Club night.”

“What is the Gaming Club?” Kight asked with clear interest.