Page 44 of The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin (The Ill-Mannered Ladies #2)

44

“Gus!”

I whirled around. “Evan!”

He was safe. I staggered into his outstretched arms. He pulled me in against his chest, but it was a fleeting embrace, for he set me at arm’s length, wildly looking me over. “Are you hit? Are you hit?”

“No!” Although…was I? My jaw throbbed; everything was pain. But no, it was Mulholland’s blood. Not mine. “It’s his. It’s his blood.”

I looked down at Mulholland’s staring dead eyes and felt my knees buckle. Evan caught me.

“Talbot,” Captain Morland yelled through the drifting smoke, “get Lady Augusta out of here. Her sister is waiting on the road with a guard.”

Evan and I looked at each other. He was still Mr. Talbot. Duffy had not told the captain the truth.

“Time to go,” Mr. Kent said, running up beside us. “Talbot, help me carry Lady Augusta.” He had heard Morland too. “Now, man!” He looked around. “Weatherly, your mistress needs you!”

Evan slung my arm across his shoulders, Kent taking my other side, and they half carried, half dragged me toward the edge of the clearing. I looked over my shoulder. Weatherly had ducked to the ground to pick up a pistol and was up again, following.

“I can run by myself,” I said through the crack of rifles and screams of men.

And so we did. The four of us crashing through the forest, dodging branches, forcing our way through undergrowth, until the sounds and sights of the battlefield were at a safe distance.

“Stop!” I finally yelled as we wove our way through a stand of ash and gorse. “Stop!”

Kent, ahead by a few feet, grabbed hold of a tree trunk to stop his momentum. “What? What is it?”

Evan stopped beside me, panting. Weatherly spun around, checking for pursuit behind us.

“We cannot run willy-nilly like this,” I said, realizing I was lisping through my throbbing mouth and jaw. I cupped my cheek in my palm, the light touch sending spikes of pain into my head. “You and Mr. Kent must get as far away as possible. As fast as possible.”

Evan stepped up to me. “Let me look. Please.”

I dropped my hand. “Is it broken?”

Tenderly, he pressed his fingertips along the bone, his face registering his apology as I hissed. “No. Thank God, and I think your teeth are intact, but you are going to have a hell of a bruise. Cold compresses and arnica balm.”

“Yes, Doctor,” I said, and touched his cheek, bringing his smile back. “But now you must go. Weatherly and I will return to the road and Julia will drive us back to Davenport Hall. The longer we can confuse Morland, the better. He said he left soldiers with my sister for protection. You cannot be seen by them.”

“It was you who got Morland and his men to come?” Kent asked.

“We all did,” I said, glancing across at Weatherly. “A group effort. Julia went back for the army.”

“It was her ladyship’s idea, though,” Weatherly said.

“Astonishing,” Kent muttered.

“She is always astonishing,” Evan said. He took my hand and turned it, kissing the palm. “I wish I could kiss you properly, but I think you would probably faint from pain.”

I tried to smile, but it hurt too much.

Kent looked across at me, his intensity reaching me even through the dim light. “You will give her my love? All of it.”

“I will,” I promised. “Get word to us if you can.”

“My lord, take this,” Weatherly said, handing Evan the pistol. “It is loaded.”

“Good man,” Evan said, checking the cock. He looked at me, his imminent departure upon his face. “Thank you.”

“Just stay alive,” I said.

“I do not know what or where we will—”

“I know,” I whispered. “Have faith.”

An odd thing for me to say, but I did have faith. In him and in me.

Mr. Kent looked up at the sky, clearly reading the stars. “We should go this way,” he said, pointing deeper into the forest. He pointed in the opposite direction. “The road will be that way.”

And so the four of us turned to the directions we were heading. I looked over my shoulder as Weatherly led the way out of the ash stand and saw Evan do the same. Both of us watching the other through the trees until we were no longer in sight.

···

About ten minutes into our stumbling walk back, Weatherly stopped and turned to face me.

“My lady,” he began, “may I say something?”

“Of course,” I lisped. “Always.”

He was clearly agitated, his hands clenched before him. “I am sorry I could not get to you in time. I tried, but I could not free myself. Those men—”

“It was the plan,” I said quickly, ignoring the pain that came with speaking. “And Captain Morland did arrive in time.” I swallowed a sudden ache in my throat. “You did everything I asked, Weatherly, exactly as I asked, and put yourself in great danger. Thank you. Lord Evan and Mr. Kent would not have been saved without you.”

“But I cannot help but think what would have happened if the army had not arrived.”

“Well, it did not happen and Mulholland is dead.” I gave a watery smile and sniffed back a sudden rise of tears. “Is it awful of me to be glad that he is dead?”

Weatherly nodded. “Absolutely, my lady, but we shall be awful together, God forgive us.”

I laughed, a croaked, pained huff, but still a laugh, and it lightened the heaviness that I knew was going to haunt me. Weatherly always knew how to bring things to rights. Even so, the next had to be said, although I did not want to say it, for, in truth, I trusted him more than my own brother.

“If ever you do not want to follow me in these mad ventures, Weatherly, you must say so. Please do not feel obliged. You must do what is right for you. Do you promise?”

“I have always known that, my lady.” He looked up at the sky, through the branches. “You are your father’s daughter, and he was the best man I have ever had the honor of knowing.” He smiled. “I think he would have enjoyed your mad ventures. He had a few of them himself.”

“You must tell me one day,” I said.

“No, my lady. Your father’s secrets are as safe as your own.” He turned, then looked over his shoulder and cast me a droll look. “I think I recognize this stand of ash.”

“Indeed,” I said, matching his tone through the teary thickness in my throat. “So different from all the others.”

As it turned out, that stand of ash was not so far from one of our linen markers, and so our return to the road was reasonably quick. A good thing, too, since my stamina was fast collapsing under the pain, exhaustion, and nervous strain of the past few hours.

We stumbled out onto the road, our sudden appearance bringing the four soldiers guarding my sister upon us.

“Halt!” their leader yelled.

We stopped. All four rifles were aimed at us.

“It is my sister! My sister,” shrieked Julia, still seated in the phaeton. “Do not shoot.”

The soldiers lowered their guns.

Weatherly took my arm and helped me across to the phaeton. I looked up at my sister, who, upon finally seeing my state in the dim moonlight, gave a low moan of distress.

“You are hurt!”

“It is not as bad as it looks,” I lisped, leaning against the dusty side of the carriage. I was feeling, suddenly, very dizzy. “But I wish to go back to Davenport Hall.”

“Of course, immediately,” Julia said.

“Forgive me, my lady, but I cannot allow that,” one of the young soldiers said. “Our orders are to keep you safe, here.”

Julia was in no mood for a boy to tell her what to do, even one with a gun. A heated discussion ensued, Julia insisting I needed medical assistance and it would be upon the British Army’s head if I died, the soldier countering that he had his orders. It seemed my appearance, and the fact that I stepped into the undergrowth for a moment to retch, clinched the argument. A compromise was struck: the soldiers would escort us back to the hall.

Under the guard of the four men, we drove slowly back to the estate, Weatherly once again in the groom’s seat and holding me upright by my shoulder. Since the soldiers were constantly in earshot and my swollen mouth made talking difficult, my report of the escape to my sister was necessarily short and somewhat in code. However, I did manage to whisper, “He sends all his love.” I knew it was not much reassurance, but she smiled.

Through my exhaustion, I did wonder where Duffy had gone, why he had not revealed Evan’s identity, and why he was not waiting with Julia, but it was too much effort to ask and she did not volunteer the information. Still, the fact that he was not haranguing me was enough.