He took Frances’ hands in his and pulled her unceremoniously to her feet.
“Oh,” she said, “you always did lack sensibility, Theo. You would not care if you had been killed and I had been left on the stones here to grieve alone, would you?”
“Not at all,” he said. “I would have been too dead to care.”
“Oh!” she shrieked, looking up at him. “Your cheek, Theo. And your lip!”
“Nothing that will not heal,” he said. “You will have to share my horse, Fran. Will that wound your sensibilities?”
“Perhaps it would be better if Frances rode the horse Arabella came on,” Lord Astor said. “Arabella can come up with me.”
“We must find some salve for your bruises when we get back to Lord Farraday’s, Theo,” Arabella said. “I truly am sorry to see you hurt, you know. But I am happy that Sir John Charlton must look a great worse. I really am.”
“Thank you, puss,” Theodore said. “I assure you he does. Now, Fran, set your foot on my hands and I shall help you into the saddle.”
“You two may ride on ahead,” Lord Astor said. “I am going to try to find a shorter way back with Arabella across the fields. She is as light as a feather, but our combined loads will be rather hard on this poor horse.”
Frances, having quite recovered from the vapors and having even put her handkerchief away in a pocket, rode away after Theodore along the roadway back to Lord Farraday’s estate.
“Do you feel quite well enough to ride, Theodore?” Frances asked. “If you were to fall from your horse, I would not know what to do to revive you. And Lord Astor is not following us.”
“I don’t think I am about to take a tumble on account of a bruised cheek and a cut lip,” Theodore said. “In fact, I am quite happy to suffer them, Fran, knowing that that scoundrel has been more or less fairly dealt with.”
“It really was quite splendidly brave of you to go into that house and confront him,’’ Frances said. “I could have died, Theo. What would I have done if he had killed you?”
“Fallen comfortably back into the vapors for a time, I imagine,” he said. “I don’t know what you would have done afterward. You tell me, Fran.”
“I would have worn black for the rest of my life,” she declared passionately. “I would never have left it off, Theo. I would never have forgotten how brave you were and how you sacrificed your life for my honor. And I would never have let anyone else forget it, either.”
“You need your eyes for the road, Fran,” he said. “This is not the time for tears. Would you really have grieved for me, though? What about all your grand admirers in town?”
“Oh, mere dandies, all,” she said, bravely sniffing back her tears. “I have not met a real man since I went there, Theo. Except his lordship, and he is married to Bella.”
“And I am a real man?” he asked.
“Well, of course you are, Theo,” she said. “I have never been in any doubt about that. Not since I was twelve years old and you rescued me from the bull.”
“Which was in a quite different field from you and held back by a perfectly stout fence,” he said.
“Yes, but he was angry, Theo,” she said. “And you know that Papa himself said that when bulls are angry they can run through a fence just as if it were not there.”
“I think I had better take you home and marry you, Fran,” he said.
“Oh, will you, Theo?” she said. “Please?”
“This summer,” he said. “I’ll talk to Astor later today. What were you doing with that scoundrel, anyway?”
“He lured me away,” she said. “He kidnapped me. He told me that Bella had gone on ahead of us with Mr. Hubbard and that I would be needed to chaperone her.”
“You really do need looking after,” he said. “Bella would not do anything that cork-brained. I say, Fran, if I were to get down off this horse and lift you down from yours, would you let me kiss you? I badly want to, but I won’t risk it without asking because last time you smacked my face and it is feeling sore enough without that.”
“Oh, I would not strike you, Theo,” Frances said. “How could you think I would, when you have just been so courageous and when we are betrothed? Oh, do be careful. I am quite heavy, you know, and I would not wish you to hurt yourself further. Oh, Theo!”
She was down off the horse almost before the last words were out of her mouth, and being very thoroughly kissed in a most shockingly public part of the roadway.
“Don’t cry, Fran,” he murmured after a long while, kissing the tears from her eyelashes. “It was not that bad, was it?”
“Oh, Theo,” she said, definitely not obeying the first command of her newly betrothed, “I was just thinking of Bella and what a great sacrifice she made, marrying his lordship so that I would be free to wed you. Dear, dear, Bella! I am so happy for her that all has turned out well. I could not feel so good about loving you if she were unhappy. Truly I couldn’t. But I do love you so, Theo. And how very foolish I have been.”
