Chapter2
Pain. Cold. Weight pressing. Struggling to breathe...
Peering through narrow slits, she saw slivers of shimmering color, like light through prism glass. Yellow-white sun. Blue water.Water?A flash of red. Then blue again. A glint of purple and gold. Confusion. A hand in hers, slipping away. Metal, biting into her fingers.
Why can I not awaken from this dream?
So cold. So heavy. Darkness descending...
“Halloo! Can you hear me?”
A man’s voice.Must get out from under this pressing weight.She sucked in desperate, shallow breaths.
“Lady Mayfield? Can you hear me?”
Her eyes fluttered open and glimpsed faces floating above. More confusion. Why was the side window above her?
“It’s all right. We’re here to help you. I’m a doctor. Dr. Parrish.” The man nodded to the younger face hovering beside his. “My son, Edgar. We’re going to get you and your husband out of there.”
Your husband ...She looked down and found Sir John lying limp across her body. Alive or dead? His hat bobbed lazily inthe water filling the lower half of the carriage. His legs were sprawled, one bent at an unnatural angle.
There were only two of them in what was left of the carriage. Where was she? Turning her head, pain shot through her skull. She couldn’t turn far, pinned as she was. Through the gaping hole where the roof had once been, she looked out into the choppy water of the channel.
The younger man above her looked in the same direction. He pointed. “Pa, look. Is someone out there?”
The older man squinted. “Can’t tell. Too far out.”
But she could tell. A red cloak floated on the tide, drawing the form it shrouded farther from shore.
The older man looked down at her again. “Was there someone else with you?”
She nodded, pain searing her once more. She felt as though needles pricked her scalp.
The man reverently removed his hat. “Too far to go after. Even if we could swim.”
A roaring in her ears. It couldn’t be.
“A servant?” he asked.
A companion was higher than a servant, she thought. A gentlewoman. She opened her mouth to explain, but no sound came. Her brain and tongue seemed disconnected. She pressed a hand to her aching chest and nodded again.
“There’s nothing we can do for her. I’m so sorry. But let’s get you out of there.”
Darkness tunneled her vision once more, and she sank into it.
The next time she opened her eyes, the same face hovered above her, nearer now. The older face, looking not into her eyes, but at some lower part of her. Who was he? He’d said his name, but she’d forgotten it. She couldn’t see much of the room without moving her head, but the bedchamber was not familiar.Where was she? How long had she been there? Her brain felt sluggish, addled, only partially aware of the rest of her.
“She’s awake,” said a woman’s voice, one she did not recognize.
She tried to turn her head toward the woman, but pain flared, momentarily blinding her.
The man’s voice tensed. “My lady? How do you feel?”
“She’s in pain, George,” the woman snapped. “Even I can see that.”
She parted her lips, tried to speak. “He ... lay...”
He took her hand, eyes round in concern. “Sir John is badly injured, my lady. Yet he lives, so there is hope. You leave him to me, all right? Do not fret. You’ve sustained several injuries yourself, but you will recover.”
