“Almost there.”
He would be immensely relieved when they reached Overtree Hall at last. If he didn’t travel farther than the adjacent church in the next twelvemonth, that would suit him perfectly well. He was worn out from days of travel by ship and carriage. Sore too. The wounds in his right shoulder and hand had healed, but his left shoulder was still bandaged and bound in a sling to help stabilize it for travel. All the jarring and lurching over the rutted roads of Gloucestershire sent daggers of pain through his arm and shoulder with every hole and sway. He gritted his teeth and prayed for strength. Only a few minutes longer.
He felt Carlton Keith’s scrutiny on his profile and attempted to keep his expression impassive. He hoped the pain didn’t show on his face.
“All right there, Captain?”
“I will be,” he replied between clenched teeth, “as soon as we set down at home.”
Perhaps he ought not to have been so stubborn in refusing the surgeon’s offer of laudanum for the journey. But he wanted to be alert when he reached Overtree Hall. When he saw Sophie for the first time in months.
He wondered again how she and the child fared—she must have had the baby by now. No doubt letters containing the news were even now in a sack of post somewhere en route to him in Brussels. He prayed again for her and for the child, hoping they were both in good health.
He prayed, too, for kindness, gentleness, patience, and self-control in dealing with his brother.
The hired chaise turned the corner, and there it was—tall, stately Overtree Hall, its stone façade glowing golden in the afternoon sunlight. There the church, the dovecote, and entrance gate. When the chaise passed under its archway, Stephen closed his eyes to relish the familiar, missed sound of carriage wheels on the pea gravel drive.
At last the chaise lurched to a halt. Outside the guard hopped down, opened the carriage door, and let down the step.
Keith said, “Let me go first, Captain, and lend a hand.”
“I’m all right,” Stephen insisted and pushed himself up and through the door. When his feet hit gravel, his legs wobbled and his head spun. Perhaps Keith had been right.Pride goeth before the fall, he thought, and felt about to topple.
Keith took his arm. “Steady on, Captain. You’ll get your land legs in a moment.”
Ahead, the front door opened and the footman James exited. On the man’s heels, his family, not waiting for a formal entrance, spilled out after him. There his father, his sister, his mother, her arms outstretched. But no Sophie. She might still be confined to her bed, he realized, remembering that a month of bed rest was often prescribed after birthing.
“Stephen! Thank God. Welcome home.”
His father looked the same as Stephen remembered, but he noticed how thin his mother looked, and the shadows under her eyes. He kissed her cheek. “Hello, Mamma.”
He shook his father’s hand, then turned to his grandfather as he puffed down the stairs to join them. The colonel ignored his hand and pulled him into an embrace, slapping his back and his shoulder in the bargain. Stephen winced.
“Careful there, Colonel,” Keith said.
“Oh! Forgive me. What an oaf. I completely forgot for a moment.”
The throbbing shoulder allowed Stephen no such luxuries.
Kate threw her arms around his neck. “I missed you, Stephen.”
He planted a kiss on her head. “And I you.”
She released him, her face shining. “I shall return directly,” she said. “But I promised to tell Angela the moment you arrived.” She hurried off across the drive in the direction of Windmere.
Wesley came languidly down the steps, surveying him head to toe. “You don’t look on death’s door to me. Surprised they invalided you back to England.”
“Oh, Grandfather has his ways as you know.”
Stephen glanced toward the door once more, his heart eager and reluctant at once. He told himself not to be disappointed she’d not come out to greet him.
“And... Sophie?” he asked, hoping to sound casual.
His mother looked at his father, then back to him, a worry line between her brows. “She is not here.”
“What do you mean she is not here?” He whirled on his brother. “What did you do?”
Wesley raised his hands. “Nothing.”
