Helena gulped. Who was this man, and why did he know so much?
Her shoulders slumped as she gave up the fight. “How do you know all this?”
“This is not the place to chitchat, my lady. We must leave now, otherwise your jailers will locate us,” he snapped, his voice tinged with urgency.
Helena exhaled, “All right.”
“Good.” He loosened his grip on her, “I have a blanket in my phaeton that you can hide under. Should the gate guard notice you, I will deal with him. Now, let us go before the sisters come looking.”
Helena nodded in agreement. She did not know this man, or what his motives were. She could well be jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but her instincts were telling her that he would keep her safe. That he meant her no harm.
It was not as if she had much choice, so she followed him to his phaeton, hunching down in the footwell as he covered her with a blanket.
Soon they set off, Helena’s heart beating triple time. She was so tense waiting for them to be stopped, for someone to pull her from under the blanket and throw her to the ground.
Yet none of that came.
Instead, she was buffeted about as the carriage rode down the rough road. When it came to a stop, she felt her heart stop as well. She hadn’t heard Brian, the gate guard, hail them, and she was quite sure they had ridden long enough to have left the abbey far behind.
Why had they stopped, then?
Suddenly the blanket was pulled from her head.
Please God, please don’t let him be my killer,she thought with a sinking heart.
He bent low to look her in the eye. “You can come up to the seat now. We’ve made it past.”
She looked up cautiously at him, not knowing if she could believe his words. But he simply sat patiently waiting and so she stood up slowly, keeping an eye on him, and sat down on the bench next to him.
“Is it far, where we’re going?” she asked.
“Far enough,” he said before spurring the horse again.
They set off at a fast trot.
Within moments, exhaustion weighed heavy on Helena, dragging her senses into surrender. Despite the wariness curling in her chest at the man beside her, her body slumped further into the seat.
St. Margaret’s receded into the distance with each rhythmic clop of the horse’s hooves, shrinking smaller and smaller until it vanished from the horizon.
And without realizing it, Helena finally succumbed to sleep.
Chapter Four
“We should be at my home soon.” A man’s voice cut through her waking haze.
Helena blinked, uncertain as to where she was, not recognizing the countryside around her.
Suddenly, she remembered the man next to her, and turned to look at him with wide eyes and a gasp.
How could she have been so careless? He could have done anything to her while she was asleep. She could not believe how much she had let down her guard.
“Your home?” she asked cautiously.
“Yes.”
“Why are you taking me to your home?”
He slid her a sidelong glance. “I believe I explained to you that I am conducting an investigation into your father’s death. I have questions for you.”
