Chapter Eleven
“Ma’am…my Lady…excuse me…”
A hand was shaking her arm, and Pru opened her eyes, ready to protest the treatment. To her surprise she found herself nose to nose with a servant from the Chillendale Inn.
“You’ve arrived, Ma’am. You and your companion.” He nodded to the other seat.
Emmeline snored away, tucked up into the corner.
“Good gracious.” Pru straightened herself. “I do apologize. We…we must have been quite tired.” She smiled at the lad, who blushed.
“’T’is quite all right. Would you like to step out now? Get inside out of the cold?”
“Indeed yes.”
She reached across to Emmeline, grabbing the girl’s knee and jiggling it. “Emmeline, wake up.”
She stirred and opened her eyes. “I was having such a nice dream.” She yawned, then blinked. “Where are we?”
“We’re at Chillendale Inn.”
“No, we were in Hecate’s house.”
“I know. But now we’re at the Inn.”
“But…what…how…”
“Let’s go inside, let this poor lad go back to his warm post, and talk about it then?” She added a quick squeeze, hoping Emmeline would read it as a hint to keep silent.
Fortunately, it worked. “Very well. That sounds like a good idea.”
The servant blushed again as Emmeline gave him her best smile. He was certainly having an interesting morning.
Prudence glanced at the carriage as she waited for Emmeline to alight. There was nothing distinguishing about it; no insignia or crest on the door, nor any kind of livery on the driver. It was just a simple country carriage-for-hire.
“Oh, brrr. Hurry Prudence. It’s cold.” Emmeline shivered and led the way into the Inn.
Prudence followed, flashing the servant a quick look of thanks. He blushed. Again.
But inside there was no blushing, just warmth—welcome to both women who found themselves chilled.
Emmeline put it best. “I’m shivering, but I don’t know if it is just the cold weather…” She rubbed her hands together as they stood in front of the fire.
“I understand. I feel the same. This is most mysterious, Emmeline. And I think we should keep it to ourselves until we’ve talked with Brent and Reid.”
“We did see Hecate, didn’t we? We had tea. That herbal stuff. And very nice scones.”
The slight tremor in her voice told Prudence that she was confused and more than a little scared.
“We did all that, yes. I know we did. And I’m guessing that after we fell asleep, she had her servants tuck us into that carriage and send us back here. Which was really quite nice of her.” Prudence attempted to calm Emmeline. And herself as well.
“Emmeline…” The yell echoed around the tap room and drew the attention of the few folks already in there. Luckily it seemed to be still morning, so it wasn’t too busy, but Brent’s mad dash across the room would have caused a ruckus if there had been a crowd.
“Oh Brent,” cried Emmeline, diving into his embrace. “OhBrent.”
“Darling…” He hugged her and wrapped his arms around her, dropping kisses on the top of her head as she buried herself in his cloak. “Oh, hullo Pru.”
“Hullo Brent.” Prudence warmed herself at the fire and watched with interest.
