He was better now. His focus now was the need to protect his sister, but he seemed steady, more solid than when she’d first met him. His merry musical play earlier had been evidence of that. And had made her love him more.
Had she once wished for a tragic love? She couldmarry none but him, and he would marry none. Perhaps she should enter a nunnery!
She turned her mind from the hopeless to the possible. “When we catch them,” she called, “wouldn’t the wisest thing be to allow them to court in the usual manner?”
“You’d be content with that?” he asked, not taking any attention off his driving. “A courtship of a year or more?”
“Perhaps, but would they be? Love burns fiercely.”
“And sometimes burns out. Whatever the truth of that, I won’t have Phyllis sacrificed to your family’s needs.”
“There’s no reason to believe that she’ll die from it!”
The horses broke step, perhaps from a rough hand on the ribbons. He instantly calmed them and perhaps himself, but he said, “Enough of this.”
It was steely enough to silence Ariana. Therefore she turned her mind to other matters.
Clearly the elopement must succeed. Love must have its way.
Chapter 16
They hurtled by fine coaching inns, but eventually he had to pull into one to change horses. The swinging sign announced it to be the Old Boar, and it seemed a large and prosperous place.
“It’ll take a while to choose a pair that can work together,” he said. “Go into the inn for some warmth.”
“You won’t try to go on without me?”
“I’d not abandon you here, Ariana. Order some mulled wine or punch.”
She supposed he couldn’t strand her there, so she hurried into the warmth of the inn and gave the order. It wasn’t worth hiring a private parlor for a short while, so she sat by the fireside in the public room, ignoring the few people around. It was gone ten o’clock and the place was quiet. No one ate at the long common table, and the few people sitting close to the casks of ale were probably local.
Staring into the large log fire, she considered how to delay their pursuit.
Already there was hope. He’d said it would take time to find a good replacement pair of horses, but it could be impossible. A curricle used a single pole and two horses harnessed abreast. The vehicle itself wasn’t notably expensive. It was the difficulty of finding a perfectly matched pair to pull it that made it a toy for the rich. Quite likely this inn couldn’t provide two horses of similar size with an identical pace. To try to go on without would mean at best slow travel, and at worst a rapid tangle and overturn.
The bowl of hot punch came, along with two medium-sized glass tankards. Ariana filled one and cradled it in her hands as she sipped, contentedly waiting for Kynaston to join her and admit defeat.
He arrived and poured himself punch. “Your brother changed horses here not that long ago. We’re gaining on them, so we can’t dally.” The implication was obvious.
“You found a suitable pair?”
“They’ll do. A chestnut and a gray, so hardly for Hyde Park display, but they’re of a size and pace. Drink up. We should be on our way.”
“Let’s warm up a little first,” Ariana said, and sipped more of the hot drink.
“I warned you this journey would be cold. I could arrange for you to stay here.”
“No. I’ll be fine.”
They sipped in silence, but Ariana was thinking desperately. The elopement must succeed, but if the new horses were as good as he implied, they would catch the fugitives in the next couple of hours. She wished he were getting drunk, but he seemed likely to drink only one tankard-full, and it wasn’t very potent.
The conclusion was as obvious as it was unpleasant. She must do something to damage the curricle. It wouldinfuriate Kynaston, but it would be for the good of all in the end. Someone must be able to enjoy love! She asked the innkeeper for the use of a private room, which was interpreted as the need to relieve herself without a trip to an outhouse. Kynaston could hardly object to that delay.
A maid took her upstairs to an unused bedroom, which had a closestool. The room was perfect. It had an extra door to the gallery around the innyard, and down in the innyard Ariana saw the curricle, pole down. As soon as she was left alone, Ariana pulled up the hood of her gray cloak and slipped out through the door onto the gallery, and down the stairs.
Fortunately, no vehicle was coming or going at that moment, so the yard was deserted. From voices, she guessed that the ostlers had sensibly taken themselves indoors for warmth. The door to their room stood ajar so they’d be aware of any arrival, and she glimpsed a large fire in there. With that brightness, it must have seemed pitch-dark out there. Shrouded in dark gray, she must have been close to invisible.
She moved toward the back of the yard, where the curricle waited, which took her close to the stables. A lamp in there showed her two horses—a chestnut and a gray—standing ready, harnessed but wearing blankets. Only one ostler minded the two. She could try to injure one of the horses, but she couldn’t see how and she wasn’t sure she could bear to do such a thing. That meant the curricle, and time was passing. Delicacy would mean she’d be uninterrupted for a while, but not forever.
