“Piper, he maun have had good reason…”
He reached out to her and she swatted his hand away. “Haven’t you been listening? Whatever reasons he had…whether they were valid or justifiable, THEY DON’T MATTER! They stopped mattering to me the moment…”
The truth of it leapt to her lips and Piper faltered.
“The moment what?” Connor asked. “What happened?”
Swiping her tears away, she raced from the house. It hurt too much to remember. Right now, she wanted to run away from it all as she’d run before. Let the wind dry her tears and soothe her mind. Sweep it all away.
Holding her skirts, she blindly sprinted up the path toward the stables with Connor calling her name behind her. She didn’t want to talk to him any longer. Hear more of the same theoretical rationalization others had offered. The reasoning behind it all. Dandy never catechized or pried. He did nothing more than provide a comforting presence.
She bolted into the stable yard almost knocking Bram off his feet. He stared at her as if he’d seen a ghost. “M’lady, what are you doin’ here?”
Ignoring his horrified whisper, Piper spun away and ran toward the stable. An escape.
That’s what she needed right now. To clear her head, clear her mind. Subdue the pain in her heart, so that she could lock it away again.
Albert caught her before she reached the door, grabbing her by the arms. Through her tears, she registered his wide eyes and slack jaw.
“M’lady, you shouldn’t be here,” he rasped and pulled her toward him. “Come away.”
“Let me go.”
“M’lady, please.”
She shook him off and rushed headlong into the stable, only to freeze in her tracks. Her breath caught in her throat. The shock that held her feet to the ground slithered upward with each word that reached her ears. Each arctic syllable turned her blood as cold as a serpent’s.
“I said this one, boy. Saddle him.”
“That’s Mr. MacKintosh’s horse, m-m-m…sir.”
One of the younger stable lads was flattened against the stall gate across from the one housing Connor’s horse. As immobilized as she, the horror in her heart reflected on his face as he stared ahead. What he cowered from, Piper couldn’t see.
But that voice.
“M’lady, come away,” Albert’s gruff whisper seemed a thousand miles away.
A tremor shook her, coiled down to her gut where it writhed. Bitter bile rose at the back of her throat. Feeling fled her fingers, then they clenched with the icy chill that pervaded her entire body.
The crack of a riding crop to solid woodthwackedand the whole building seemed to shudder. She flinched with it.
“I don’t care whose it is, boy.”Thwack.The cloying odor of patchouli swirled around her. “Do it now or suffer the consequences.”
Fight me, Lady Philippa, and you’ll suffer the consequences.
Chapter 21
I hear his voice in my nightmares. What I endeavor with all my heart to forget in the daylight hours, plagues my nights.
~from the diary of Piper Brudenall, February 1893
Black, fathomless spots danced before her eyes. Terror struck, heart hammering. She swayed on her feet.
“Piper!”
Arms like an iron vise wrapped around her and blind panic seized her breath. She jerked left and right to get away, frantic to free herself and managed to wrench one arm loose.
“No!”
