Jasper waved in acknowledgment and then turned his horse toward the sound of a nearby stream.
She’d left without saying goodbye. It was over.
Which reminded him of the letter. Was he prepared now to hear her explanation?
Jasper dismounted and walked the horse to the bank, where she dropped her head to take a drink and then nipped at some grass.
With nothing to do but wait, Jasper dropped to sit on a large boulder and reached inside his jacket. He would read her apology. It couldn’t hurt, could it?
He unfolded the note, and as he read her startling words, and then read through them a second time, his heart raced.
She loved him! She wanted to marry him!
“Will!” he shouted, half laughing. But with a glance at his pocket watch, he realized the extent of his mistake and cursed himself. It was already a quarter to three, and he’d put hours of riding between himself and Gretna Green.
She would be waiting for him, and he wouldn’t be there. And then what would they do? Surely they wouldn’t turn right back around, would they?
It didn’t matter. Jasper would follow them to Standish’s country estate if necessary.
But first, they needed to get the horses watered and turned around.
He ran a hand down his face and then frowned at his watch.
She was going to think he didn’t love her. She was going to think he didn’t want her. Wait for me, Nia, he wished in his heart.
Wait for me.
Will He or Won’t He?
Nia stood alone outside the blacksmith. She’d asked Goldie to stay at the inn. If he came, she wanted to speak with him alone. If he did not, she didn’t want a witness to her humiliation.
And now, she stood devastated. She was going to have to go back to the inn and tell her sister that their return journey had been in vain.
She’d waited an extra thirty minutes.
He didn’t come.
The rejection was so unexpected, but also so shattering, that she couldn’t even bring herself to cry. Her heart had been convinced that he loved her. Her heart had convinced her he would come.
She blinked when the stinging in her eyes started up. At least he was being honest, just as she’d asked. She appreciated it, even if it left her shattered into a million pieces.
He didn’t come.
Nia crossed the road back to the inn—the same one where she’d spent one of the happiest nights of her life.
She would now spend one of her most miserable.
There were only a few hours of daylight left, and she couldn’t expect Lord Standish to order his carriage to turn around yet again. They’d remain for the night and begin the long journey home in the morning.
No, not home. Nia didn’t have a home. She did, but it wasn’t really home.
Jasper was home. Nia rubbed her chest, which felt heavy, but also horribly empty. She wasn’t prepared to go inside. It meant facing the truth.
But Goldie stepped outside just then and, after taking one look at Nia’s face, rushed toward her.
It was too much. The tears broke free, and Nia fell sobbing into her sister’s arms.
“He didn’t come,” she said. “He didn’t come.”
