“That’s it? You’re really going to let her go?”
“Simon!” Prudence gasped. “What would you have him do? Chase after someone lower than a peasant?”
Sudbury turned to her, his usual easy smile replaced by a disapproving scowl. “I don’t like this side of you, lady. It’s most unattractive.”
When she stared at him as if he’d slapped her and then began to weep, he looked pained, but turned back to Ben. “Don’t just stand there, Brother. You need her.”
“I can’t give up on…my dream,” Ben answered quietly.
His sister looked up. “What dream? Is it to be known as the rudest duke in the kingdom?”
Ben clenched his teeth remembering Lady Charlotte, along with her other cackling hens, belittling Miss Ramsey when he wasn’t there. He was sorry he hadn’t been there. Sorrier than he cared to be. He’d had to use every ounce of strength he possessed not to pull her into his arms in front of all, and hold her. He hadn’t known his sister had invited her five friends. When he told Edith to bring her to the dining Hall, he hadn't known they’d all be there, or that they would behave so ruthlessly.Still, it was no excuse for running away and leaving her at the mercy of others. Miss Ramsey had depended on him and he’d already let her down. He wanted to apologize to her. He wanted to beg her forgiveness for leaving and not protecting her. But she wasn’t what he needed to heal. Leading men into battle, fighting, and avenging his family was what he needed. Why had he let her make him sway in other directions? Why hadhe made himself her protector? Why should he stop her when it was better that she left?
“Lady Charlotte deserved to be thrown out,” he told his sister. “Make sure you don’t bring her back or I’ll throw her out again. And if you think for one moment that I would wed a woman like her, you’re mad.”
He had nothing else to say, and though they had barged into his private sitting room, he was the one who left. If Miss Ramsey was gone, he didn’t want to think of her or where she was going to go now.
When thunder shook the foundations, he looked toward the window and scowled darker than the skies outside. No. Not rain. Of course the trouble maker would choose to leave on a night when it was pouring rain.
With a low growl he ripped his cloak from Stephen’s hands. Without giving a thought to how his steward was always a step ahead of him, he opened the door and strode into the coming storm.
He went to the stable and quickly saddled his horse himself. He found a lantern, lit it, and looked around. The heavy charcoal clouds were almost upon them. Which way should he go? He looked toward the northeast, toward Ipswich and started that way. He called out her name, and then heard others calling as well. Sudbury and Stephen, along with six other servants. Turning to watch them approach, he drew in a deep breath then proceeded to give them all direction like a high-ranking soldier.
He watched as they spread out then turned to his own path.
After a quarter of an hour, they still hadn’t found her. When the rains started, Ben’s vision did him little good. He called her name, hoping she had found shelter and was keeping dry. She’d said she knew how to survive on her own. But whenhe’d found her in his garden, she was starving and she could barely walk.
He called out again, holding up his lantern to see.
What if there truly was a man chasing her? And what if he found her? Ben’s heart thumped with such force, he thought he could hear it. Why had he let her leave? What happened to his iron control?
And then, he saw her out of the corner of his eye. A liquid flame wavering in the flashing lightning. Another figure appeared to huddle in the downpour before seeing him and taking off. Was it a trick of Ben’s eyes?
Letting the figure flee, he thundered toward her on his horse. He leaped from the saddle before the mount stopped–before Fable’s body hit the ground. He caught her and clutched her to his chest, her hair dripping over his arms like streaks of blood. “Miss Ramsey? Fable? Fable?” He shielded her face from the rain but she didn’t open her eyes.
Lifting her in his arms, he bent to listen for her breathing. He couldn’t hear anything but the alarms going off in his head. “What are you trying to do to me, Lady?” he asked, scooping up her limp, cold body. He had to get her back to the house and the physician. Letting that one mission lead him, he secured her to his horse and leaped up behind her and raced home.
He burst through the door, calling for the physician and Edith, giving orders to the latter to send out some men to bring Sudbury and the others back.
He brought her to her bed and set her down in it. “Does she live?” He’d tried to keep his voice calm and steady when he spoke to the physician. He was a master at remaining calm, but when it came to her, he lost control over his senses.
“She lives,” the physician assured him.
“What’s the matter with her? Why isn’t she waking up?”
“Your Grace,” the physician told him with a slight sigh while Ben paced. “You will be the first to know once I figure it out myself.”
“You can survive on your own, hmm?” Ben asked over her unconscious form. “You didn’t last two hours!”
The physician wisely pretended not to hear him and continued to examine her. Twice, Ben glowered at him impatiently. Edith returned to tend to her and practically pushed him out of the way. He glared at her as well.
Finally finished with his examination, the physician looked up. “She needs to be kept warm. She wasn’t completely recovered. She never should have gone out in the rain.” He handed Edith a packet of herbs with instructions on putting it in her tea.
“Perhaps,” he paused on his way out and said to Ben, “you should try to keep her out of trouble.”
Ben would have laughed if he wasn’t scowling so hard until the physician left.
“Why did she leave, Your Grace?” Edith asked him quietly when they were alone. “I thought she liked it here.”
