He rocked back, collapsing on his backside beside her. “My God, I’m sorry, Sarah. I didn’t know she was capable of so much.”
“There was no way to know,” Sarah soothed him gently. “She wanted us to think she’d left the village, just so we would let our guards down and she could snatch Phoebe.”
His heart felt sick and he bowed his head. Before he could say anything more, Lucas came back into the clearing, his gun put away and his face long and frustrated.
“She’s gone,” he said. “There was a rig on the ridge that she left behind, but she took one of the mounts. I’ll never catch up to her on foot. Did she give any indication as to where she’d go?”
“She said America,” Sarah said as Kit rose and helped her to her feet. “She wanted Kit to know, wanted him to let her go and told me she’d never come back now that she’ll have a price on her head for kidnapping and murder.”
Kit turned away with a groan. “That woman. She is…a demon.” Lucas sent him a hard look, and Kit turned back to Sarah. “But she saved you. Come, are you up to walking back to the house? We’ll likely meet the rescue party Diana is putting together along the way, and we can ride back from there.”
Sarah let out her breath in a ragged sigh. “Yes,” she said. “I’m ready to go home.”
Kit took her arm, and they followed as Lucas led them back through the woods toward the main path. He felt Sarah’s trembling as he helped her through the brambles. And he also felt her uncertainty. But now was not the time for confession. No, he wanted to do that when they were alone and he could truly reveal his heart to her. And hope she would accept what he had to say now that the danger had passed.
Diana stepped into the little room Sarah had been keeping as governess and smiled at her. “Phoebe is asleep?”
Sarah nodded. “At last. It took a great deal to calm her. We will have to be extra attentive for a while. But she’s such a sweet child, with so much love. Strange that her mother has so little.”
“Just enough,” Diana said with a solemn glance at the bandages around Sarah’s wrists and what she knew was a terrible bruise on her face. “Did the salve help at all?”
Sarah lifted her hand to the spot. “Yes, the pain is much better, thank you.”
“I’ll stay until the bandages no longer need changing,” Diana said. “Lucas has already written to have the docks and ports watched for that dreadful Beckett woman.”
“But we both know she’ll be long gone before anyone can do that,” Sarah sighed.
Diana shrugged. “If she truly means to exile herself to another continent, then I think you can feel safe.”
“I’m sure I will, with time.”
“And love,” Diana said. “I was sent here not just to check on you, but because Kit wants to see you.”
Sarah bent her head. She had been waiting for this moment. Dreading it, really, because she already knew what would happen. What she had to say to him and what his reaction would probably be.
But now the moment was here. She got up and trudged to the door. “Is he in his study?”
“No,” Diana said quietly. “He’s in his chamber.Ourchamber, I believe is what he actually said to me, meaning yours and his.”
Heat filled Sarah’s cheeks and she peeked up at her friend. “So he still intends to marry me.”
“I would say so, if he’s calling his bedroom your chamber.” Diana smiled. “And yet you love him and you don’t look happy.”
“Obligation is not a great aphrodisiac, is it?”
“It’s more than that, and I think you know it. Maybe it frightens you a little.” Diana patted her cheek. “But that’s up to you and him to work out. I’m just the messenger. Good night, my dear. And good luck.”
She left and Sarah got up. She looked at herself in the narrow full-length mirror. She was bruised and a little battered, marked from her brush with danger. But Kit wanted to see her and there was no avoiding that.
No matter how long she wished to do so.
She stepped from her chamber and made the long walk down the hall to Kit’s room. Outside his door, she paused, gathering herself, and then she knocked. He answered it, his jacket, cravat and boots gone. His shirt was half undone and his normally impeccable hair mussed. He looked like Kit, not the Duke of Kingsacre, as he had that morning. He stepped back to allow her inside the chamber wordlessly. She noted the door to his bedroom was closed and her heart sank a little.
It might be that what she’d come to say would be received more with relief than an argument. And perhaps that was for the best.
Once he’d shut the door, he stepped up and looked closer at the damage to her face. “Oh, Sarah,” he whispered, his voice shaking.
She shook her head. “The bruises will fade. There is nothing permanent to any of it.”
