How had Glenmoor come up from London so quickly?The answer didn’t matter. He had done it, and she would have to endure. The Clarion carriage had been sent back to Ashmead.
Morgan—Brynn—the deserter, had left her twisting on her own at dinner. He had sat in grim silence most of the meal. When he had spoken, it had been to tweak Phillip about mining conditions, about which Brynn appeared to have issues of his own, ones she knew nothing about. Now he rode outside, leaving her to Phillip’s mercy while her lies lay heavy in her heart, a burden eased only by her certainty that there would be time enough for truth when they knew whether Gideon still lived. She would leave Phillip secure in his title as long as she could—forever if they didn’t find his brother alive.
She clamped her jaw tight and tried to lock her concern for her stepsons away and let irritation about Brynn’s unfair sarcasm drive out less comfortable considerations. Unfortunately, she wasn’t entirely certain his comments were unfair. Unkind, perhaps. Still, she well knew absentee landowners could easily be fleeced by dishonest stewards at their tenants’ expense. She suspected the situations in mines and manufactories would be worse. Why that problem should be a particular distress for the colonel, whose life and career took him far from that world, was a puzzle. Perhaps, before this was over, she would unravel it. For now, her longing to know more about the colonel gave her something other than Gideon Jessop’s fate to consider.
Phillip didn’t help. He dredged up every happy memory he had of Gideon.
Some Maddy knew; a few stunned her. “He hid you in the granary?”
“Father would never go inside it. He sent his pet footman into every outbuilding, calling for me; he was that angry. Gideon hid me well, though.”
“What had you done?”
“I came home muddy and full of mischief after fishing with boys from the village—undignified and unacceptable behavior in a duke’s heir. Gideon heard one of Father’s toadies reporting my sins and hid me away. He said that Father would calm down and I’d be safe in a day. He was right.”
“Your father calmed down?”
“After he beat Gideon for it instead. It wasn’t the first beating he took for me. It wasn’t the last.”
She had no idea Gideon had protected Phillip—how could she have missed that? The abuse sounded all too familiar, though, and upon thought, so did the care.
“He tried to protect me, too,” she mused. Absolute certainty that he had come to warn her about something the night they’d caught him in her room lodged in her mind. He’d meant to protect, and she owed him more concern than she’d shown when she’d fled Woodglen.
She put a hand on her stepson’s arm. “If he’s alive, we’ll find him. Colonel Morgan will help us.” Though what she would do if they found him alive continued to elude her.
The day stretched on. She pretended to sleep until she actually did, which was why, when the coach lurched to a stop shortly after dark, she awoke with some difficulty, wondering where they were.
Still half asleep, she smiled when the door opened and the carriage lights revealed Brynn’s face peering in. She rose from the undignified position sleep had put her in and fussed with her coiffure, which had come loose, securing her pins. Brynn’s heated expression made joy well in her belly. Feminine instinct told her he liked what he saw. “Where are we?”
“Welcome to Wales. Your coachman is managing the first of what I fear will be many tollbooths.” He glanced past her to Glenmoor and back at Maddy’s face. “May I have a moment, Your Grace?” He held out a hand to help her down, not giving Phillip time to object.
Her eyes adjusted while she let herself be led to the side of the road. She could see a few buildings ahead. She huddled as close to him as she dared.
“We’re in Pandy, Madelyn.”
“Pandy, but that is only…”
“You’ve gone twenty miles more or less. Not bad in this terrain. There is an adequate inn just ahead.”
“But isn’t Abergavenny several miles on? We could continue.” Maddy had studied the maps the night before.
“Without a moon? In the hills? On these roads? No. I will tell Glenmoor so.” He waited for her nod before going on. “I’m leaving you here, now that you have Glenmoor and his servants for protection.”
“Leaving? In the hills? On these roads?” She parroted his words back at him and heard him chuckle. She had meant it as a put-down, while panic clawed at her throat.
“Safer for a man on horseback. An armed man who knows Welsh.”
“But where are you going, and why are you leaving us?”How can you desert me?
“My brother has no idea we’re coming. I think it wise to go on ahead and warn him, don’t you? I can get there before any message and deliver the news more delicately.”
Ahead. They would join him. He wasn’t abandoning her. Relief left her weak at the knees.
“I’ve given the coachman instructions for how to find me. When you get to Brynhafan, we’ll talk.”
“Brynhafan?”
“My brother’s house.”
