The way his lips moved as he said her name felt like a kiss. As sweet as a marriage to Bex would be, Ester would lose some of her freedoms. She couldn’t say that and bruise his ego, but she’d never lie, so she nodded. “A woman exchanges her father’s house for her husband’s. Seems, at best, a draw, unless she marries poorly. With my parents surely fuming, no dowry will be paid. Yes, marriage is a loss.”
“I never thought of it like that. The female perspective seems depressing. Ester, you keep telling me to slow down, to wait. It seems that the closer we get to Gretna, the more out of favor the idea of us marrying is to you.” He scooped up her palm and held on to it and the reins. “Do you still want to wed?”
“Bex, I’m scared. This feels wrong. I left my parents to fret because I was angry. I disappeared without a word. It must be awful for them. They don’t know if I am alive. I’ve caused my mother so much pain by running away. Then I look at you, and I feel the pressure of your hand on mine, and everything is good again. I think there’s a chance we could be happy. Maybe all these mixed-up feelings happen when you elope.”
His lips became pensive, thinning to a line. “Ester, what if something was in my past. Something that could prevent us having a future, or a good future. Would you want to know?”
“What are you saying, Bex? “
His lips pressed to a line, and then he opened his mouth. “Ester—”
The phaeton veered sharply to the left.
Knock,bump.
Everything was out of control. Ester held to the seat, which jerked and threw her as if it would vault her into a tree.
“The horse. It looks lame. Hold on.” Bex reached forward and started undoing some of the harness strapping.
The screech of branches hitting the sides smothered the noise of the hooves.
Pine and oak limbs swatted at them, and she ducked. The scent of kicked-up mud and fresh-cut pine branches filled the air.
Bex tugged on the reins, but the world kept moving. The gig hit a bump, and soon everything went high into the air.
“Got it. Go horses.”
With one hand, Bex pushed at her back. “Jump, Ester.”
The horses released but the gig kept going. The bumps rattled everything. Her sketchbook flew up and went over the side.
“Please, Ester, jump.”
She looked at his face, heard the pleading in his voice, and did what he said. She leaped away from the phaeton. Rolling in dirt, kicking up moss, she finally stopped spinning.
But Bex.
His carriage flipped up in the air then flopped over. It rolled and rolled then righted itself with its roof smashed in.
“Bex!” She ran to wreckage. “Please be well. Please be well.”
She climbed up next to him, pushed leaves and branches from his still form. He was wedged into the floor beside the seating. His body wasn’t crushed like the phaeton’s roof, but he wasn’t moving. Waving a finger under his nose, she felt a breath, a slow, hot one. He was unconscious, but alive.
There was a lump and bruising on his forehead, but she saw no bleeding, no open wounds. He needed a physician.
Blood pumping, ringing in her ears, Ester smoothed his dark brown hair. “I had doubts, but I’m sure you holding my hand will give me the courage to say those vows. You hear me. You have to live. You have to be all right.”
The road was a good forty paces away. The lame horse was kneeling. She couldn’t do anything with that one, but the other was munching grass. It could still pull, if she could hitch it to the phaeton. “You can depend on me, Bex. I’m depending on you to recover and make me an honest woman.”
She kissed his forehead then climbed down.
Her sketchbook lay halfway between the gig and the horse. She scooped it up, thankful that Bex had made her jump. If she hadn’t, she might be too injured to help. He saved her, and now she’d do the same for him.
Shaking, she approached the standing horse.
It neighed at her and stretched its mouth wide. Ester hoped that the noise and the teeth were its way to show consent.
“Horse, if you’re spooked, then we have that in common.” She grabbed the rein ring. “Come on boy…or girl…or horse.” Trembling, she brushed at its gray mane. “We have to get Bex to safety. It’s just you and me. We have to do it.”
