CHAPTER 1
“Help! Please! You must help me!”
Miss Ophelia Turner screamed so loudly that her voice turned hoarse. However, the pounding rain that fell thick and heavy from the sky drowned it out so that it came as barely a whimper. Worse still, the wind which blew harshly, and the rumbling of thunder that rolled across the black sky, made it so she might not have screamed at all.
“Help!” she cried again as she stumbled along the muddy road. “Please!”
Ophelia was not screaming in vain. She might have done, because she felt so desperate that she wanted to fall to her knees and cry out as if that might somehow save her. Only, in this instance, there was a reason for her shouting.
For hours now, she had stumbled along the road. Her journey had started at a quick pace, running through the night as if beingchased, but as the hours wore on, and as the energy fled her body, it was all Ophelia could do to put one foot in front of the other.
She had no idea where she was. A problem, as there was somewhere that she needed to be. Told to run in a certain direction and not look back, she was promised that this road would lead her to safety.
And if not me, what I carry in my arms…
Those arms grew tired. She had on a thick coat, her arms hidden underneath, and in them she carried that which was the reason why she found herself on this empty road in the middle of the night. It was also the reason that she could not give up.
And she very nearly did give up. The rain lashed at her. The muddy road made each step a struggle. She nearly tripped, stumbled, wondered time and again what it was all for. Then, just as she was ready to collapse, she saw a faint glimmer of hope that gave her strength.
Through the darkness, down the road, Ophelia spied a dark figure wading slowly in her direction. It looked to be a man leading a horse, and while there was a part of her that worried about approaching such a stranger in the night, a larger part knew that she had no choice.
“Please!” she cried as she stumbled toward the man and his horse. “You must help me!”
“Who goes there?” The man’s voice broke through the storm.
“I am lost,” she shouted as she hurried toward the man and his horse. “Please! You must tell me in which direction lies Vermont Estate?”
There was little light to be found in darkness, but as the man came closer, his face became clearer. He was an elderly man, his back bent, his face crooked and broken. He wore a coat to cover himself from the rain, and he struggled mightily with the reins of his horse as he dragged it behind him.
But there was worry on his face when he saw Ophelia, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“This is no place for a woman,” the old man said. “What in God’s name are you thinking, being out in a storm like this?”
“Please…” She hurried closer, while also staying back in case she needed to flee. “Which way is Vermont Estate?”
He frowned. “You’re on it now. Where are you coming from?”
“I am?” Hope sparked inside of Ophelia so that she was almost able to ignore the pain in her legs and the tiredness in her body. “Duke Vermont’s manor? Which direction is it? Am I close?”
“His Grace?” The old man frowned as he looked at her. “What business have you there?”
“Please!” she begged, her arms growing weak. She pulled that which she held closer to her body, sure to keep it under her coat and hidden. “Which way?”
“I wouldn’t be going that way if I were you,” the old man said, concern and worry heard clearly in his tone. “Best you avoid that place entirely.”
Ophelia blinked. “What? What does that mean?”
“His Grace…” The old man hesitated. “The less said of him, the better, truth be told. You think this storm is bad?” He laughed bitterly. “The stories I could tell you.”
Ophelia hesitated, studying the old man the best that she could, as if searching for a lie. But he looked at her with brimming determination, as if he needed her to believe him.
Were times different, Ophelia might have listened. Sadly, such times were not these ones.
“What way?” she asked just as a clap of thunder ripped the sky in two. “Please!”
The old man clicked his tongue. “Back the way I came, if you must know. No more than a mile or so along this road. Can’t be missed. But now’s not the time to be disturbing dukes, especially not that one. Come with Betsy and me here.”
“Thank you,” she said, already backing away.
