Page 65 of The Earl She Once Saved

“No.” The answer came too quickly.

Rafe looked at her.

“You do not know the estate,” she said. “You cannot see the roads in this weather. There are ditches beyond the lower field, and the bridge by the wood floods whenever—”

“Where does he go?”

“What?”

“When he is frightened.”

Verity’s thoughts would not hold still. “Small places. Somewhere covered. He hates the wind.”

“Does he know the lower wood?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then I shall begin there.”

“I am coming with you.”

“No.”

Anger rose through her fear. “You do not give me orders.”

“I know.”

“Then stand aside.”

Rafe did not move. Rain blew through the doorway behind him, darkening one shoulder of his coat.

“Verity.”

Something in his voice stopped her, something painfully akin to a promise.

“Stay here,” he urged. “If he returns, he will look for you.”

She stared at him.

“I will bring him back.”

The groom came running from the direction of the stables, leading Rafe’s horse. The animal tossed its head against the rain.

Verity found a dozen arguments. The road was dangerous. Rafe’s shoulder was still injured. He did not know where the ground fell away beyond the orchard. She gave voice to none of them before he stepped into the storm.

“Rafe.”

He glanced back once. Then the door closed between them, and all Verity could do was wait. Waiting was its own form of helplessness. She had always despised it.

Work offered sequence. A failed roof could be measured, a debt calculated and an illness treated. Even grief came with duties: letters to be written, servants informed, a body prepared.

Waiting offered nothing.

She was sitting in the drawing room because it faced the drive. Rain streamed down the windows, distorting the lamps outside into pale smears. Every gust pushed against the glass.

Ezra sat across from her. Win remained near the fire, though there was no reason for her to do so. The rest of the servants had gone through the grounds with lanterns. Now and then, a light appeared beyond the window before the rain swallowed it.

Verity could not keep still. She rose, crossed to the window, returned to the chair, sat for less than a minute, then rose again.