More Than A Mistress by Ann Lethbridge

Author:Ann Lethbridge
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-05-02T06:39:03+00:00

Chapter Twelve

It hadn’t taken them long to pack and pile Caro, Beth and poor little Tommy inside the carriage. Jane had disappeared. They’d looked all through the house, until Beth finally volunteered she’d gone for a walk earlier in the afternoon and hadn’t returned.

They didn’t have time to search for her and Caro had no qualms that the woman could look out for herself.

Not all the servants had wanted to come with them. Cook and Gribble preferred to guard the house with an old blunderbuss they’d found in the stables. The stable boy and the other young footman had run home across the fields with some extra coin to make sure of their welcome. They’d promised to come back the next day and check on the house.

There was no more they could do.

Merry looked back, but could see nothing of Jed and the town carriage. Night had fallen and they’d decided against lighting the carriage lamps.

She had insisted on driving and had been surprised when Charlie hadn’t argued. He must feel worse than he openly admitted. The vehicle was beautifully sprung and light bodied; the horses, tired from their earlier race, were docile. Ahead, the rear gate looked extremely narrow.

‘I’ll get down and walk them through,’ she said, slowing the team.

‘You’ll be fine,’ Charlie said. ‘Aim for the gap and envisage yourself on the other side.’

His trust in her was quite remarkable. He’d never seen her drive until now.

She took a deep breath, steadied the offside horse, who tended to break step, and shot out into the lane. She made the turn easily. Beside her Charlie relaxed against the seat back. ‘Couldn’t have done it better myself.’

Brian, riding on the step behind her seat, gave an audible sigh. ‘Right gradely, miss.’

She grinned. ‘Praise indeed.’

She and Charlie laughed.

‘Spring ‘em,’ he said.

She flicked her whip and the team broke into a nice steady canter. The carriage rocked a little, but held the road beautifully. ‘This is as fast as we dare go,’ she said, ‘or Jed won’t keep up.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.