When You Give a Rogue a Rebel by Jane Ashford

Author:Jane Ashford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

Diana had traveled through the long summer evening and twilight and stopped at a small posting house when darkness fell. Sitting in the hired chaise, Fanny in the opposite corner, she had kept her mind carefully blank. It was no good regretting the past, she told herself, and the future held little to anticipate. It was best not to think. Diana watched the passing scenery with wide, abstracted eyes, seeing it without registering details. She answered Fanny’s occasional remarks, though these grew fewer as they drove and the girl picked up Diana’s mood, and she attended to whatever mundane duties the journey entailed. But Diana felt as if she was only half-alive in the carriage. A large part of her was sealed off, perhaps forever, from the joys and pains of the world.

At the inn, they bespoke a room and a late supper, but Diana could not eat, and when she was in bed, sleep did not come. In the quiet darkness, it was more difficult to ignore her situation, and, as the hours passed, Diana became more and more dejected.

Captain Wilton, riding through the night, his pace necessarily slow, was not much better off. He, too, had given up thinking. It led him round and round the same questions without a glimmer of resolution, and he had taken refuge in action. Fortunately, the way was difficult without light, and keeping to the road and avoiding obstacles required all his faculties. He had a good idea of how far Diana’s chaise could have gone in the time elapsed, but it was hard to judge distances without landmarks, and he had often to pause and calculate where he might be. In this way, the night passed rapidly for him, and, when the first streaks of dawn appeared on the horizon, he was surprised.

A glance at the rising sun told Robert that he had somehow strayed off the main north road and into a lane, but, when he turned his mount and galloped back, concerned in spite of his uncertainties that he would miss Diana, he reached the highway quickly. And another half hour’s ride brought him to the posting house where she was most likely to be. Inquiring, he found he had judged correctly, and he swung down from his horse and went in to order breakfast.

Diana had meant to make a very early start. But her sleeplessness in the first part of the night had given way to exhaustion as morning approached, and she slept heavily until eight, stirring only gradually at Fanny’s urging.

“You said to be sure and wake you,” the maid said defensively when Diana rose on one elbow and blinked to clear her vision.

“Yes.”

“I’m sure I would have let you sleep.”

“It’s all right.” Diana felt as if her head were stuffed with cotton batting. “Is there tea?”

“Yes, indeed, miss.” Fanny indicated a small tray on the side table, then poured out a cup.

Diana drank gratefully, returned the cup, and rubbed her eyes. Feeling a little better, she pushed back the covers.

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