Page 98 of Married to the Earl

A rush of relief washed over Conor, but he managed to keep his expression to a bare smile. “Thank you, constable,” he said, and returned to Astrid’s side.

Chapter 39

The carriage ride home felt too short for Astrid’s liking. It was such a relief, after everything that had happened, to be snuggled against Conor’s side. She wanted to talk to him, to tell him all the things she had done in his absence, to see whether he would be shocked or proud of her, but she was too exhausted to speak.

“It’s all right,” Conor said, seeing her eyelids drooping. “You’ve had a shock. Your body’s reacting to it. You don’t need to fight it.”

But she wanted to fight it. Her eyelids were drooping, but she didn’t want to sleep. “Can’t stay awake,” she murmured.

“Sleep,” he said. “I’ll wake you when we get home.”

But Astrid felt as though she had only been asleep for a few minutes when the carriage jerked to a stop. The stillness and the lack of rumbling over cobblestones was what woke her. She struggled to sit upright.

Conor opened the carriage door, not waiting for his driver to come and do it for him. “Come on,” he said, stepping out and holding out a hand to assist Astrid. “You’ll feel better with some food in you.”

Even the thought of eating was exhausting, and Astrid thought she would likely fall asleep right at the table. But she didn’t protest. It felt too good to have Conor wrap his arm around her waist and take her by the hand, steering her gently into the dining room, guiding her into a chair.

He knelt before her and cradled his face in her hands. “You’re so lovely,” he whispered. “I’m so glad you aren’t hurt.”

“He never wanted to hurt me,” Astrid said. “He wanted to hurt you.” She brought her hand up to her own cheek and laid it over his. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

“You’re sorry? Why areyousorry?”

“It’s my fault you were in that situation,” she said. “If I hadn’t been kidnapped—”

“Oh, Astrid, no. It isn’t your fault you were kidnapped. How could you think such a thing?”

“Because I shouldn’t have been out of the manor at all,” she said. “I knew better. I knew what I was doing was risky.”

“Whatwereyou doing?”

She told him, carefully laying out the way she and her father had gotten information against O’Flannagan and gone to his pub to confront him. She kept her gaze firmly on her knees as she spoke, afraid even to look at him, terrified that she would see anger or disappointment on his face.

“When we spoke to Mr. O’Flannagan, it became clear that he wasn’t guilty, any more than you were,” she finished. “And he agreed to help secure your release from jail. That’s where I was. But on my way home, my carriage was stopped, and I was taken.”

“You went there all alone,” he breathed.

She looked up. He was as white as a sheet. “I wasn’t alone,” she said. “My father was with me.”

“You went at night.”

“Yes, last night,” she said. “I had to go when no one else would be around, didn’t I?”

“You could have been killed,” he said. “If O’Flannagan had been the murderer…”

“But he wasn’t,” Astrid said.

“But if he had been,” Conor pressed. “I’m sure he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill you, to silence you. You took a terrible risk.”

“Are you angry with me?”

“You’re alive,” he said. “How could I be angry with anybody? I just…I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe you put yourself at risk that way.”

“I’m sorry.”

“But Astrid,” he continued. “None of that makes it your fault that you were kidnapped. You have to understand that. What Henry did is entirely his responsibility, and nobody else’s.”

She nodded and leaned into him.

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