Page 5 of Her Runaway Duke
Her mother sniffed loudly to show her displeasure.
“We do not have time to return home.”
“My family’s home is but steps away in Hanover Square,” Eliza said helpfully. “I will accompany Siena and we will return in minutes.”
Siena began to bob up and down to show how desperate her situation had become, and her mother waved a hand at her. “Stop that at once. Go. Be quick about it.”
Her mother called to the footman who was still with the carriage to accompany Eliza and Siena across the street to Eliza’s home. As her parents were both inside the church, there was little chance they would see anyone within but for the servants.
Eliza linked her arm with Siena’s as she hurried them to the house which was, fortunately, just out of sight from St. George’s.
“Come, let’s go,” she said as she pulled Siena around to the back of the first house as fast as their skirts and kid slippers would allow them. They reached the mews and then continued down the street to find the stables and a stablehand who was not as surprised as Siena would have expected him to be.
“Here you are,” he said, leading a horse out, and Siena looked at Eliza in shock.
“Did you prepare for this?”
“I have been preparing for this for a while,” she said grimly. “I had everything ready on the chance that you would actually agree to escape. We don’t have much time. The horse is yours for now. I have included a map within one of the saddlebags that will lead you to Streatham. From there, you can take a stagecoach and my cousin is prepared to meet you in Crawley. She will provide you with a place to live until you decide what you would like to do next. I have written to her with the particulars, and she has promised to be discreet. I would trust her with my life. In the saddlebags is all the money I had available for you. It is not nearly as much as I wish I could have given you, but it was the best I could do. There are also a few changes of clothes.”
Siena stood still, blinking her tears away. “Eliza, I… I don’t know what to say.”
Eliza leaned in and wrapped her arms around her in a quick embrace. “Just write to me when you are settled so that I know you are safe. I wish I could go with you or be of more help. You will likely have to work, but you would be an excellent governess. Or perhaps you can marry a man who might not be noble but could take care of you. And if you do decide to return and choose to marry the viscount, then blame it all on me.”
“Oh, Eliza, there will be such scandal,” Siena said as she started to consider just what it would mean to actually take this option and leave. “How are you ever going to explain my disappearance? Perhaps I shouldn’t?—”
“Siena,” Eliza said, taking Siena’s hands in hers. “Do not concern yourself for me. I have prepared your escape and I have also prepared an explanation. What doyouwant? Don’t think. Just feel.”
“I want to be in a happy marriage with children to love.”
“You can still have all of that. But we both know there will be no happy marriage with Lord Mulberry.”
“Very well,” she said, trying to absorb some of Eliza’s confidence in the future. “Thank you, Eliza. For everything.”
“Thank me by looking after yourself,” she said. “And don’t forget me.”
Siena stepped toward the horse, accepting the stablehand’s offer to mount it.
“Goodbye, Eliza.”
“Goodbye, Siena. And Godspeed.”
Siena hated the dark.
She had left London early enough that she should have reached Steatham on Eliza’s map in a very short time, but she must have become lost along the way for it had been hours now and the sun was beginning to lower beneath the horizon with no sign of civilization in sight.
Which she should have known was a risk. She had never had to read a map before, so why would it suddenly become a skill she could master?
Eliza would have been able to do so, Siena thought glumly as the weight of her current circumstance, her hunger, and her exhaustion from not sleeping the night before due to her worry over her impending marriage began to overcome her. A tear of despair leaked out of her eye, which she wiped away angrily, annoyed that it had even come to this.
She was even vexed with Eliza for suggesting this – which was a rarity, for she was never upset with Eliza, especially when she knew that her closest friend in the world was only looking out for her.
It was just that, Eliza would have been able to do this, which caused her to believe that Siena was equally as competent. Sienajust wished that Eliza would realize that they were not the same person, and that she was not nearly as capable.
Soon enough, the only light she would have to see by would be the stars above her and the crescent moon that had already made an appearance. She knew that anyone with experience would stop and set up camp, but what was she supposed to do? She had no way to start a fire, nothing to eat, and nothing but her cloak to sleep in. She would likely freeze. She should have just married the creepy viscount. It would have been better than freezing to death in the middle of the forest, would it not?
Then she pictured him again, remembering his lecherous gaze and comments about what to expect on their wedding night.
Maybe not.
