Page 75 of The Burdened Duke
I daresay we’ll never come back here,Lavinia thought, her heart sinking more.
She wasn’t sure whether she had truly absorbed what was going on, how entirely her prospects were destroyed. Their sudden departure would be all anybody would talk about for the rest of their stay. The Dowager’s friendship with Lady Brennon was likely over. If they were lucky, a plausible excuse might be invented.
Lavinia did not feel particularly lucky at the moment. She leaned back against the carriage seat, resting her head and closing her eyes.
“We’re ruined,” Lady Brennon said bitterly, cutting into her thoughts.
“Stop it, Mama,” Gillian said, with more sharpness in her voice than Lavinia had ever heard before.
It seems that my sweet, kindly little sister isfinally starting to find her way and grow into herself,Lavinia thought.All it took was all of my hopes and dreams to be dashed at one blow.
And hers too, I imagine.
I never even got Hugh’s locket back.
That felt like the hardest part of all. A lump formed in her throat, choking her and stinging her eyes with tears.
I could write to him when we get home. Request him to send over my locket. He knows how important it is to me, what Hugh meant to me. Surely, he would have a little pity, at least.
Miss Bainbridge might advise him to be kind. She can be a kind woman, I imagine, once she’s won. Anybody can be generous in victory.
Deep down, however, Lavinia did not believe she could put pen to paper if she knew she were writing to the duke.
To William.
She could ask Gillian, perhaps, although Gillian had already done far too much on her behalf.
Lavinia bit her lip, praying that she would not disgrace herself with more tears in front of her family. She wasn’t sure what was worse – the tangible sympathy on the faces of her father and sister, or the cold fury on her mother’s.
Wouldn’t it be funny if the carriage door opened up, right now, and I just tumbled out?Lavinia thought, hysterical laughter bubbling to the surface.That would be pleasant. Just falling out into the ditches on either side of the road, perhaps knocking myself unconscious. Lord, what I wouldn’t give to sleep for a while right now.
Sleep seemed a long way off for her right now. Her father, naturally, was beginning to nod, eyes flickering.
Abruptly, without warning, nausea lurched in Lavinia’s stomach, a sharp reminder that she had not eaten since last night.
“I feel sick,” she murmured. Lady Brennon gave a snort.
“Well might you feel sick! I feel sick. All of us feel sick, on account of our prospects and hopes for the future dwindling into nothing! For my part, I am shocked and horrified to learn that…”
Lavinia tried to block out her mother’s shrill, angry tones. Shifting towards the window, she focused on the scenery flashing by.
Are those horses’ hooves I can hear?She thought faintly.
A black flash shot past the window, and Lavinia flinched back, gasping aloud.
“What is the matter with you now, Lavinia?” Lady Brennon snapped.
And then there was chaos.
A shout came from the coachman, and the entire carriage lurched forward and to the side, skidding to a painful halt. All of them were flung bodily from their seats.
In the painful silence that followed, Lavinia clearly heard a man shouting, a horse snorting, and the stamp of iron-clad hooves on hard-packed road.
“What’s going on?” Lord Brennon quavered, reaching up to bang on the roof. “Coachman? What is it?”
“It’s footpads,” Lady Brennon gasped, clutching at Gillian’s hands. “Oh, what have we done? What trouble are we in now? We are going to be robbed and then left dead on the side of the road!”
Lavinia tried to ignore her mother’s panicked babbling, instead leaning forward and trying to catch glimpses of the conversation outside. The coachman sounded angry.
