Harred reached for the reins and urged the team forward. As they merged into the street, the left back wheel hit a rut, causing it to fall off. The phaeton tipped to the side as the rear left axle dragged on the ground and Octavia felt herself being ejected from the vehicle.
Chapter Nine
Harred was thrown from the phaeton and landed with a thud on the pavement. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky as he caught his breath. What had just happened? He was all too aware that wheels could break but he had never heard of a wheel coming completely off the rear frame.
He groaned as he sat up and reached for his head. When he pulled his hand back, he saw blood on his fingertips. He must have hurt himself worse than he had thought.
Octavia!
What had become of her?
Harred turned his head and saw Octavia sitting up on the pavement with Fredrick by her side. It appeared as if they were fortunate, and no one was seriously injured.
As he went to rise, the main door of Fredrick’s townhouse opened and his butler ran out, followed by five footmen.
The butler crouched down by Fredrick and Octavia and started conversing with them. The footmen went to secure the team of horses that had come to a stop in the center of the street. They then worked together to move the phaeton to the side of the pavement.
Harred had a terrible headache and everything seemed to hurt. He slowly made his way over to Fredrick and Octavia.
“How are you?” he asked Octavia.
Octavia remained in her seated position. Her face was pale, which greatly concerned him, and a slight grimace appeared on her lips. “It hurts every time I blink,” she informed him. “But nothing appears to be broken.”
Fredrick’s eyes flashed with fury. “What in the blazes happened, Kendal?” he half-asked, half-demanded.
“The wheel came off,” Harred said as he saw the large wheel resting on the pavement a short distance away.
“Wheels just don’t come off,” Fredrick declared. “Not unless your grooms are completely and utterly incompetent.”
Harred shook his head, and he regretted doing so almost immediately. “I will speak to my grooms, but I can’t imagine that they made such a terrible mistake.”
Fredrick rose and dusted off his trousers. Then he reached down and offered his hand to Octavia. “Come, let us look at the phaeton. Perhaps it will give us some clues as to what just happened.”
Harred followed his friend over to the back of the phaeton and studied the frame. “Nothing appears out of place, other than the wheel being gone.”
A footman approached him and said in a hushed voice, “My lord, something is amiss with the reins.”
“Show me,” Harred ordered.
The footman took a step back and reached for the reins. He held them up for Harred’s inspection and revealed, “Someone cut them and one good jerk would have broken them completely.”
Fredrick stepped over to stand next to him and studied the reins. “This was no accident. Someone didn’t want us to walk away from this carriage.”
“But who would do such a thing?” Harred asked. “I have no enemies or anyone that wants to see me dead.”
“Clearly, someone does,” Fredrick said. “If the roads had been any busier, we could have been trampled by another carriage. Or you could have snapped the reins and lost control of the team. Which would have been catastrophic when the wheel came off.”
Octavia’s voice came from behind them. “We are drawing some unwanted attention,” she remarked. “Perhaps we could continue this conversation in the privacy of our townhouse.”
Harred glanced around and saw that Octavia was right. People were standing around, gawking at them and their predicament.
Without saying a word, Fredrick offered his arm and led his sister back towards their townhouse. Harred followed behind them and it wasn’t long before they were standing in the drawing room.
Octavia dropped down onto the settee and rotated her right wrist in a slow motion. “It isn’t broken, but it is rather sore,” she revealed.
“How did you let this happen?” Fredrick growled, advancing towards Harred. “My sister could have been killed.”
Harred understood Fredrick’s anger, but it was misplaced. He would never have placed Octavia intentionally in harm’s way. “It wasn’t as if I planned for this to happen,” he tried to explain. “I didn’t even know that someone wanted me dead until now.”
