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Incredibly, the threat worked, allowing her twenty minutes of rare, comparative peace, listening to the sound of Oliver’s snoring and looking out at the darkness encroaching over the landscape outside. From what she could see through the carriage windows, Derbyshire had a wild, untamed kind of beauty, filled with wild-looking moors and jagged rock forma
tions. Unfortunately for them, however, it wasn’t Yorkshire, which meant that they still had another day of cramped conditions and moaning ahead before they reached Feversham. Which also meant another day of gradually building trepidation and dread.
It had seemed like a good idea at the time, leaving Nancy and Belinda in peace and giving herself and the boys a holiday, but now she was starting to wonder if she’d taken leave of her senses by agreeing to come. It wasn’t just that she was going to stay in a manor—a manor! She knew Sebastian’s mother well enough to know that she wouldn’t be turned away, no matter what his uncle and grandmother might think of her. It wasn’t even that she was afraid of being in the same company as a dowager duchess. Anna was a countess, after all, and one of her best friends.
It was that she’d kissed Sebastian! Right after she’d told him that she wouldn’t be used or possessed by any man ever again! She’d kissed him and now she had no idea what it meant. In all the commotion of packing and organising, there hadn’t been any chance to discuss it and it wasn’t as if they could talk in front of her nephews. Which had left her with three days, trapped inside a carriage, with little to do except think.
What did it mean? More to the point, what did his invitation to come north mean? She knew that he wasn’t the kind of man who would act dishonourably, but that didn’t mean he’d thought their situation through. In fact, he definitely hadn’t, considering that he’d both kissed and invited her on impulse. And even if he had felt serious about her at the time—serious enough to invite her to meet his family—surely he’d change his mind once he had time to reflect?
For a start, and no matter what he said, they were too far apart socially. For another thing, there were the boys. It was one thing to help her look after them, but to take responsibility and become a surrogate father if David didn’t come back, which she was starting to accept as a real possibility, was a different matter entirely. In which case, it was foolish to even contemplate a future together and better to remain as just friends...wasn’t it?
The situation wasn’t helped by the fact that they were sharing a chamber at night. It had actually been her idea to pretend they were a man and wife travelling with their sons. In her defence, she’d had a sneaking suspicion that Sebastian had charged her only a fraction of the real price of stagecoach tickets, despite her own insistence on paying, and she hadn’t wanted him to spend any more money on her and her nephews than necessary. Besides which, as she’d explained with increasingly red cheeks, it was safer for them all to be in one room and it would save the bother of explaining the situation to every innkeeper they met.
She must have had children at a very young age, Sebastian had teased her, but he’d agreed readily enough, telling the boys that it was all part of a game. Consequently, every evening after dinner, he left the chamber to allow them to wash and change into their nightclothes before coming back and settling himself into either a spare truckle bed or an armchair by the fire. It was an eminently practical arrangement, but one that had left no opportunity to talk privately, something she really wanted to do before they reached Feversham, if only to work out how they ought to behave.
And all this thinking was giving her a headache...
She was just attempting to adjust her position when the carriage swung sideways abruptly, lurching to a halt in front of a small coaching inn and jolting Peter and Oliver awake at the same moment.
‘Here we are.’ Henrietta gave them both a squeeze, letting the middle-aged couple and their daughter descend first before climbing out of the carriage and stretching her arms above her head with relief.
‘I’m hungry,’ Michael grumbled beside her.
‘We’re all hungry.’
‘I don’t know about you, but I could eat a cow.’ Sebastian jumped down from the roof, landing with a heavy thud beside them. ‘Only let’s start with something smaller, shall we? Some stew, perhaps?’
‘I like stew.’ Oliver grinned.
‘Excellent!’ He reached down, scooping her youngest nephew up under one arm before grabbing hold of their travelling bag with the other. ‘Now let’s go and find a room, shall we? You boys can carry that chest between you, I hope?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Henrietta watched with amazement as Michael and Peter transformed into young cadets before her eyes, trotting behind Sebastian as he led them first into the taproom and then up a creaking staircase into a cosy, wood-panelled bedchamber.
‘I’ll order some dinner before it gets too busy.’ Sebastian dropped a giggling Oliver on to the bed and the bag on to the floor alongside.
‘Let me do it.’ Henrietta showed the boys where to put the chest. ‘You should warm yourself by the fire. You must have been frozen on that roof.’
‘I’ve felt worse, believe me, although I have to admit the wind was bracing. I have no cobwebs left, but at least we’re done with stagecoaches now. Feversham’s only a few miles from here. If it wasn’t so late, I’d hire a cart to take us there tonight.’
‘Just a few miles?’ Henrietta’s voice emerged as a croak. Suddenly she wished they had a week of cramped carriages ahead of them. ‘But I thought we were still in Derbyshire?’
‘Only just. Yorkshire’s over the next hill.’
‘So we’ll arrive tomorrow?’
‘Before lunch, I should think.’ His smile faltered briefly. ‘Now, I’ll be back in a few minutes. Stew all round!’
‘Wait...!’ Henrietta hastened into the corridor after him, pulling the door half closed behind her to block out the chorus of cheers from within.
‘What’s the matter?’ Sebastian turned around at once. ‘Would you prefer something else?’
‘No, it’s not the food, it’s about tomorrow. I’ve been thinking—perhaps it isn’t such a good idea our coming with you to Feversham, after all. Maybe we could just stay here for a few days? Or somewhere close by? I don’t want us to be in the way.’
Sebastian’s brow furrowed. ‘If you think I’m just going to abandon you here, then you’re very mistaken. We’ve come this far together and that means we stay together.’
‘But it’s not your house. It’s your uncle’s. He might think that you’ve taken a liberty by inviting us.’
