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stop me, you are mad.”
Hearing his voice only made her run faster. Damn these skirts and stays. She glanced up and saw Hartsfield Park through her tears of pain. It was right there. She hiked up her skirts to run faster. She had to make it up the knoll.
She made one mistake... looking backward.
Stumbling over a stone, she fell on the soft grass. Even knowing he was approaching, she wanted to do nothing but close her eyes and fall asleep in this spot. But she couldn’t. She started to scramble back to her feet but Allan yanked her up.
“Did you really think you could outrun me?”
For one minute, she had.
He glared at her as blood seeped from the wound in his shoulder. He must have pulled out the knife before stalking her. “Are you looking at your handiwork?”
She shook her head as a wave of dizziness swept over her. The dizziness was not a good sign. If she lost consciousness, all would be lost. Allan would drag her back to his cottage and no one would find her until he was ready to be rid of her. She blinked and tried to focus on something other than the spinning world around her.
“Come on, we’re not finished with our conversation,” he said, grabbing her arm in his tight grip.
Mia glanced about quickly and realized where she was. Even if it wasn’t marked, she knew where she stood. “No.”
That one word stopped him. He turned to face her and snarled, “What?”
“We are on the Earl of Hartsfield’s lands. If you abduct me from his land, you can hang.”
He only laughed. “Who will see me?”
A distant voice called out, “Miss Featherstone, is that you? Do you need assistance?”
Mia closed her eyes in relief hearing his voice. “Apparently, the earl himself will see you.”
“Goddamn you to hell.” He released her arm and ran back down the slight hill.
She opened her eyes and noticed the earl racing toward her. She was home. Knowing she was safe, she did what she wanted to do before Allan had found her outside. She fell to the grass as blackness overcame her.
Chapter 2
Simon Blakesworth watched with dread as Mia fell to the ground. He ran down the hill only to find her facedown in the soft grass. Carefully, he rolled her over. Nausea roiled in his stomach as he saw the marks on her body. Her left eye was red and swelling quickly. By tomorrow, it would be black-and-blue. The left side of her jaw looked as if it had taken multiple blows.
He was going to kill whoever did this to her.
No one touched his wise woman.
He slowly gathered her in his arms and walked toward Hartsfield Park. She groaned in pain with every step he took. He pushed away the emotions eating at him and stormed into his house. “Get Mrs. Featherstone up here immediately,” he ordered his butler, Harris.
“Yes, my lord,” Harris mumbled. “What happened to Miss Featherstone?”
“I don’t know. Someone tried to hurt her.”
“Oh, my lord, who would ever want to hurt such a kind lady?”
Simon only shook his head. “I will place her in the rose bedchamber,” Simon shouted down as he climbed the steps.
Once he reached the rose bedchamber, he entered the room and eased her down on the soft bed. She moaned again and blinked her eyes open slightly.
“My lord?”
“Shh, Miss Featherstone. Your mother is on her way.”
“She is going to be so angry,” she muttered.
