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“It’s my life.”
By now Alicia had reached the open door, next to which she could see the family butler standing at attention. He nodded to the portal and gave her a fond, toothless smile.
“Goodbye, Mister Wentworth, and thank you,” Alicia said without pausing.
“Godspeed, Miss Alicia,” said the butler, closing the door firmly behind her.
Alicia could clearly hear sounds of blood and fury escaping from behind the closed front door of the Ramsbury house as Grace excoriated the poor servant. But even as she worried for Mister Wentworth’s safety, she did not break her stride, and in a trice, she had hopped into the carriage beside Jenny and Herbert urged the team into motion.
Hold on, Laurence,she thought, any worries about Grace now vanished completely as the horses pulled them down the road that led out of the city.I’m coming back to you.
* * *
The road was a long and bumpy one, and Herbert’s moans of protest could be heard echoing over hill and dale as he pushed the horses to a canter. But his hands steered them true, and Alicia sighted the outside of the Gillingham farm just as the flaming sun brushed the treetops on the horizon.
“Laurence!” she cried, flinging open the door before the carriage had fully come to a stop in front of the farmhouse.
“Miss Alicia!” Jenny called after her in alarm. But Alicia was deaf to this caution. Her feet flew across the dry, cracked dirt, her heart warmed by the familiar sights that she could scarcely believe she had seen just the day before.
Thoughts filled her head of the reception she would get on seeing Laurence. How he would smile as she threw herself into his arms, how she would explain that she was a terrible fool to leave, how she would stay with him for all time if he would have her. And he would agree and kiss her and the world would forever be one long, happy summertime.
Throwing open the door without even thinking to knock, Alicia called up the stairs, her voice echoing from the rafters and filling the old house. “Laurence! I’ve come back!”
She paused to consider his apparent absence.At this hour Laurence would be in the fields, most likely. I wonder where…
“Miss Ramsbury!”
Alicia turned to see Mary-Anne coming from the parlour, rubbing her eyes as if awakened from a nap. Unable to contain her excitement, she wrapped her arms around the other woman and embraced her tightly.
“Oh, Mary-Anne, it is so good to see you!” she thrilled.
Mary-Anne gave her a hesitant if affectionate pat on the back, then pulled back and looked over her shoulder in confusion. “But…what are you doing here? Is Laurence with you?”
Alicia felt her heart seize at these words. “Wh-what?” she asked, smiling in bewilderment. “What do you mean? Isn’t Laurence here?”
Mary-Anne took Alicia’s hands in her own, squeezing them and looking to her with sisterly affection. “I suppose you must have missed one another on the road, then. Ah, well.”
“What do you mean, ‘missed on the road?’ Where is Laurence?” Alicia demanded, a tone of alarm creeping into her voice.
“How beautiful this all is!” Mary-Anne laughed. “Just this morning Laurence rode for London, fast as lightning. Gone to tell you what I assume you came here to tell him. You two really were made for one another!”
After a moment to piece together what she was being told, Alicia burst into laughter as well.Laurence does not hate me for leaving,she thought, tears of relief running down her cheeks.He came to get me just as I came back for him. He really does love me as I love him!
Then a shadow passed over her, and Alicia stiffened as her veins filled with fear.
Grace.
“Oh, no,” she said softly. “No, he couldn’t…she wouldn’t…”
“What is it?” Mary-Anne asked, concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“If he’s gone to London, then all he will find at my house is Grace.”
“Well surely that can’t be too terribly bad. He may have to stay the night, there or somewhere else in the city—London has no shortages of rooms for farmers in from the country. But we can just wait here for him until he returns, can’t we?”
“…Yes,” Alicia said, a gnawing feeling at the pit of her stomach. “I suppose that’s all we can do.” She followed Mary-Anne to the parlour for a cup of tea, her feet shuffling as though she were lost in a fog.
Happiness seemed so close at hand…will it all be for naught if Grace has her way?
