AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dinah stayed silent as long as she could, but after a half-hour, the silence was growing unbearable.
“I know my way home from here,” she called to him. He hadn’t even shown enough common courtesy to ride alongside her but instead had chosen to ride in front of her. And at a very brisk pace, too.
“I’ll see you all the way,” was all he called back.
They turned down the street that held Father’s townhouse. Dinah’s gaze moved up the full length of her current home. They must be so worried over her. She’d never dreamed of staying away so long when she’d first slipped off earlier that afternoon.
“Stop here,” she said, pulling her own mount to a halt.
Crow stopped as well, glancing back at her with his brow low.
“If we ride any closer, someone might spot me from the window. But if I approach on foot and slip in through the servants’ door, I doubt anyone will give me a second glance.” She dismounted on her own, then looked up and found Crow also climbing down from his saddle.
“You can just take the horses and leave. I can see the townhouse from here, and I am sure I will be quite all right.”
“I’ll see youallthe way,” he repeated, even more frustration in his tone than before.
Now he was just being ridiculous. She couldseehome, for heaven’s sake. What kind of a child did he take her to be? Not caring to push the matter, Dinah looped the reins of her horse around a nearby fence and walked quickly forward. She heard Crow do the same and fall into step just behind her.
She chose not to glance back his way.
Dinah reached the corner of the house and quickly began descending the narrow flight of stairs that would lead her to the servants’ door. Now that she was within such easy distance of her own bedchamber, exhaustion flooded through her. She would cry off tonight’s dinner party and instead spend the entire evening in her own room. Nothing sounded more heavenly than her own pillows and blankets.
Dinah reached for the knob of the servants’ door.
Except, just as she was closing her fingers about it, the door swung open. Dinah took three fast steps backward, colliding into Crow’s chest. She righted herself and stepped away from him quickly.
Lady Charlotte Blackmore burst out of the house. “Dinah, dearest, where have you been?”
Dinah’s stomach churned with guilt at Charlotte’s tone. It was firm yet saturated with worry.
“I’m sorry—” Dinah got no further before Father stormed out the door as well.
He took one look at her, at Crow, and his eyes lit as though they were on fire. In a single step, he was beside Crow, shoving the man against the wall of the house. With an arm across Crow’s chest, Father pinned him there.
“You, sir, have a lot of explaining to do.”
