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“No.”
“You haven’t eaten. I haven’t eaten.”
“No. I don’t care.” She shook her head. “If we cannot find the carriage then we need to get to Seahorn. We need to get to my father, my uncle.”
“Where is Seahorn?” he asked, though he knew exactly where Seahorn was. He knew everything there was to know about Victoria and her family and her uncles and aunts and cousins.
“It is along the northern shore of Somerset.”
He scoffed a laugh. “Somerset is days away. We are certainly not going to make it there tonight. And this horse has been carrying both our weight for far too long.” That part was true. He’d hired a sturdy horse for just this purpose of carrying two riders, but he could feel the animal’s steps slowing.
“But I need to get to Seahorn.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “My aunt needs help and I am the only one that can help her.”
“What you need to do is get some rest.”
“Don’t tell me what I need.” Her voice flipped in an instant, her eyes narrowing at him for a moment before she turned her attention to shoving at his left arm clamped along the side of her. “If you’re not going to take me, then let me down and I’ll get my own damn horse.”
“With what? Do you have a purse on you? Anything other than the clothes on your back?”
“Your help has been most kind, Lord Wilfred, but I think it’s time we part ways.” Her fingers tightened on his forearm, shoving down with all her weight. His arm didn’t budge. “Someone in the village will give me a horse.”
He scoffed a laugh, his words cold. “No one is going to help you, Victoria. You are, frankly, a mess at the moment, and you’re going to have a hard time convincing anyone you’re good for whatever coin you intend to promise them. Or maybe I should just leave you to whatever jackals we come across in the next village.”
Her hands stilled on his arm, then jerked away as though he’d suddenly been lit to fire.
“Please.” Her eyes, wide and genuine and glossed with unshed tears, shifted up to him, her neck craned so she could fully see his face. “Please, I have to beg for your assistance, Rafe. I know you don’t know me and it is unfortunate that you ran across me and offered to help when you have no reason to. You have been so kind, and I know you want to dump me off and be on your way. But please don’t. If we cannot find the carriage then I must make it to Seahorn posthaste for help. My father will reward you well—anything—if you can just get me to Seahorn. I know you don’t want to—”
“I don’t.”
“But I am begging you. Begging you.Please.”
This, he liked. More begging, more pleases. Less orders.
“Please, you don’t understand,” she continued on, her voice catching. “I couldn’t help Eva. I didn’t do anything to help her in the carriage and I should have, but I was stupid and frozen and I didn’t know what to do. I have to get to my Uncle Lachlan. He’ll know what to do. I don’t. I don’t know what to do now except to get to Seahorn as quickly as I can where there is help. I have tosaveher.”
“Your uncle is at Seahorn? Your Aunt Eva’s husband?”
She nodded. “Yes, or he should be there soon. Please. We cannot stop. We cannot. I do not even want to imagine where Eva is right now, what they are doing to—”
Her voice cut off in a hiccupped sob.
Rafe blew out a sigh. “Fine. We ride on until dark. And then I’ll get you to Seahorn.”
~~~
Lights.
Finally. Lights in the distance. It had been far too long since the last village.
The horse was exhausted.
The woman in front of him was exhausted.
He was not the slightest bit exhausted.
Victoria had fought her fatigue for the last hour, of course. He should have expected that of her from their few interactions.
Every time her body started to sway, her head bobbing, she would slump off to the left, her body curling around his arm. Then she would jolt awake with a gasp and a jerk vibrating through her body, again and again.
