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“Where else would you ride?” the coachman grumbled as he hefted a heavy valise into her arms. “Make yourself useful and secure that, in the meantime.”
Sophie nearly stumbled backward as the air whooshed out of her. Goodness! What was in that valise? A collection of small boulders? Before she could even think to ask, however, the front door to Weybourne House opened. Suddenly panicked, Sophie scrambled around the back side of the carriage to keep Gabe from spotting her.
“Are we ready, Lumley?” Gabe called.
“Yes, Major, whenever you are,” the coachman returned.
Sophie peeked around the corner to see if Gabe had noticed her, but he was shaking Lord Kelling’s hand and paying the carriage no attention at all, which was a relief.
“Send word that you’ve reached your destination,” Kelling said. “And best of luck in finding Northwold’s treasure.”
Gabe snorted in response. “Yes, for that I would need all the luck in the world.” He waved goodbye to his friend and made his way directly to the carriage door, which Lumley opened for him.
Sophie sagged in relief that she hadn’t been found out, but her relief was only momentary as the coachman appeared right in front of her. “And just why haven’t you secured that?” He yanked the valise back out of Sophie’s arms and started for the front of the carriage. “You’re going to have to be more help than that on the way. Earn your keep or the major won’t keep you.”
The major hadn’t kept her, but that was neither here nor there at the moment. Sophie scurried after the coachman and followed him up the ladder to his box. “Sorry,” she muttered.
Lumley tightened a leather strap around the valise and then scowled slightly at Sophie. “Well, sit down. What are you waiting for?”
She dropped onto the bench and somehow managed to keep her seat when the carriage lurched forward. The coachman urged the team of bays toward Piccadilly and frowned at her once again as though she was the most inept pageboy in existence. As far as pageboys went, she probably was the worst.
Sophie held onto the bar on the side of the coachman’s box and wondered, perhaps a bit late, if she had made a grievous error with this ruse. Charlotte knew she’d been headed to Weybourne House, but if it took her half a day to return home, her sister would be beside herself with worry, and there was no way for Sophie to send any sort of word now, no way to keep Charlotte from panicking in her absence.
Riding in a coachman’s box was miserable. It began raining about an hour outside of London and hadn’t stopped. Sophie was drenched through to her skin. The road was slippery and she held onto the bench with all her strength to keep from being tossed from the top of the carriage. They would have to stop and change horses soon, wouldn’t they?
She sneezed. A high-pitched sneeze that she hadn’t been able to help.
Lumley cast his disapproving glare her direction once more as rain slid from his bowler hat. “Grab some coffee when we stop to change horses,” he grumbled over the rain. “It’ll keep you warm and put some hair on your chest. You sound like a bloodygirl.”
Heaven forbid. Being a girl sounded like the vilest of curses, at least the way the ducal coachman said the word. But as they hadn’t stopped to change horses yet, Sophie simply agreed with the nod of her drenched head. She wanted to ask how much longer it would be before they stopped, but didn’t trust herself not to sound like a girl.
After what felt like a millennia, Sophie thought she spottedsomethingup ahead. She swiped the rain from her face, squinted, and…a coaching inn! It really, truly was! Thank heavens. Relief filled her heart as Lumley guided the team into the yard and drew the coach to a stop.
“Help the ostlers unhitch the horses,” the coachman ordered as he hopped from his box.
But Sophie didn’t have a clue about how to go about doing something like that. And now she didn’t need to. They’d stopped! She just had to see Gabe. She climbed from the box, careful not to slip on the wet ladder, and then rushed toward the carriage door. Just as she reached the handle, someone yanked her arm from behind.
“I said unhitch the horses!” Lumley snapped.
Goodness! She had to end this ruse. “Gabe!” she cried out. “Gabe!”
CHAPTER 13
Navigating his way through Rosewood made Gabe’s hair stand on end. The rain outside didn’t help, he supposed. It only served to make the private asylum darker than normal and give it an even grimmer ambiance than it had most days. Someone cackled behind a closed door at the end of the corridor and Gabe suppressed a shiver, but he pressed forward to Clayton’s chamber. He opened the door to find his brother sitting peacefully in a rocking chair.
Clayton glanced up upon Gabe’s entrance and he smiled. His brother looked so healthy and whole, just like he had before Gabe had left to join the 9th in Spain. “You didn’t have to rush home on my account.”
Gabe shrugged. “Hill said you had need of me, Clayton.”
His brother nodded. “I’m dying, Gabriel.”
But he didn’t appear it. “Don’t say such things. I’m sure the doctors here—”
“And I’m leaving you with nothing. Less than nothing, really.”
“The same father left you with,” Gabe replied, crossing the floor to better see his brother.
“Even less than that, I’m afraid.” Clayton frowned. “The only thing he ever truly gave me was a title that I don’t really have a legal claim to.”
