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It appeared that his brother had already had the same idea because just as he finished speaking, Jonathan launched himself at the nearest bank. The carriage dipped with the effort of it, almost sending Gabriel flying.
Using the momentum just at the right moment, he flew after his brother, hitting the ice hard and feeling it beginning to crack beneath him as his body rolled the rest of the way toward the bank where his brother had already made it to safety.
Icy cold water once more sucked at Gabriel's lower limbs as he grappled with the snow-covered grass at the edge of the lake, trying to find purchase. Just when he thought he might be fighting a losing battle, he felt his brother's fingers grab the back of his now-sodden coat. Together they pulled and pulled, grunting and groaning with the effort until both fell panting on the snow at the edge of the lake.
Rolling onto his back, disoriented, Gabriel watched his breath billowing once more. He watched it float away, reaching toward the inky black sky and the stars that watched on unblinking, no matter whether they lived or died.
"That… that was close," Jonathan stuttered, his teeth chattering. Gabriel's own teeth did the same, making it nearly impossible for him to respond. Glancing this way and that, he searched for the coachman, or maybe even one of the horses. All were gone, fled with only the sound of distant panicked whinnies to suggest that they had ever been there at all.
"That coward!" Jonathan snarled, as though he was looking for the coachman.
"Perhaps he has gone for help," Gabriel suggested, finally sitting up because the snow soaking into his back was not helping matters.
"Or perhaps he has fled because he meant to leave us to our fate," Jonathan snapped. "It would not be the first time someone has tried to kill you."
Gabriel cringed. His brother's words caused his recent stab wound ache in a way he would sooner forget.
Having trudged home in the cold and the dark, weary to the bone and frozen beyond belief, Gabriel would have much preferred to remain in bed. But there was much to do as earl and the last thing he wanted was for his mother to worry. He could only hope that Jonathan had stuck to their agreement not to tell her of what had befallen them during their evening adventures with their cousin.
One of us might have died last night if there had been three of us in that carriage,he thought grimly, more than once, as he dressed and tried his hardest to prepare for the day.
When he finally braved leaving the warmth of his bedchambers, it wasn’t long before he found his brother sitting in the drawing room close beside the fireplace. Clearly, he too was having a hard time getting warm. Though he had undressed and climbed into a warmed bed as soon as he returned home, Gabriel still felt chilled to the bone, and every time he remembered the icy cold water creeping up his trouser legs, he shivered with cold and disgust.
“How are you feeling?” he asked his brother, who looked just about as dreadful as he was. Jonathan looked up from where he had been warming his hands beside the fire and shook his head.
“I’ve definitely felt better. You?” Jonathan responded with a raised eyebrow, looking Gabriel up and down. “I hope the tumble didn’t reopen any old wounds.”
“No old ones, but definitely a few new ones,” Gabriel admitted, dropping down in the armchair opposite his brother’s. Standing in the mirror the night before, he had found more than a few cuts, grazes, and bruises that hadn’t been there before though luckily, save for a small one upon his cheek, most were now covered by his clothing and would not alarm his mother.
“We are still in agreement not to tell Mama, are we not?” Jonathan asked. Gabriel opened his mouth to respond, nodding, but before he could do so there was a swooshing of skirts and a moment later their mother appeared in the room with a brilliant grin upon her face.
“Tell me what?” she demanded. Panic filled Gabriel, and he saw it mirrored in his brother’s eyes, knowing that if they were to tell their mother of what had happened, she would be even more adamant to go to the authorities than she had been after his first incident.
We don’t even know if last night was an accident or not,Gabriel thought. The coachman had never returned to the lake, and they had not wanted to wait around for him. They had found no sign that he might be injured or worse, and there had been no sight or sound of the horses after their final whinnies died away in the distance.Perhaps it is better left forgotten.
Both brothers opened their mouths, clearly prepared for tell her that it was nothing, but before they could do so she changed the subject. “Oh, I am sure that whatever the two of you got up to last night, a mother does not need to know.”
Relief washed over Gabriel for only a moment before his other raised the envelope she had been holding in her right hand. Her smile only broadened, and the earl got the distinct sensation that whatever lay within said letter, he was not going to like it.
“What is that?” Jonathan asked the question that lingered on Gabriel’s lips. He had been unable to ask it out loud for fear that he would not like the answer.
Their mother dropped down onto the couch that sat between their two armchairs, facing the fireplace but some distance away, and her smile became so wide that Gabriel wondered how her cheeks had not burst with the effort.
“It is a letter from your grandmother!” Lady Sutthers cried with elation, but the words only made Gabriel grit his teeth. Though he wished so desperately that she meant her own mother, the look on her face told him differently.
“From Old Lady Tatford?” Jonathan exclaimed, looking about as astonished as Gabriel was already feeling.
“Are you certain of it?” Gabriel asked, holding out his hand for the letter. His mother took one look at his hand and shook her head, gripping tighter to the letter in her hand as though it were her only lifeline.This isn’t going to be good,Gabriel thought, his insides twisting up into painful knots. The grim look on his brother’s face suggested that he was also struggling with the news.
“I am certain of it and the fact that she has invited me, no, all of us, to visit her this week in the country,” their mother announced, and once more, Gabriel’s blood ran cold. Suddenly, the idea of slipping beneath the icy waters of the lake didn’t seem quite so bad. In fact, it was rather tempting when faced with the idea of meeting the grandmother who had frozen them out of her life for all of theirs.
“I don’t understand,” Jonathan protested, shaking his head, his voice filled with concern. “After all this time, why now? She has barely sent a letter our entire lives. She did not even bother to write when father died and now she just invites us to go and visit out of the blue.”
At his words, their mother turned her gaze down and Gabriel noticed the way her cheeks started to blush, as though she were somehow embarrassed. Leaning forward, perching on the edge of his seat, he asked, “Madre? What is it?”
“It is not entirely out of the blue,” their mother admitted, glancing up for only a moment before she looked down at the letter in her hands once more. “I know your cousin warned me not to write but I could not help myself. I sent a letter to your grandmother myself and clearly, it reached her as she wrote back and invited us all warmly to join her before the holidays.”
“Well, I for one will not go!” Jonathan yelled so that it made Gabriel jump even before his brother slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair. “That woman cannot act as if we do not exist for twenty-six years and then, just like that change her mind and think that we shall drop everything to go and visit her.”
