Chapter 13

She watched out the window as the carriage pulled up to the Coleson estate. They’d only been two hours away. It was already busy there. The first workers were already moving about, their voices carrying through the misty air. Beatrice stiffened slightly, the thought of being seen in Oscar’s arms sending a fresh wave of embarrassment through her. He would have to carry her inside, too.

“Almost there,” he said. Then, the carriage was stopped and they were outside. And she was in his arms once again.

She glanced up at him, catching the faintest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. It wasn’t mocking or smug, but something softer, almost reassuring. He carried her through the crowd as if it was his right—because he was making it so. Even with Elspeth’s husband right there, her host, offering to take her, if needed.

Oscar would not allow it. “I have her, Iagan. From here on.”

“I figured as much, old friend. Come, let’s get her inside by the fire. You and I, we’ll speak later.”

Oscar set her down gently on a cushioned bench just inside the main parlor, in front of the massive hearth Iagan had built for Elspeth.

“You should rest,” Oscar said, quietly. “Coleson or I will check your ankle each day. No doing too much.”

“Aye,” she said though she kept her eyes fixed on the floor. She did not know what to say to him now, with everyone surrounding them. Watching, listening. He was going to go off, disappear with Dr. Coleson again now. And…the thought made her eyes sting.

She did not feel ready to let him go off again.

Not until she figured this whole thing out.

Oscar hesitated, his expression unreadable as he watched her. Then, with a nod, he stepped back. “We will speak again later, Beatrice. You have my word on it. I am not going far.”

And he left her, with Elspeth and Agnes and Mora and Isobel to tend her.

And ask all the questions she did not have the answers to.

But she had a question of her own—why were Oscar and Elspeth and Dr. Coleson all acting as if something important had changed for Beatrice last night? Beatrice did not understand them at all. But there were sly looks and hints of things she did not quite understand yet. She just knew it.

But everything felt different now.

Beatrice did know what to think.