Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

C olin had expected a few things when he went to find Diana.

A long journey, that was the first. He had not bothered to burden his footmen with such a journey; there were certain things that were better done alone, and chasing down one's wife on the way to a monastery was one of them. Besides, he enjoyed horse riding a great deal, and there had to be something enjoyable about the entire ordeal.

He had also expected a sleepless night. He would have to arrive at an inn, of course, and then he would have to wrestle with himself to force himself to rest. He did not know how he would do it, as all that he could think about was Diana and how much she must have hated him to run away. To be sure, their marriage was not perfect, and he had hardly been the ideal husband, but he never would have thought that she would run away from him entirely. Then again, it was her sister who had asked her to, and she was not one to say no to her sister.

"Please," he begged as he rode there. "Please just come home."

He was prepared, in all honesty, to grovel and beg forgiveness. It was not the done thing for a duke to act in such a manner with his wife, but he no longer cared. He wanted her to come home, and he was prepared to do anything to make that happen.

What he was not prepared for, however, was to see two carriages at the same inn he had arrived at with his family crest on them. Part of him was relieved, of course, as it meant he could find them sooner rather than later, but another part of him felt uneasy about it all. Colin did not quite know what was unsettling him so, but something was not right.

His suspicions were confirmed the second he entered the inn.

"Oh, thank goodness you are here, Sir!" an elderly woman exclaimed the moment she saw him. "You must go quickly and send for help!"

"What is it?"

"There are two ladies here, and two men are—well, I do not know what they plan to do."

Colin did not blame the woman for not doing anything, of course, as she would have been in no fit state to do a thing. Instead, he blamed himself entirely and ran for the stairs.

Diana, Diana, Diana, Diana. Be alright, please just be alright.

Once more, he was surprised by something he had found. At the top of the stairs were his own footmen, who turned pale upon seeing him.

"Your Grace!" one exclaimed. "Thank goodness you are here!"

"Yes—the two girls—ladies, they have tried to run away from home."

"Indeed, and the two of us followed after them. We have tried our best to convince them to return, but?—"

"Do not lie to me," he thundered. "What have you done to them?"

"We have done what was necessary," the first argued. "They are like wild animals, Your Grace. Utterly unhinged."

"If you speak of my family like that once more, I will bury you beneath this inn. Do you understand me?"

The two footmen glanced at each other before nodding quietly.

"Now, I will not ask a third time. Where are they?"

The second footman raised his hand, pointing in the direction of a room. Colin went to go inside, but then one of them—he could not be sure which—laughed.

He laughed.

"Might you tell me what that was about?" he asked, turning back.

He could smell alcohol on the man, and he wondered just how much that had affected his behavior and how much was pure insanity.

"Just that I heard a rumor about you that you are a murderer, and then you threaten to murder us. It does not bode well for your reputation, is all."

The second man then laughed with him.

"To hell with my reputation. I should like to know why you think yourself so above me when you have done unspeakable things to my wife."

"All I did was take her necklace," he slurred, removing a necklace from his pocket and waving it haphazardly. "She had such a pretty neck, too. I believe I might have been the first man to ever touch it, you know, but we all miss what we don't take, and oh, I am glad to have taken it."

Colin was quite certain that he broke the man's nose.

Had he not then seen the two most important ladies in his life tied to a bed, he might have taken pity on the second footman, but he did not, and so the other had to go too. Once he was finished with them, he was quite sure that they would not awaken for a good while.

"Diana?" he called. "Is that you?"

"Your Grace!" Samantha called back. "We are here, come quickly!"

He wasted no time in rushing to their aid, even as he spoke.

"Untie her first," Samantha instructed. "She has been in this state for longer than I have."

Colin set Diana free, and she collapsed into his arms, clinging to him.

"Colin," she sighed into his neck, "I cannot believe you are here."

"Of course I am," he replied gently. "But I ought to free Samantha now."

"It is quite alright." She smiled next to them. "You know, it becomes rather comfortable once you become used to it."

But Diana released him, and he freed Samantha, and the two ladies fell into each other. Colin lifted each one onto a bed and ensured that they were lying correctly before going down to the elderly lady. Upon his return to the room, having sent for help, Diana was once more beside her sister.

"It was foolish of me to separate the two of you, I suppose." He chuckled.

"She seems to be asleep," Diana whispered before turning over to him. "How did you find us?"

"It was purely coincidental. I would like to say I used some sort of intelligent deduction, but I simply began riding until I knew the horse had to stop. Perhaps that was their mistake in the first place?"

"Do you suppose they planned all of this?"

"They couldn't have planned for your sister to run away, but they certainly took advantage of it. Oh, God, Diana, I am so sorry. Had I known I had employed two men as evil as that?—"

"You couldn't have known," Diana assured him. "Had the idea even crossed your mind, you would have rid us of them long ago. I know that."

He simply nodded in response.

"What I did not know," she continued, "was whether or not you would come to us. I would not have blamed you if you did not."

"Why would I not have? I found the letter, and as soon as I read it, I knew that I had to come and find you, if anything else to say that I?—"

He paused.

"That you what?"

He wanted to tell her, but she had been through quite enough that evening without him adding any more difficulty. It was not the right time, and he knew that.

"That I would prefer it if you were at home, where you belong," he said instead. "The village needs their Duchess, after all. I need my Duchess."

"Ah, yes, of course."

Colin wondered, hoped even, if her reaction meant that she had wanted him to say something else.

"How do you suppose she is?" he asked gently, gesturing towards Samantha.

"She blames herself entirely," Diana sighed. "And it is not exactly as though I can assure her otherwise. She was foolish for running away, but she couldn't have known what would happen. After all, she had to bribe them to take her away in the first place. Four hundred pounds, can you believe that?"

"Where on earth did she find that much money?"

"She likely stole it from our father, but I shan't blame her if she did. He owes us far more than that."

"To be sure. Oh, Diana, I am simply glad that the two of you are safe."

"As am I, strangely enough." She almost laughed. "But what will happen now?"

"We can navigate that in the morning, when we are not exhausted from everything that has happened."

"Will you be angry with me then?" she asked. "When you are no longer relieved that we are safe, will you feel safe enough to be furious?"

"Had I felt capable of blaming you for any of this, perhaps, but I cannot bring myself to. You did only what you thought was best, and so who am I to hold that against you?"

"You would be a sensible man," she whispered.

"That does not signify, for I have never been a sensible man where you are concerned." He laughed, and then Samantha stirred.

Diana watched Samantha, clearly worried that they would wake her, and then she turned back to him.

"We can go to the other room," he offered, "if it means she will be more comfortable."

"That might be for the best." Diana nodded. "Though I dare say that I will not be able to leave her whilst they are here."

"Well, for one, they shall not be in any fit state to do any more harm to either of you," he explained. "And what's more is that someone is coming to take them away. I may have to pay the poor woman to have her inn cleaned after what I did, but that is neither here nor there at this point. Nobody touches my family."

She seemed to soften at the reminder that she and Samantha were his family.

"Very well." She nodded. "We can leave when they have been taken away."

Colin did not know how long that would take. He had found a gentleman outside that had promised to find someone, but that could have taken a good while if he had been successful at all. For the moment, he was simply glad that while Diana knew he was there to watch over the two of them, she was content to relax.

In spite of everything, he brought her comfort, and there was no greater feeling than that.

Fortunately, the gentleman had been successful, and eventually, two Bow Street Runners arrived to cart the footmen away. Colin aided them in loading the two madmen into the carriage and returned to the two ladies. Samantha was asleep still, but Diana was out of bed and pacing.

"What is it?" he asked. "They are gone. It is alright."

"I know. I simply have quite a lot of energy after all that has happened, and I do not know what to do with it. I shall need to pace for a while."

"Then pace," he explained. "Do what you feel you must."

"Are they truly gone?"

"Completely, well and truly."

"And I shall not ask what you did to them, but you shall not face any consequences for it, will you?"

"Of course not, not when they kidnapped my wife and held her hostage, that is. I doubt the county would approve of them having taken their Duchess away, even for one night."

"But they did not kidnap me, not really. I came with them of my own free will."

"Nobody would believe that for a second. Besides, the moment that they would not let you leave, that is them having kidnapped you. They shall not be able to show their faces again, even if they are released."

"I blame myself."

"You should not."

It was then that she noticed his hand. At that moment, he also noticed his hand, and at last he felt a sharp pain in it.

"Oh!" he exclaimed softly. "I wonder how long that has been there for."

"You are bleeding," she gasped. "Surely you were aware of that."

"Truly, I was not. Had I been, I would not have allowed it to drip on the bed. It appears that we will be sending the poor innkeeper quite the sum to fix all of this."

"She is quite deserving of it, to be sure," she sighed. "Now, we ought to do something about this hand of yours. Come, I know what to do."

"What about Samantha?"

"She can have my room, and we can take hers. I doubt that she will mind. I simply do not wish to wake her."

"Very well."

The innkeeper, upon seeing the Duke's hand, was all too quick to give him some supplies to bandage it.

"This will sting," Diana said softly.

"I do know that." He laughed. "I have been in my fair share of scrapes, you know."

And yet, one could never fully prepare for the sharp pain given by ointment. He inhaled sharply the second it touched his wound, and Diana couldn't help but giggle at him.

"It appears that you have not been in this situation for a good while now, though."

"Well, I try not to make a habit of knocking people unconscious."

"It is not the best habit to have, I will admit." She nodded, beginning to bandage him. "But the pain is only temporary."

"How do you know how to do all of that?"

"Have you met my father? It was almost a weekly occurrence that he would find himself in a fight. It is only by some miracle that he has not yet found himself on the business end of a pistol."

"Yes, including my own."

"There," she said as she finished bandaging his hand. "I hope it stays put, at least."

"It certainly feels secure." He nodded. "You have most definitely had ample practice."

"What can I say? I come from a certain type of family."

"As do I, so you need not feel judgment there."

"I do not." She smiled. "I dare say that I never have, not from you at least."

"Good." He grinned. "Now, it is terribly late, and it appears that I shall have to make quite the journey tomorrow, so we really ought to go to bed."

She looked at him carefully, then nodded and followed him to the stairs.

"I wish to say goodnight to my sister, first," she said as they reached her door.

"Of course. I shall be here."

But when Diana tried the handle, the door did not open. She looked at it, puzzled, before trying once more. Again, there was nothing.

"Allow me," he offered, but when he tried, the door still did not open.

Then, they heard giggling from the other side of the door.

"Samantha?" Diana called. "What are you doing?"

"My room is next to this one," Samantha called back. "I shall see you in the morning."

"Were you truly pretending to sleep just so that we would leave?"

"Of course! The door was locked the second you left. Now, good night to the both of you."

Colin could not help but laugh. Diana knew that her sister was intelligent, as did he, but still they could not help but forget that from time to time.

"I shall have her head tomorrow," Diana whispered, though she was laughing.

However, upon turning around, her laughter died down. Diana, it appeared, had been given the larger room with two beds big enough for one person.

Samantha's room only had one bed that was big enough for two.