Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [134]
She headed for home again. Twice more she paused to rest. Her shoulder ached. Her head ached. If she slept until dark, maybe she would feel refreshed enough to carry out her plan, flimsy as it was.
She was a hundred feet from her garden when she saw a man lying on the ground outside the gate.
Raleigh. Raleigh. Raleigh. His name rang through her head with each thud of her heart, each slam of her foot on the ground.
He’d escaped. He’d returned to her. Unlike Dominick, he had nowhere else to go, and this experience would teach him not to wander. She might not love him as she loved Dominick, but he was good and kind, and they’d been friends forever.
She charged forward and dropped to her knees beside the man.
It wasn’t Raleigh.
“Donald,” she said in a quiet voice, “can you hear me?”
Donald Parks opened his eyes. “I . . . can hear . . . you. Just . . . tired. Swam . . . forever.”
“You can sleep later.” Tabitha began to examine his head and neck for signs of injury. “You need to tell me now what happened.”
“Can’t.” His eyes closed. “Sleep.”
“All right. All right.” She resisted the urge to shake him awake. “I’ll have my manservant carry you inside and get you out of those wet clothes. But first, tell me . . .” She had to clear her throat. “Raleigh? Is he all right? Do you know?”
“Yes, I do.” Donald caught his breath. “I’m sorry, Miss Tabitha.” His face worked. “He’s dead.”
34
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“I simply wish to see if she arrived home safely.” Dominick explained himself to Letty for the second time. “She was attacked last night. She’s injured. But she came into town to help me, and I have to assure myself she’s safe.”
“You’d have heard if she isn’t.” Letty sprinkled salt into a cooking pot, from which the aroma of stewing venison, onions, and garlic rose on fragrant steam. “Unless she was foolish enough to walk along the beach.”
“Which she just might do.” Dominick paced the length of the kitchen. “I can’t live with this confinement if it means I can’t ensure the safety of my lady.”
“Is she your lady?” Letty faced him, her hands on her hips. “Seems to me she’s not a lady, as you English know it, and you won’t be taking her back to your fancy family in four years, or whenever they forgive you enough to pay off your indenture papers.”
“They won’t.” Which was something he needed to consider. “They’re happy to be rid of me.”
So would they be happy to see him back even if he did work out who was trying to foment war? Something else to ponder.
“And would they welcome you with a village midwife on your arm?” Letty persisted.
Dominick toed a place in the brick floor, where the mortar was chipping away. “I don’t think so.”
“Then why are you toying with her affections?”
“I’m not toying with them. That is . . .” He slumped onto a chair and forked his fingers through his hair. “Letty, I don’t know what to do. I should have stayed away from her, but I didn’t and now the damage is done. With Trower gone, I can’t repair it.”
“You could stay here.” Letty seated herself across from him. “Four years goes by quick. Or maybe Kendall would give you permission to marry.”
“And have me live a separate life from my bride, locked up at night like the horses?” Dominick gripped the edge of the worktable. “Letty, I can’t wed her until I’m free, and I can’t take her home with me and expect to repair matters with my family. We have no future. And—” Suddenly he couldn’t speak.
“Seems to me that a family who throws you out, then won’t welcome you back because you married a lovely girl like Miss Tabitha, isn’t one who shows loving-kindness.”
Dominick shook his head. “I don’t want to have to choose.” At that moment, looking into a future without Tabitha, he didn’t want to complete his mission if it meant going back to a family that had thrown him out on the road like a stray dog. “Yet how can I make my peace with God otherwise?” he thought aloud.
“You make your peace with God by asking for it, not by doing something.” Letty rose