broken anything. The bruises would go away soon enough.
I was very unlucky. Amelia wasn’t in the small breakfast room, just John and
Lawrence. I merely nodded to both of them and asked, turning to my husband, “I
visited the stables this morning with Amelia. They are very fine. Rucker appears
competent and enjoys the horses. May I please ride Small Bess?”
“Of course. I had already decided to give her to you. A wedding present.”
I nearly leapt out of my chair to go hug him, just as I’d done so many times to
Grandfather when he had given me a marvelous surprise. “Thank you,” I said, as
the Countess of Devbridge should, all calm and proper. “That is very kind of you,
Lawrence.”
He cocked his head to one side even as he said, “I am pleased that you like
Small Bess so very well. Rucker believes, and I occasionally agree with him,
that the horse breeding farms in Wexford consistently turn out excellent mounts.
John told me that you were hanging all over Tempest when he arrived at the
stables this morning.”
“Yes,” I said, nothing more. I speared several slices of thinly cut ham onto my
plate and snagged a warm roll from under a napkin-covered basket.
“She knows she will regret it if she rides Tempest,” John said. “Also do keep
Small Bess away from Tempest. He wants that mare. He wants her badly.”
“I shall keep her well distant from your horse, John.”
“Andy, how do you feel?”
I didn’t want to think about it, much less have to speak of it again. But here
was my husband, looking all sorts of worried, and so I said, “Just a few aches
here and there. Nothing to concern anyone.”
John said to Lawrence, “When I first got to her, she believed I was an angel.”
“It was a logical assumption, since it was you who caused me to fall.”
A thick dark eyebrow went up. “I recall seeing you fall down those last three
stairs from a good fifteen feet away.”
“When you opened the front door, the sun was just at exactly the right spot to
pour a sky’s worth of white light into the Old Hall and all of it right in my
face.”
“So that’s it,” he said. “I couldn’t understand everything you were mumbling.”
“Still, my dear,” Lawrence said easily, looking pointedly at my untouched plate,
“you must take care for the next several days.”
I took a big bite of my roll. “Where is Amelia?”
“I have this inescapable feeling, Uncle, that your bride likes to face things
straight on, no shilly-shallying about with her.”
“Amelia is still sleeping, Andy. She seems peaceful, just deeply asleep. Thomas
is with her. He is very worried even though there is no reason for him to worry
at all.”
I looked both of them straight in the eye. “I believe we should wake her up. If
we can’t, then I hope there is an able physician in the area. This isn’t natural,
and both of you know it. Why are you pretending otherwise?”
The two men traded looks.
I gently laid my napkin beside my plate and rose. “I am going to see Amelia.
Then I am riding Small Bess. I will take George with me. He needs to learn the
grounds.”
“I will accompany you,” John said, and rose. I looked at my husband, but he was
looking down at his plate. What was going on here?
Amelia was still asleep. I simply walked to Thomas and shoved him aside. I
leaned over Amelia, clasped her shoulders, and began shaking her.
“What are you doing? Stop, you might hurt her.”
I continued to shake Amelia, then lightly slapped her face. To my utter relief,
she opened her eyes. I knew she was trying to focus on my face.
“Andy?”
“Yes, Amelia. Thomas and John are here as well. Wake up. It is past time.”
Her eyes brightened. I helped her to sit up. “What happened? Why are you all
here? What time is it?”
“You’ve been sleeping?if you wish to call it that?for well over three hours. It’s
nearly two o’clock in the afternoon.”