Will opened the door and stepped inside. A vision of a different man dressed in a beautiful red coat and a fur wreath around his face, blacker than night, invaded her thoughts. He’d shot someone with an arrow. Her eyes opened wider as she looked at Will.
“You’re okay?”
“Okay?” Will asked with a smile of confusion on his lips.
Right, Aria remembered. This was supposed to be the eighteenth century. They didn’t use words like okay. Did they?
“I thought—”
“It is good to see you awake.” He came to the bed and stood at the edge looking down at her. “My mother will arrive in a moment or two to greet you.”
Had she been that sick? “That’s very nice of her. Um…” She paused and closed her eyes. She had to ask. She had to know. “Do I still have all my toes? No! Wait!” she commanded when he opened his mouth to answer. “Don’t tell me.”
She opened her eyes to look for herself, but she saw Will offer her a reassuring smile. She breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then, “Was there a man in a red coat here last night? I saw him shoot an arrow at someone.”
“Yes, the marquess,” Will answered, his smile fading.
“The marquess?” Aria asked him.
He nodded. “The Marquess of Dartmouth, son of the Duke of Devonshire.
“He arrived just in time to stop the thieves about to rob us and God knows what else,” Sarah let her know between dreamy sighs and slight, fearful cries.
“Apparently,” Will picked up the explanation, “the marquess had been following them after whispers had reached him that there were thieves who had been robbing the people in Dartmouth’s three villages.”
“Did he kill them?” Aria asked, horrified that it had happened right in front of her. She didn’t like this world. No. Not at all.
“No, he shot them all in the leg and then bound their wrists to his horse and made them walk at a brisk pace to the castle.”
“There’s a castle?” Why was she really surprised? This seemed more and more to be Mrs. B.’s fantasy.
“Dartmouth Castle,” Will told her.
She lifted her hand to her sweatshirt and the word sewn across her chest.Dartmouth.She had attended Princeton University, but she loved the pale pink of Dartmouth’s shirt. Coincidence that Mrs. B. told her to wear it?
She resumed eating. She was hungry after all.
“The marquess returned the next day,” Will went on. “He said he wished to speak to you the moment you woke up. We have not sent word to him yet.
He wanted to speak with her? Her thoughts stopped. All but one. “What do you mean he returned the next day. How long have I been asleep?”
“It has been four days, lady—?” He waited for her to supply the rest.
“Darling.” she supplied, numbly, then shook her head at him seeing that his gaze had gone warm. “It’s my last name. Aria Darling.”
Sarah made a little sound like another dreamy sigh. Her brother stared at her for a moment, then coughed into his hand.
“Tell me what do you mean four days?” she demanded quietly. “I feel as if I’ve been asleep for hours not days.”
“Ah, but is that not how sleep distorts time?” An older version of Sarah remarked, entering the room. “I am Mary Gable. You’ve met my son and daughter already. I hope they have been hospitable to you?”
They spoke for another ten minutes. There were moments in their conversation when Aria had to bite her lip to keep from crying. Will’s sibling reminded her of her brother. She’d missed his birthday. If she didn’t find a way home, who would help Conn learn how to live again? She missed her mother, always trying to appear unruffled but, in truth, she was exhausted. How would she get on without Aria?
Finally with chores to see done, the Gables left her alone. Will lingered behind.
“Lady, you are welcome to stay here for as long as you need. It is dangerous out there, but I will keep you safe.”
Someone snorted behind Will at the door. Will turned and went still. It was the man in the red coat. The marquess. Will didn’t question his mocking smirk but faced him straight on.