A few moments later, she heard a groggy voice say, “Come in.”
Opening the door, Sarah entered the room and saw that Margaret had sat up in her bed.
Sarah went to sit on the side of the bed. “I don’t want to alarm you, Margaret, but Deborah has taken a horse and run away. All the servants and gardeners are out looking for her.”
Margaret’s face paled to the color of milk. “I am to blame.”
Sarah took her hand. “It isnotyour fault. Deborah threw a tantrum and then made a poor choice. She is the only person at fault.”
“But I—I shouldn’t have lost my temper with her.”
Squeezing Margaret’s hand, Sarah said, “Then, you will apologize when she returns. I thought perhaps you might wish to wait with me downstairs until we have any news.”
“Of course.”
Margaret put on her robe, and the pair returned to the main hall. It was eerily shadowed in the night. The only sounds were the steady ticks of the wound-up clock. They sat on two chairs by the window and watched, waiting for news. Sarah could see little lights in the distance getting farther and farther from the house.
One hour passed.
Then two.
Despite the hour being well after midnight, Sarah was wide awake, her heartbeat quick and unsteady.
Another hour passed.
Sarah rocked back and forth in her chair, even though it was not a rocking chair. She could not seem to hold still.
Nearly another hour had passed when Mrs. Harmony and Nelly led the servant women back into the house. Sarah got to her feet and rushed to her side. “Did you find her?”
Her dear maid shook her head. “She’s not on the grounds. We searched every cranny from the house to the outer fences. She may be in one of the fields, but the dogs caught her scent close to the road. Mr. Moulton and the grooms are searching the south area, near the forest and the main pike road and the river.”
“And they sent you back to the house?”
“Yes, my lady,” Nelly said, using the honorific. “We women are exhausted, and there was nothing else we could do right now. Not in the dark.”
Sarah touched her friend’s arm. “Of course. You were right to come back. Go to bed and sleep in as long as you need.”
Mrs. Harmony curtsied to her. “We’ll be up with the dawn to keep searching. Don’t you worry, Lady Sarah; we will find her this time.”
In her mind, Sarah added,Not like last time. Mechanically, she thanked them all and watched as they shuffled to the back of the house to take the stairs in the servants’ quarters to the attic. The poor women looked exhausted and still needed to climb two flights of stairs.
Where could Deborah have gone? What had she hoped to prove by tonight’s escapade? How were they going to find her?
Margaret got to her feet and walked toward Sarah. “Should we go to bed as well and search for Deborah in the morning? Tomorrow I wish to be useful and not simply sit and wait.”
“Of course.”
Her sister-in-law went to the stairs and took them slowly, step by step. Sarah watched until Margaret was out of sight. She was right. Sarah needed to be useful. She had sat for seven years waiting, and it hadn’t done herself nor anyone she loved a lick of good. She put on her coat and Deborah’s scarf, and picking up her candle, she left the house.
The night was full of the sounds of insects and creatures. Her candle cast eerie shadows on her path to the stables. She saw that most of the farm animals were still in their stalls, except for the horses. The only mare left was her own mount. Sarah did not have a great deal of experience putting on a saddle or getting on the back of a horse by herself. Ladies did not learn such useful skills. However, she’d been particularly horse-mad as a young girl and had watched the grooms perform those tasks hundreds of times.
Setting her candle in a safe place away from the hay, she turned to pick up the saddle. It was a great deal heavier than she’d expected, but she managed to lug it to her mare’s stall and over the gate that held her in. Opening the stall, Sarah puta blanket and then the saddle on the back of the horse, only to realize that she’d done it backward. Huffing, she maneuvered the saddle around and fastened it underneath her horse’s belly. She checked the strap twice. The last thing Christopher and their staff needed was for two women to have mishaps in the same evening.
Once certain that the saddle was secure, Sarah led her horse out of its stall and blew out the candle. Luckily, it was a full moon tonight and there wasn’t an inch of Manderfield that she hadn’t visited. It had been her beloved home and her beautiful prison. Sarah used a wooden box to climb onto the back of her horse. She was not quite securely on top when she realized that the saddle was not a female one but a male one. She’d only ever ridden sidesaddle, but she didn’t have the time or energy to start again with a different saddle. Lifting one leg over the other side of the horse, Sarah held on tightly to the reins and the pommel. If men could ride astride, she certainly could.
Squeezing her ankles, she urged her mare out of the stables and into the darkness of the night. She did not need a lantern to know which road went south. It was the way to her aunt Venetia’s home, and she thought she could have ridden it blindfolded. Her horse galloped for over three miles before she saw the lights of the grooms. They were near the forest, a dangerous prospect in the dark.
She rode up to meet them and saw her husband. Christopher’s eyes widened, and his mouth opened slightly.