Or safe.
Sunny took her hand in a light clasp and did not say anything, but his touch spoke volumes and calmed Mantheria’s building hysteria and broken heart.
3
They changed their tired horses for fresh ones at a small posting inn in Southall, and then they were back on the pike road that led to Bath.All Sunny had wanted for the last twelve years was to be close to Mantheria.They were sitting in the same seat of a small carriage holding hands, but the gulf between them was greater than ever.Unlike her brother Wick, who wore his heart on his sleeve, Mantheria hid her sorrow behind her lovely smile.And no doubt her husband’s death and funeral had brought back all of the memories and grief of losing her twin sister, Elizabeth.
As children, he’d had no difficulty telling the two apart.Elizabeth was a tidy little girl who was always singing.Mantheria had been a ragamuffin whose hair was always a rat’s nest and her face dirty.She seemed to be always screeching and running and playing.That little girl never seemed to hold still.
The woman at his side was like marble when she was in company.Unmoving.Cold.Reserved.
Occasionally in the privacy of her home or with her family, Sunny had caught glimpses of the wild girl.He’d wrongfully assumed that Mantheria had merely grown up.But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that Mantheria had become another person entirely.Death and trauma did that to a person.It certainly had to his mother.But Mantheria’s scars were not so apparent as his mama’s.
They were passing through Southall Green when Sunny was able to find his voice.“Maybe when she said,Be good, all Elizabeth meant was to stop stealing biscuits from the pantry?Or not to rub mud onto Wick’s boots?And desist from cutting up Matthew’s homework papers?If that is the case, you have beenverygood.”
A gurgle of laughter came from Mantheria’s throat followed by a choked sob.She wiped a tear from her eye with one of her delicately gloved hands.“I’d forgotten about the mud.Wick wouldn’t let me play with you two.He said that I was too little and not a boy.And did I show him!”
Sunny chuckled with her.
“Elizabeth was only ten years old when she died,” Mantheria said.“Perhaps you’re right.Mayhap all she intended by those two words were for me to be less naughty.But the weight of her death has never left me.I feel it every day.The need to live for both of us.The desire to do what she would have wanted if she had lived.”
“I am certain Elizabeth would be very proud of you.”
Shaking her head, she scoffed.“Oh no.Elizabeth would be horrified by so many of my life choices.”
Sunny wanted to comfort Mantheria, but he did not know how.What defense could he have against the ghost of a little girl?He was by no means perfect himself, nor had he ever tried to be.Sunny didn’t want to be like his mother, who cared only for the dead, or his late father, who seemed to care only for his own pleasure.Despite Sunny’s meagre bank account, he contributed to charities and tried to be a good man.Perhaps he could be a good husband to Mantheria, if she ever opened her heart to him.Sunny would certainly try to be, but still, he worried that he would be another man in her life who failed her.Like his own rakish father had so miserably failed his mother.If his father had lived, Sunny wondered if he, too, would be horrified by so many of Sunny’schoices.
Closing his eyes and leaning his head against the squabs, Sunny was nearly asleep when the carriage jolted forward and then began to sway on its side.Instinctively, he wrapped his arms around Mantheria and tried to protect her with his own body.The carriage crashed onto its side, and Sunny’s right arm felt as if it had snapped.The pain was sudden and fierce and nearly stole his breath away.He swore—words a gentleman should never say in front of a lady.
Mantheria rolled off of him, brushing his arm with her lovely backside, and causing him to curse under his breath in pain.She stood up inside the carriage that was unfortunately on its side.“Are you all right?”
Cradling his arm, Sunny lied.“Just a scratch.”
But getting to his own feet was a great deal harder.He felt lightheaded, and his vision was spinning.He bumped his sore arm into Mantheria’s leg and cursed again.As far as he could see in the dim light of dusk, no bones were poking out of his skin.Merely an ache so intense that it caused little black dots to cover his vision, and his hand and arm had started to swell up.
She put her hands on his shoulders and gently forced him to sit down.“You’re not yourself.Sit down while I see what’s the matter.”
Instead of being her knight in shining armor, Sunny sat on the carriage door and watched as Mantheria shimmied her way out of the opposite window, which was now the top of the carriage.It was a delightful view, but he felt frustratingly useless.This was his moment to prove his love to her, and he was sitting on the floor while she went to get help.
* * *
Mantheria might not have knownabout the secret passageways in Hampford Castle like her younger sisters, but she’d climbed plenty of trees.She used her elbows to propel herself up into the air and climbed out of the window, carefully sliding down the side (really the top) of the carriage.The driver, Mr.Walopole, was still trying to calm the four horses that had already kept a high speed for two hours.His weight was on only one foot, and Mantheria could see blood on the trousers of his opposite knee.The poor man was injured.
She glanced around to find the groom and saw him lying in the ditch ten yards behind them.She dashed to his side and tore off her glove, placing her fingers on his neck.Robert had a weak pulse, but he was alive.No doubt he’d been knocked unconscious from his fall from the carriage.From her current viewpoint, she could see that one of the wheels had come off and caused the accident.The wheel was broken into pieces, and the axle on the bottom of the vehicle was bent.The repair would not be quick or easy.Perhaps there was even more damage to the body of the carriage that she could not see in the dim light.
Mantheria gently shook his shoulder until his eyelids flickered.“Robert, there’s been an accident.Can you tell me where you are hurt?”
“Driver did-didn’t see the rock.”
The accident had been caused by driving in the darkness at a quick pace—one that she’d asked for.Gulping down a sob of frustration and fear, she glanced around to see if anyone was coming down the road yet.In either direction.No one was coming to their gallant rescue.Feeling for her purse, she made sure that it was safely in her pocket.Then she picked up the two bandboxes that were now in the middle of the road by the wheel and carried them back to Robert.His eyes were open now, and he appeared to be in pain.
“Where does it hurt?”she asked him a second time, kneeling by his side.
“My leg, Your Grace,” he said.“I think I broke my left leg.”
Mantheria tried to help him sit up, but the pain was too much, and he fainted again.Since he was already unconscious, she took the opportunity to examine his left leg, and a bone was sticking out at an unnatural angle.It was the worst break that she had ever seen and would need to be set by a proper surgeon or doctor.All she could do now was splint it until she could get him the medical attention that he needed.
Getting back up, she scoured the surrounding area for a sturdy and mostly straight stick.She bound it to Robert’s leg with two handkerchiefs and her hair ribbons.It was not perfect, but it was the best she could do under the circumstances.Mantheria couldn’t help but be a little proud that her father had taught her what to do in case of an emergency, and she’d done it.