The Dream Read Free Page A

warnings to the horses were apparently going unheeded. With a silent prayer, Emily bunched her skirts in one hand, holding onto the doorframe with the other. Carefully, she stepped onto the steps that were still lowered. The carriage hit another pothole and she almost lost her footing.
    The cold rain needled against her face. A flash from above lit the ground around her. Hedges grew close to the road.
    She dared a glance toward the driver, and hoped she’d make it.
    On another prayer, she shoved off from the carriage, and for a moment felt free as the air blew around her.
    Then she hit the ground, rolled and rolled.
    Her head and shoulder slammed against something and everything grayed.
    A horrible grinding noise splintered across the air, mixing with someone’s shout.
    Rain ran down the side of her face. She tried to move, but pain exploded in her head and the ground tilted.
    Voices filtered through the rain. Another shout.
    “Stupid wench.”
    “Are you out of your mind?”
    Pain seared through her shoulder and the world went black.
    * * * * *
    “Explain to me again, Ravensworth , why it is we find ourselves gallivanting around the countryside at dawn, and a wet and dreary dawn it is too?” Lockley asked.
    Jason didn’t even look at his valet, used to his man’s constant complaints.
    “We could have taken the carriage. Why you insist on riding all this way…”
    “Consider the fresh air good for your fair disposition, Lockley .”
    “Fair disposition?” The disdain in Lockley’s voice made Jason smile.
    He glanced at the man who acted as his valet, but in truth was much more than that. Lockley was a small wiry fellow, narrow of face and features and who did not have a single adventurous bone in his stiff, perfectly starched and attired, body. Jason enjoyed bantering with him. “I’ve not heard another whine like yours since I dropped Irene, my last mistress.”
    Lockley breathed deeply through his nose. “I do not whine. I prefer the comforts of a carriage. Of all people I don’t know why you chose last night of all nights to be out and about. One should not venture out into storms if one can help it.”
    Well, he hadn’t exactly known it was going to rain. The storm that hit was quick and furious and over almost as soon as they’d stabled the horses at an inn. As soon as the rain cleared, they set off again, much to Lockley’s dismay at not being able to stay for a hot breakfast. They would have been home hours ago if not for the problems at the docks, the meeting with Sir Taber, and then the storm.
    He fingered the scar across his face. He hated storms.
    “My lord.” Lockley cleared his throat. “That was uncalled for. I do apologize.”
    Jason only nodded. He opened his mouth, the stinging blithe reply on the end of his tongue when he saw something lying across the road ahead. The graying dawn cloaked whatever it was in shadows and a heavy fog. They were still several minutes from his estate.
    He clicked to Fury, urging his stallion into a canter.
    A carriage lay on its side, pieces scattered over the road behind it, part of the top crushed and broken. One of the horses neighed in pain, still connected to the wreckage. Jason jumped off Fury and walked slowly to the animal, talking softly. It would have to be put down. From the looks of things, the horse’s leg was broken.
    The gelding barely lifted its head.
    A carriage door lay to one side of the road and two wheels were missing. One of the remaining ones broken, its spokes splintered, lay at a crooked angle off the axle.
    Jason, expecting the worse, looked inside what was left of the carriage.
    It was empty. Relief coursed through him. He’d rather not stumble upon some poor unlucky soul, mangled from a carriage accident.
    He scanned the ditch and hedges to see if anyone lay hurt.
    “ Lockley , you take the right side of the road, I’ll take the left.” He pulled a pistol, the one he always carried with him when traveling, from his waistcoat