Page 72 of The Duke's Inconvenient Bride
“Hold on. I’ll ask Daisy. If anyone will know, it’s her.” She hustled out the door on the other side of the room.
While Vaughan waited, he silently cursed his wife. How could she be thoughtless enough to head outdoors—on foot, no less—when it had clearly been going to rain?
Another pang of guilt chased on the heels of his frustration. Damn it, this was his fault. If he hadn’t been avoiding her, perhaps she wouldn’t have felt the need to pursue him around the estate.
When Mrs. Travers came back, she seemed troubled.
“Daisy hasn’t seen the duchess since she left for her walk,” she said.
Vaughan sighed. He was going to have to go looking for the careless woman.
“I’ll retrace my route and see if I can find her,” he said. “Please send word if she returns.”
“I will.”
Before going back out into the rain, he donned a thick coat and a hat to keep some of the water from his face. He trudged over to the stables, explained the situation, and resaddled his horse. Minutes later, he was riding the same circuit he’d taken around the property earlier.
He moved more slowly than he would usually so he could scan his surroundings in search of Emma. He saw no sign of her, and when lightning flashed above, his horse shifted uneasily beneath him.
“It’s all right,” he soothed, patting the animal’s neck.
When they passed the folly, approximately a mile from Ashford Hall, he peered through the driving rain toward its entrance. Would Emma have taken shelter there? Would she have even known it existed? He couldn’t recall if they’d passed it during their visit to the tenants.
He guided the horse toward the folly, which loomed on the horizon, its turrets dark against the clouds. They covered the ground slowly, as the grass was longer here and the earth muddier.
As they drew near, he couldn’t see any life from within the boxlike center of the folly. He stopped a few yards away and dismounted. The building was unlocked, so he yanked the door open and strode inside, removing his hat and shaking water from his hair as he did so.
Emma was huddled on a bench against the far wall. She grimaced at him, her teeth chattering.
“You have no idea how glad I am to see you,” she said.
A surge of fear flooded his body, leaving him cold, as he realized how much danger she’d been in. If he hadn’t found her, she could have become seriously ill.
Hell, she still might.
“What in God’s name were you thinking?” he demanded. “Heading off into unfamiliar terrain, on foot, when everyone and their mother could tell it would rain before nightfall.”
She lowered her gaze to stare at her hands, and the sense of guilt returned. He shouldn’t yell at her when she was already distressed.
“I thought it might be nice to spend time together,” she whispered. “I brought lunch.”
He glanced at the hamper beside her, which was sodden, whatever food it contained no doubt ruined. He gritted his teeth. He’d been right—she had done this because he’d avoided her. Clearly, they needed to have that conversation sooner rather than later.
“Come with me,” he said. “We can ride back together, and once we get there, we need to talk.”
Emma worriedher lip as she stood, her wet skirts clinging to her legs as she approached Vaughan. He was angry with her, that much was obvious, and she feared what he might say once they were home. She wanted to believe he was upset because he was worried, but she might be deluding herself.
She grabbed the hamper’s handle and carried it across the hard floor to where Vaughan waited. He held the door open, and she wrapped her free arm around herself, wishing she’d thought to wear something warmer.
Vaughan sighed as she passed, then touched her shoulder before she stepped out into the rain. She turned to face him, and he shrugged off his coat and held it out to her.
“Here.”
“Thank you.” She placed the hamper on the floor and worked her sodden arms through the coat’s armholes. Perhaps she should have protested and told him to keep the coat, but she was cold, and it still held a little heat from his body. She’d be a fool to turn him down.
He reached for the hamper, but she beat him to it, gritting her teeth and walking into the rain. It drenched her almost immediately, and she blinked rapidly, trying to keep the water out of her eyes.
While she was preoccupied, one of her feet slotted into a mole hole, and she tripped, her ankle rolling underneath her. She dropped the hamper and threw her palms out to catch herself as she fell.
