Page 79 of Her Wicked Highwayman
“Lord Lennoxwillcome for Rafe, and I shall be the one to lead him here. Your master will die tonight. I shall make certain of it.”
Then she did the hardest thing of her life. She turned and ran away from the man she loved in order to get help. She just prayed she could get back in time.
She felt the hidden eyes of the servants as she moved toward the door.
“You’re free to escape this house, but if you are here when I return, I will assume you are loyal to Caddington and you will face justice.”
She wrenched the heavy oak door open and ran out to Rafe’s horse waiting on the gravel drive. The beast responded to her as she swung herself up in the saddle and dug her heels into the flanks.
“Fly!” she hissed in the creature’s ear. “Fly!”
CHAPTER 18
Isla stirred awake, feeling strange and full of sorrow. She’d thought she heard Papa talking to her, but perhaps that was just a dream.
“Papa?”
She pushed back her blankets and found Nanny was reading by the fire.
“Was Papa here?” she asked.
“Yes, a short while ago. He kissed you good night before he went to bed,” Nanny said as she closed her book. “Andyoushould go on back to bed, dear.”
Isla shook her head. “No. I had a bad dream. I want to see Papa!” As she slipped out of her bed, she glimpsed the portraits of her other papa and her other mama on the shelf close to her bed. Beneath them was a stack of letters. Papa only ever put those portraits out when he went away.
“Nanny...” She pointed to the letters. “Did Papa go away? He left some letters for me.” She loved to hear Papa read letters to her, especially when they were from his family, because he always made funny voices to sound like her aunts and uncles. But the fact that he’d left letters with her parents’ portraits made her stomach tighten with fear.
“What are those?” Nanny left her chair by the fire and carefully lifted the portraits to retrieve the letters. “They are addressed to your aunt and uncle... What on earth?” She looked at Isla in growing concern. “We need to see Lord Lennox at once.” Nanny took the letters in one hand and Isla’s palm in her other. They reached Uncle Ashton’s bedchamber door, and she rapped her knuckles on it.
“My lord? I’m sorry to disturb you, but I believe it’s urgent!”
After a moment, the door opened. Uncle Ashton wore his dressing gown and held a lit candle.
“Mrs. Chesterfield? What’s wrong? Is Isla all right?”
“The girl is fine, but Isla found these by her bed. Mr. Lennox came to see her after she was asleep, and I believe he left these for you.” She passed Uncle Ashton the letters. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner, but he had tucked them underneath the portraits of her parents.”
“Rosalind, darling, wake up,” Uncle Ashton called over his shoulder. “Come inside, Mrs. Chesterfield.” Her uncle stepped back and let Nanny and Isla come into his bedchamber.
Aunt Rosalind was pulling on a pale-pink dressing gown and tying the bright-blue sash around her waist as they entered. When she saw Isla, she held out her arms and Isla ran to her aunt and hugged her as Rosalind knelt down to catch her.
“Isla, dear, what’s the matter?”
“I had a bad dream,” Isla confessed. “I dreamed Papa left me...” She didn’t want to relive that dream, of running through the gardens, calling for him and never finding him just as a storm opened up above her. Papa would never leave her forever. Would he?
Ashton set his candle down and opened the envelope with his name. His eyes narrowed, then widened.
“Christ,” he muttered. He shoved the letter at Rosalind. She sat down on the floor to read it, whispering the words aloud, forgetting that Isla was right beside her.
Ash,
I know that the last year has been good between us. I wish with everything that it could have continued that way, but my past has caught up with me. The story is too long to tell, but if fate will protect me one last time, Diana may live this night to share it all with you. She is my wife in all the ways that matter; please treat her as such as my last wish. Let her live at Foxglove Hall and raise Isla as her child. See that she has all the dividends from my investments. I know you cannot give me financial support, not after what I’ve done all these years, but please support them. They are the family of my heart. I wish I could say that I will make you proud of me at least once in my life, but I fear when you learn the truth it will not matter. I love you, brother. I only wish I’d said it more often.
—Rafe
“Ash, what does he mean? It sounds like Diana may be in trouble.”
“He also left letters for you, Mother, Thomasina, Joanna, Diana, and Isla,” Ashton said as he rifled through the stack of slender letters Nanny had given him. “I fear he isn’t coming back.”
