Chapter
Twenty-Seven

Grace settled beside Merry, who had been gently laid down the length of one of the bench seats of the trap.

When Daniel had returned with Will Harvey at the reins driving the trap, Daniel had said that before anyone else, they should get Mr. Young safely back, but there had been room for a few more.

“I want to go with him,” Grace had said. “He’s my friend.”

Kate had made a stupid joke then, something about, “Only Grace would take the occasion of a man getting bitten in the arm as an opportunity to see if there might be some possible romance in it.” No one had laughed, but for once Grace hadn’t minded being the object of her older sister’s bizarre sense of jocularity. She sensed that even Kate might be frightened now and that, feeling such an unfamiliar emotion, she might be responding to it by resorting to her typical tricks.

As for Lizzy, she did not seem as shaken by having killed Dr. Webb as one might think. Come to think of it, Lizzy had killed two men now—two men in two days!

But she couldn’t think about Lizzy anymore as she settled into the seat beside Merry. She couldn’t even think about Daniel and how brave and wonderful he had been. She only wanted to get Merry home, back to the abbey, where she could more properly tend to him.

“Who else is coming on this round?” Will Harvey had asked, with a questioning look at Lizzy, the pistol still in her hand, as though he were somehow and for some reason specifically concerned about her.

Before anyone else could answer or step forward, however, Raymond Allen did.

“I’d like to go, if I may,” he said.

“Are you scared we won’t come back for you?” Will Harvey said with what could only be described as a slight sneer. “Because I assure you, I will get everyone back safely.”

As Grace focused her attention on Merry, she could only imagine the looks on her parents’ and Grandmama’s faces, that they should live to see the day when a stable boy might address a member of the British peerage in such a fashion.

She waited for one of them, or for the duke himself, to rebuke Will, but the rebuke never came.

Grace looked up briefly enough to catch the blush coloring the duke’s face as he replied without rancor, “I’ve developed a feeling of kinship with Mr. Young in our short time together, and I would merely like to see that he is well.”

Grace could certainly understand this, for those were her sentiments exactly. It seemed to her that while family abounded, friends were hard to come by in their world. And if one was lucky enough to find a friend, even a relatively new one like Mr. Young, it was one’s job—privilege, even—to take care of that person.

And so Raymond Allen had joined them, sitting on the seat behind her and Merry.

Grace didn’t notice much about the journey. Her attention was too focused on Merry, and she did worry that every bump and jounce of the trap might hurt him further. Considering the severity of the attack he’d endured, he didn’t appear to be suffering much, only wincing slightly at some of the more violent jounces.

But, preoccupied as she was, even she couldn’t miss the look of shock on Mr. Wright’s face as they’d reentered the abbey, and the stable boy and still-shirtless footman carried one of their guests up the grand staircase.

It had taken two more trips in the trap for Will Harvey to transport everyone safely back to the abbey.

Now here Grace sat, beside Merry, who lay in the bed in his room, as she bathed his head wound with hot water Daniel had directed Fanny to bring up from the kitchen in a basin.

“We should put some alcohol on that,” Daniel said. “On his arm wound, too, so it doesn’t get infected.”

“Get whatever we need,” Grace said. “We have to do whatever we can to help Merry get better.”

Daniel went.

Raymond Allen remained, standing to one side, not really doing much of anything. Well, you couldn’t say he was terribly useful, but at least he cared.

“I was only trying to help Dr. Webb,” Merry said, “and he bit me! But I suppose he wasn’t feeling well. I know that when I am not feeling well, I can get so cross.”

“Hush,” Grace said. “Preserve your strength.”

“You’re right, my dear,” he said. “We’re safe now.”

“Yes,” Grace said, watching as his eyes gently fluttered shut. “We’re all safe now.”