by Shirl Anders
***
Beth felt pain stabbing across her back, and she didn't understand how she'd not felt it in the woods before. Vicious eyes like the inky, black depths of a lightless pool flashed through her mind and she gasped, remembering the pain of the slashing cut. But after …
After that, she only remembered the dark and mystifying Lord Trinity. She shuddered against Adam as he carried her and he chased after … Beth tried to make her mind focus, but it was so hard and she desperately wanted to go to sleep. She wanted to hide from everything that was so horrible. If only the pain would let her sleep.
"Beth!" Adam looked down at Beth jostling in his arms. She'd gone limp and he could see her eyes were closed. He knew enough from classes he'd taken at the university to know she was still in physical danger. She was so cold, combined with shaking, and the presence of some wound he'd heard Lord Trinity speak of that could put Beth into shock’s clutches.
"Damnation!" Adam shouted. "If this is how you treat your friends in need, I'd not want your friendship. My god, Lady Ariel, she's passed out and needs our help desperately!"
Adam gasped a labored breath of relief when he saw Lady Ariel finally stop running away. She'd nearly made it to the steps at the back of the mansion before she turned back.
"Thank god," he heaved, slowing his pace slightly to intercept Lady Ariel as she hurried back to them. He could see Lady Ariel was shuddering in the cold night air in her inadequate ball gown and her once perfectly-styled blond hair had fallen about her bare shoulders.
"Beth!" Lady Ariel exclaimed with her small hand reaching up to touch Beth's cheek. There were tears in Lady Ariel's eyes. "She has to be all right." She looked up at him beseechingly.
"She will be," he reassured her, when for some odd reason he'd been so angry at her moments before. "We need our carriage. She needs a blanket and warmth," he stated, starting forward again, and then he asked, "Were you with Lord Fanton? Is he still here? Gads, I hope he's not taken the carriage."
"He wanted me to play some silly game out in the gardens and it was so dark," Lady Ariel said out of breath beside him, trying to keep up. "I-I," she stuttered, and then she seemed to force herself to blurt, "I left him …" Her voice trailed off.
Adam came around the side of the mansion and he saw the line of resting carriages. Good god, he thought, how hard would it be to identify theirs? "A game?" he asked, distracted, as he looked at the line of dark carriages, trying without luck to pick out any defining characteristics. There had to be well over thirty.
"A courting game," she answered breathlessly, stopping beside where he'd stopped. Her words jerked his attention back. It was too dark to tell, but he was certain Lady Ariel blushed. She hurried on, saying, "But for the longest time I couldn't find you or Beth. I search the entire ball, but then a servant boy said you'd gone to the gardens … S-So I braved them again … for Beth." Lady Ariel patted Beth's shoulder. "Has he hurt her terribly?" she asked in an agonized murmur.
Adam had turned his eyes back toward the carriages again, distracted at Lady Ariel's long explanation. He saw a carriage pulling out of line and a footman jumping off the back to come towards them. What miracle was this?
"He might have tried to kill her out there in those woods," Adam muttered, glancing down at Beth limp in his arms. He really had no idea of the impact of his words. "I think this is our carriage footman. Come on."
He heard the swishing of Lady Ariel's skirts beside him as he once again hurried forward to meet the footman. His one thought was to get Beth safe, warm, and home in bed. Perhaps then, Lady Ariel could check Beth for any wounds. The murdered woman in the woods bothered him greatly. He had to tell the authorities, but Beth's welfare was more important at the moment.
"The gentleman said to bring the carriage up fer you, my lord," the footman announced upon reaching them. Adam didn't halt, and the footman turned to walk with them.
"Gentleman?" Adam questioned.
"Aye, I didn't catch his name, sir. He was tall with blonde hair and a goatee. Not dressed for the party though."
Christian Blacknall. Adam's gaze scanned the area, but somehow he knew he wouldn't see the handsome Mr. Blacknall about.
"I hope we done right," the footman stammered.
"Yes-yes," Adam answered. "Hurry ahead and open the door. Get out as many lap blankets as you have."
Adam reached the carriage and he didn't stop, but he carried Beth up into it, laying her on the seat. "Lady Ariel, we need to make her warm, but can you check for a wound first?"
"Adam?" Lady Ariel questioned, crouched up inside the carriage beside him.
He was trying to untangle the cloak from around Beth's limp body, as he said, "It would be more proper if you do this …"
Lady Ariel made a strangled sound beside him, and then she cried, "Her clothes! Oh lord in heaven. She's not got all her clothes on!"
Adam turned his gaze toward Lady Ariel's shrieking, seeing her backing out of the carriage. "Wait! You cannot go," he insisted with anger shaking his words.
"I can't! I can't!" Lady Ariel cried. "I'm so sorry!" She whirled around to flee away toward the mansion.
"Damnation," Adam cursed, folding the cloak back over Beth. He grasped two lap blankets to cover her as he lifted her up and held her in his arms. Her head fell against his chest and he stroked the tangled strands of her long hair.
"Driver! On to the Westfield mansion as quickly as possible," he ordered with a shout.
Chapter Eight