I worry at first that she has come home to her abuser, but the other horses are sleek and healthy animals. She must have belonged to one of the men chasing us, rather than Norrington himself. Someone from the Norrington estate found her and brought her here. Now she’s whinnying her greeting and trotting along the fence as we run.

“The horses!” a man shouts. “Something is disturbing the horses.”

I hitch my skirts higher to pick up my speed, but I am wearing a nineteenth-century gown with endless petticoats, and a jog is even more exhausting than half an hour on the dance floor.

“The mare,” Nicolas says. “If she is so eager to accompany us, we should make use of her. Can you ride without a saddle, crécerelle?”

“No, but I can hang onto you.”

“And that is all that we require.”

Before I can speak, he lifts me as easily as if I were a waif in her shift. He puts me on the stone wall, and then he vaults it. A moment later, he is on the mare, who is not at all concerned by this turn of events. She even tosses her head, clearly eager to be off on a fresh adventure.

Nicolas reaches for me, and I manage to transfer myself from the fence to the mare. I’m getting my grip when a shout sounds, followed by a shot. The shot goes wild, but someone yells.

“The horses, you fool! Do not spook the horses. That is Lord Norrington’s prize gelding in there.”

“I believe we should spook the horses,” I say.

“I believe you are correct,” Nicolas says.

He taps the mare’s sides with his heels and steers her to the nearest gate. Then he leans down, opens it and guides her toward the other two horses, who have ambled over for a closer look. A gorgeous bay gelding snorts and feints, and when Nicolas gets the mare galloping, the other two horses follow, as if this is a lovely and unexpected game.

We fly out the gate and onto the moor. More shouts sound behind us, but the men can do little else. They cannot catch up on foot, and they dare not discharge a firearm when Lord Norrington’s gelding runs alongside us.

We sail over the moor with the gelding beside us, the third horse having already bored of the game and turned back. When we are certain we have lost our pursuers, we send the gelding off in hopes they’ll pause to collect him.

We continue on until we spot a farm, which seems like a good location to leave the mare. From there, we continue on foot to Thorne Manor. That is the obvious place to go. Obvious for us, while not obvious for our pursuers. They do not know of any connection between Nicolas and Lord Thorne, so they will be checking every croft and barn in the area, presuming he has holed up in one of them, as he did after I was shot.