“I don’t know,” Suzette said, wondering how she was to tell. It hurt, that was all she really knew, and then she frowned and asked, “When I fell?”

“When Danvers attacked you I rammed him with my shoulders. It was all I could do,” he said apologetically. “I was afraid he was going to choke you to death.”

“He was very angry,” Suzette said dryly.

“You have that effect on people,” was his wry response.

Suzette gave a short laugh and then asked, “So ramming him was enough to stop him?”

“Well, that knocked you both down and got his attention. But I suspect reminding him he couldn’t marry a corpse was the real reason he didn’t simply go back to choking you,” he admitted.

“Good thinking,” she sighed.

“It worked,” her father said, and then added apologetically, “Unfortunately you knocked your head on a boulder as you fell. So you have me to blame for your aching head.”

“You saved my life,” she pointed out, and tried to shift to a sitting position, but found she was anchored down somehow.

“He tied us together,” Cedrick Madison explained. “He didn’t have any rope, so he ripped strips off your gown and used those.”

Startled, Suzette craned her head up and around to look at herself and saw that her dress was much shorter than when she’d set out that day. That explained why she was so cold, she supposed. “Where is he?”

“He was going to walk to the next inn to rent a hack and then come back for us. Hence the reason he tied us together. He figured that way if you regained consciousness before he returned, we wouldn’t get far.

Suzette stilled and asked, “How long has he been gone?”

“Long enough that if we are planning to escape, we should get moving,” her father said solemnly.

Suzette nodded, and immediately regretted it as pain shot through her skull. It felt like a squirrel was up there gnawing on her head above her right ear. She waited a moment for the worst of the pain to pass, and then said, “Count to three and on three we will both sit up.”

Her father began counting.

“We must be halfway back to the overturned carriage by now.”

Daniel didn’t respond to that fretful comment from his mother.

“Surely they would have got farther than this by now?” she added, her gaze slipping over the woods on either side of them.

Daniel’s mouth tightened, but he stayed stubbornly silent. He wasn’t going to turn back until they’d reached the carriage, though he was sure his mother was going to suggest that next.

“Daniel, I think——” Lady Woodrow began, and then paused and reined in her horse. “What is that?”