“Say, I was told to expect just the one lady today,” the driver said, blocking the way when Bet made to follow her in.

“She is with me,” Lisa said with a frown, half rising from the bench seat she’d just settled on. “It isn’t proper for a lady to travel without her maid.”

The man hesitated, but then moved out of the way with a sigh, and muttered, “All right, but Mrs. Morgan isn’t going to like it.”

Lisa frowned at the claim, then smiled encouragingly at her maid as she climbed in to claim the bench seat opposite her, “I’m sure she wouldn’t expect me to come completely alone.”

The man merely shook his head and closed the door.

Lisa and Bet exchanged an uncertain glance at that reaction and then the coach rocked as the driver reclaimed his perch. When the carriage began to move, they could do little but settle back in their seats. However, Lisa was suddenly a tad nervous, worried that Mrs. Morgan would be annoyed with her for bringing Bet along on this visit. Though, she couldn’t imagine why.

While Lisa had often left Bet to shop in the village while she’d visited Mrs. Morgan at the inn during the five days the woman had been stranded there waiting for her carriage to be repaired, she had taken her with her a time or two as well. And what was proper, or at least ignored, in the country was different from what was allowed in London. Surely her friend wouldn’t expect her to come unescorted in the city? While it had been her original intention, now that Bet had made her comments about what was proper here, Lisa had to agree her first plan of going alone had been rather foolish and thoughtless. That sort of thing could ruin a girl’s reputation, and really, the family had narrowly escaped several scandals now as it was.

The ride to Mrs. Morgan’s took a surprisingly long time. At least it seemed a long time to Lisa, who sat fretting in the back of the carriage with an obviously worried Bet. It didn’t help that the drapes were closed and they had nothing to look at to pass the time. But they didn’t dare pull them open and look out for fear of being recognized and the news of this excursion somehow making its way back to her sister and brother-in-law.