‘She may ignore that aspect if she is overcome by the idea that you are alone and friendless. She may even have contacted the Bow Street Runners to try and find you, though your departure would not be a crime.’

‘Sadly, my lord, my mama might be in a frightful fluster, but only at my disobedience, and the fact that I have acted without referral to her and her wishes.’ Miss Yate gave a lopsided smile. ‘You think me lily-livered, and it is true, but I am not blind. If there were any way out for me, and please, do not raise the option of matrimony again, I would take it. There is none.’

‘She may ring a peal over you, but you are not a child, forgive me, to be sent to bed without supper.’

‘No, and going without supper would be easy.’ She sighed. ‘You see, it becomes habitual, and just one’s life, always being wrong, always being told that whatever one does is not up to standard. Perhaps one begins to believe it is true, I do not know. It is a constant drip that wears one away as water does upon a stone. I cannot “run away” because I possess nothing, excepting three hundred pounds my grandfather left me, and that would not last for very many years. I am not well educated enough to be a governess, and, well, I had considered going to Bath under a new name and trying to get employment as a companion to an old lady, but would that not be much the same as the situation I find myself in now?’ She sounded tired, and defeated. ‘I do not relish walking into the house any more than Jasper does, but I see no point in complaint.’ She rubbed a gloved finger at her temple.

‘You must be very wearied, Miss Yate.’

‘No more than you, my lord, and before Jasper returns, I want to say that I am grateful, eternally so, for though we did not find him in extremis, we found him in, I believe, a dangerous and unpleasant situation from which your own forethought and courage has rescued us all. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.’

Lord Henfield brushed away the thanks, and Lord Leyburn, now complaining that he could not see why they might not remain at the posting inn to dine, resumed his seat. Lord Henfield said nothing, and shut his eyes, pretending to fall asleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO