Chapter Five
“You can come inside now, Lady Liberty,” Lord Corbyn said from the doorway of the carriage. “The Thorny Thistle is busy, but the proprietor is willing to accommodate a duke’s daughter and a viscount.”
“How lucky that you could throw about your title,” Liberty muttered, rising from her seat.
There was so much anger and tension between them after the hateful words they’d thrown at each other. Her head hurt, and she had the ridiculous urge to lower it into her hands and weep more foolish tears.
“Take my hand,” he said. “You are unsteady on your feet, and I do not want you to faint again.”
Don’t show him what you are feeling. You are strong now, Liberty.
She looked at the large hand gloved in tan leather with loathing.
“I don’t need your help to get out. Step aside, if you please.”
His sigh was loud enough to be heard inside the inn.
“I have no wish for you to fall on your face and injure yourself further,” he said, his calm, unfeeling facade firmly back in place.
Liberty had glimpsed a flash of pain in his brown eyes, in the carriage. It had gone so fast she’d thought she’d imagined it. This man cared for no one.
“Now, my lady. I will carry you in my arms again if you do not take my hand.” He beckoned her with his fingers.
This was her absolute nightmare. Being this close to a man who had hurt her, like Tobias had. Yes, it had been years ago, but Liberty remembered it as if it were yesterday. At the time, it had broken her, and then made her strong, and with strength, she’d vowed never to forgive him.
“Come, you are tired and hurting. Inside is warmth and food, Lady Liberty.”
She took his hand as there was no other option and allowed him to help her down. She then dropped it as if it were a burning coal. Liberty started walking to the inn and the welcoming lights and warmth it would provide.
A large hand settled on her back. She didn’t have the energy to tell him to remove it, plus she couldn’t discount completely that she wouldn’t fall on her face like he’d suggested. For now, Liberty would tolerate his presence, but soon he would be gone again.
Once inside, they were ushered into a small parlor. She nearly wept when she saw the large comfortable chair before the fire. He nudged her toward it and then she was sinking onto the blissfully soft cushion.
“Excuse me while I see to refreshments,” she heard Lord Corbyn say, and then the door closed behind him.
Liberty worked hard on unclenching her muscles, as that was not helping the pain in her body. This nightmare would be over soon, and he would once again be a stranger in her life.
“It is kind of Lord Corbyn to come to your aid, my lady,” Helen said from behind her.
“Helen, would you find a cool cloth for my head, please?” Liberty said instead of addressing what she’d just said.
“Of course, my lady.”
Liberty had told no one exactly what happened that day on Tobias’s doorstep many years ago, but they knew something had, no matter how hard she’d fought not to show her pain.
Resting her head on the side of the chair after her maid left, she closed her eyes and tried to shut out thoughts of the man who had once been her best friend.
Her head hurt, and her body ached. She just wanted to reach London and sleep for two days, not deal with him when she felt unarmed to do so.
“I have tea and brandy,” a deep voice said.
“Brandy, please,” Liberty said, opening her eyes. Exhaustion rolled over her, but she’d experienced that, and pain so fierce you wondered if it would kill you, before. So this was nothing by comparison.
She’d always considered herself brave, but two life events had truly tested that belief. The day Tobias told her he no longer wanted to be her friend, and when she’d fallen from her horse and broken parts of her that had never really healed.
Tobias held out a glass, and she took it. He then dragged a chair closer, so he was soon sitting in her line of sight. Liberty closed her eyes again, cradling the glass in her hands, having no wish to look at him.
“I need to discuss something with you, Lady Liberty. I would be grateful if you could put aside anything that lay between us until I have done so.”
“You say that like it is my fault.” This man had hurt her, and she’d never forgive him for that.
“I know where the fault lies, my lady.” His eyes held hers, but she could read nothing in their dark depths.
She nodded for him to continue.
“Something is not right in Bidham.”
“In what way?” She’d felt the same but wanted to hear his thoughts on the matter before acknowledging that.
“My butler told me there was something sinister afoot in Bidham. I then talked to Harry when I arrived in the village, and she too said, ‘there’s evil about, have a care.’”
“I have heard rumors,” Liberty said. “Helen also.”
“I could get no information when I was there today—”
“As no one would speak to you?” Liberty cut him off. She wanted to hurt him. To strike out and inflict pain as he had on her.
It was years ago, Liberty. You should have moved on by now.
“Yes.” His eyes held hers steady.
When the pain and anger over what Tobias said to her had eased, Liberty wondered why he’d said what he had.
What prompted the boy, her friend, who loved the village of Bidham, to cut her and them from his life?
She’d never found the courage to ask him, and then it was too late, so she’d held onto her anger instead.
“What have you heard?” he asked her.
Liberty watched him sip his brandy, the muscles in the throat working as he swallowed it down. Many women of society believed him handsome. They twittered and spoke about him behind their hands. She knew their words for the truth.
Tobias had grown into a man that drew eyes.
Tall, broad shouldered, with thick brown hair.
His face was usually impassive, but when he smiled, he changed completely.
Softened, and seemed almost like the boy she’d once known.
Liberty had spent far too many hours watching him in ballrooms. Flirting, dancing, and being the man she’d never believed he would be.
“Please, my lady. If there is trouble in Bidham, I want to know.”
“I’m not sure why you would now, but as I too believe something is not right, I will tell you what I have learned,” Liberty said.
He nodded, his dark intense gaze locked on her.
“Mrs. Dibby came to my father’s house last night and said her brother, who lives in Bidham, is behaving oddly.
That while she was visiting him, a man knocked at the door.
Mrs. Dibby did not overhear everything that was said, but she heard the words, ‘you know what will happen if you don’t do as we tell you. ’”
“Did she get a look at the man?”
“No. When I asked her, she said the conversation felt threatening, so she stayed hidden until he and her brother had left,” Liberty said. “When she questioned her sister-in-law about who the man was, the woman had seemed terrified, but she wouldn’t speak on the matter.”
He sipped from his glass again before speaking.
“I saw Liam in the Gill, and while I understand he had no wish to speak with me, I felt as if he was nervous because of two men who were seated at a table,” Tobias said.
“When I asked him if everything was all right in Bidham, he said of course, but shot the men another look, as if he’d not wanted them to overhear our conversation. ”
“I have some water to wash your head,” Helen said, returning.
“That can wait until we reach London,” Liberty said. “Come and listen to what Lord Corbyn and I are discussing please, Helen.”
“I can do both. I won’t be cleaning your head with my ears.”
Lord Corbyn snorted at Helen’s words, and Liberty ignored him. She wanted to feel no familiarity with this man.
Her maid draped a drying cloth over her shoulder as he began to tell Helen what he’d just told Liberty.
“You’re a great deal braver than you once were,” he said watching.
“She’s had reason to be,” Helen said.
“What reason?”
“It matters not. The question is: What is to be done to find out what is going on in Bidham?” Liberty said. She wasn’t about to discuss her accident with this man.
“I will send someone to ask questions,” Lord Corbyn said.
“Strangers will get nothing out of the residents in Bidham,” Liberty added.
“I have a man who is excellent at blending in, and also at striking up conversations with strangers. He has ferreted out a lot for me over the years.”
She did not ask why he would need such a man, because Liberty told herself she didn’t care.
“I would be grateful if you hear anything that you let me know, Lady Liberty.”
“As would I,” she added.
“Of course.” He nodded.
Liberty had a feeling that he was lying and wouldn’t come to her at all, but she said nothing further, and allowed Helen to finish cleaning her head.
They then ate a small meal in heavy silence, which even her maid did not try to break. Liberty wished he would leave, and when he had eaten everything on his plate, she said as much.
“As you can see, I am safe, and my carriage wheel is being fixed as we speak. There is no further need for you to stay here any longer, Lord Corbyn.”
He studied her for long seconds. “I am not leaving yet. Excuse me, I wish to speak to the innkeeper.”
“Thank you,” Liberty made herself say as he regained his feet. “For helping me today.” She could be gracious. After all, without him she would have been sitting with a sore head on the side of the road for hours.
He turned with a hand on the door and faced her. “You are welcome.”
“Well,” Helen said when it had closed behind him.
“Well?”
“There was so much tension between you it nearly choked me.”
“That was not tension, it was animosity. As you heard on the carriage ride here, we are no longer friends,” Liberty said.
“I never understood what happened between you.”
“Everyone changes when they grow up,” was all Liberty wanted to add to that. She then closed her eyes and slept again.