Chapter Twenty
Violet was well aware that this trip had been a bad idea from the beginning.
Given how she was mentally and physically exhausted, she should have waited until the light of day to begin her excursion home.
Obviously her need to be near her loved ones when she was this upset outweighed any commonsense that may have lingered in the back of her head.
If only she had been thinking clearly enough to heed Asher and Patience’s advice.
But no… she had to be her normal stubborn self and refuse to listen to what had certainly been in her best interest.
Waking up in a coaching inn not far from the outskirts of London hadn’t been a part of Violet’s plan.
But here she and Arianna were after a wheel had broken not long after they left the city behind.
They had been lucky. If the wheel had shattered from its axle when they had rounded a bend in the road, their carriage would have most likely landed down in the steep ravine.
It wasn’t hard to overhear the driver’s prayers and his thanks for divine intervention after he had gotten the horses back under control.
She had to agree. God surely must have been looking out for them.
She had somehow managed to eat a few bites of the breakfast Arianna had ordered for them.
Yet her appetite was barely active since the food seemed stuck in her throat.
But because of her friend’s encouragement, she at least had something in her stomach.
Now, all they needed to do was to sit patiently while waiting for word that they could continue toward home.
She lifted her teacup to her lips, the liquid only somewhat soothing her troubled soul. How did it all go so wrong so quickly?
She closed her eyes in her attempt to continue to calm her nerves.
If she stretched her imagination far enough, she could almost feel the silky lengths of his sandy-colored hair as it had slid through her fingertips when she’d nursed him during his illness.
Gideon… Would there ever come a day when he wouldn’t haunt her every waking hour?
Since it was only just yesterday since the whole fiasco had occurred, she knew it was far too soon to consider that her world would become quickly balanced again.
Everything was so tilted to the extreme extent where her emotions were concerned, she worried if anything in her life would ever become normal again.
Even the memory of his warm and inviting voice filled her heart with regret.
Love had been just within her grasp. How unfortunate that it had left her just as quickly.
“You best finish your tea, Violet, before it grows cold,” Arianna declared, interrupting her thoughts of Gideon. “Hopefully we won’t have to wait much longer for the repairs to the carriage to be completed.”
Violet took the last sip of her tea but as her friend had just mentioned, it had already grown tepid. She set the cup down to stare out the window. It was starting to rain. Perfect. Even the weather was against them. Arianna grasped her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I’ll be fine, dearest friend,” Violet replied to Arianna’s silent question while her eyes seemed to search for the answers Violet couldn’t provide. There could be no mistaking the concern in her friend’s features.
“You cannot blame me for worrying. I feel like I was completely useless to you while in London,” Arianna said, letting go of Violet’s hand to take a handkerchief from her reticule and using it to dab at her eyes. “How could I not see that you needed me?”
“You haven’t been feeling well for most of our trip. I know how much traveling indisposes you. I should have never asked you to travel with me to London,” Violet proclaimed as she took in her friend’s ashen face. “Even now, you’re barely holding on and we’ve only just made it out of the city.”
“You didn’t ask me, if you recall. Your cousin did, and how could I refuse the opportunity to see town?”
A scoff left her lips. “We barely saw anything and never had the opportunity to attend even one ball. What was the purpose of Patience sending us to have all those gowns made for us if we didn’t even get the chance to don half of them?”
“We would have worn them if we hadn’t left so unexpectedly. I realize you had a falling out with that gentleman who turned out to be Asher’s brother, but that was no reason why we couldn’t stay. I’m sure Mrs. Dove-Lyon would have had other potential husbands lined up for you to meet in no time.”
“There wasn’t going to be any other gentleman I would be interested in meeting, Ari,” she whispered as her own tears welled in her eyes.
“Oh, no! You were in love with him!”
Violet’s chin quivered. “At first sight,” she murmured, admitting to her friend how fast she had fallen for a complete stranger.
“Who could have thought that I, of all people who is usually so rational, could have fallen so hard for a man from just one glance? I am the one who constantly remains levelheaded in all things that matter but I lost my sense from the moment I first saw him.”
“The heart knows what the heart wants… or so the saying goes,” Arianna said with a casual shrug. “I still can’t believe he thought you were scheming to catch him as a husband. The cad!”
Violet stared down at her hands that were still being held by her friend’s.
A dull ache had been in the center of her chest since Gideon’s words left his mouth.
And yet, there was some small part of her that wanted to believe he was sorry he had thought so little of her.
Another scoff left her. That really was wishful thinking on her part.
She was about to respond to Arianna’s words when the door to the inn opened.
Her driver came over to her table announcing they could return to the road whenever they were ready to depart.
Violet told him they were finished and would meet him outside.
As he left, another man filled the entryway and she held back a gasp of surprise.
She turned away quickly, hoping the gentleman hadn’t seen her and Arianna.
She clutched at her friend’s hand and moved her eyes toward the doorway.
Luckily the major swiftly went up the stairway toward the upper floor rooms.
Once he was gone, they settled their bill and hastily left the inn. When they were finally on the road again, Violet kept looking out the window praying to God Major Dawkes wasn’t following them and that it was only a coincidence that they had stayed the night under the same roof.