Chapter 40
Forty
Harry woke to a note under her door from Thomas saying he had been called away early to the next county. Some business or other. He would endeavor to be back late tonight or tomorrow.
His unexpected absence fit perfectly with her plans. She ate a very good breakfast and had Smythe dress her in traveling clothes and walking boots.
Smythe looked worried. “Where are you going, my lady?”
“Oh,” Harry said airily. “Just for a tramp.”
Harry walked as quickly as she could to the house of the Dunbars.
It was not many miles, but she was not as accustomed to walking as she once had been.
And she was in a hurry. Consequently, when she arrived, she was sweating and out of breath, her hair hanging around her face, and mud stained the hem of her dress and caked her boots.
And the bruises on her face from the horseshoe had not yet faded completely.
She presented herself to the butler and asked for Miss Hope Dunbar.
The butler turned up his nose. “And whom should I say is calling?”
Harry drew herself up as best she could. “The Right Honorable Countess Drake.”
The butler bowed very low indeed and ushered her immediately into the best drawing room.
Hope Dunbar appeared, and Harry darted forwards and closed the door behind her. If the pretty Miss Dunbar was startled, she showed no sign of it.
“My lady,” Miss Dunbar said.
“You have a great deal of equanimity. I admire it,” Harry said. “I beg you forgive this very early call with no warning. At this time, I must, as I am wont to do, abandon propriety.”
“Please sit, Lady Drake.”
Harry went to sit and then thought better of it and jumped up. “No, no, you sit, Miss Dunbar. I am covered in mud and don’t want to injure the sofa. It’s better if I walk around the room. You don’t mind if I do that, do you?”
Miss Dunbar ducked her head. Of course, she did not, my lady.
“I planned out this speech, but it is exceedingly more difficult to say than I thought it would be. That shows increasing maturity on my part, I think. I used to take great delight in saying enormously startling things in the most impulsive manner. I am wiser now and more solicitous of the comfort of others.”
Miss Dunbar murmured politely.
“However, I would like to do this quickly so I don’t lose heart,” Harry said. “My question to you is,” she took a deep breath, “if my husband, er, if Lord Drake were free, would you marry him?”
Miss Dunbar’s mouth fell open.
“I assure you he is a most excellent husband. And I feel sure, with your great beauty and attractions, you would be able to induce him not to roam. Or you could do as I did and just let him. He doesn’t mean anything by it. Quite literally. Think of it as like going to the privy. That’s what I do.”
Miss Dunbar seemed to totter on the edge of the sofa.
“Please, Miss Dunbar, forget I am the one asking the question. Just embrace the hypothesis. If he came to you, unencumbered, and asked you to marry, would your answer be yes?”
Miss Dunbar found her voice.
“If he came . . .” she repeated.
“Yes, if he came to you and asked you to marry, what would your answer be?”
“I would . . .”
“Yes?” Harry prompted.
“. . . say yes.”
It was the answer Harry had come for. “Thank you, thank you, Miss Dunbar. I assure you that you will not regret it. Just don’t let him drink too much at the wedding breakfast. Whisky, that is.
Chocolate or tea or coffee are all fine, though.
Now, do you think I might impose on your hospitality further and ask that a carriage convey me to Dr. Andrews’ surgery? ”
Miss Dunbar seemed relieved Lady Drake wanted to visit the doctor. But she had a question for Harry. “Why might Lord Drake be unencumbered, my lady?”
Harry did not want to answer that.
Then Miss Dunbar asked if Lady Drake wouldn’t prefer to wait here and they would send for the doctor? Her ladyship seemed to be in a great deal of distress.
“No, no, I need to go at once.”
Miss Dunbar must, of course, speak to her mother. Mrs. Dunbar must speak to Mr. Dunbar. All the Dunbars were in agreement. Yes, Lady Drake should see the doctor.
And so the Dunbar carriage was made ready, and Harry was put in it.
Harry could hear Miss Dunbar instructing the coachman that Lady Drake should be delivered directly into the doctor’s safe hands, and if that was not possible, she must be brought back to the Dunbar house as there was some concern she might do herself an injury.
Harry suddenly remembered her discussion with Miss Dunbar regarding the Scottish play. But Miss Dunbar couldn’t possibly think Harry was that stupid?
She wasn’t quite sure why, but she cried all the way to the village.
Thankfully, Harry found the doctor was in.
“Harry!” he said as she stumbled into his surgery, the Dunbar coachman on her heels.
She knew she was a sight. Tear-streaked face, mud, hair a wild tangle. But she had recovered her breath, and she had managed to slow the crying.
“Alasdair,” she said as calmly as she could.
The Dunbar coachman approached the doctor and bent to whisper something to him.
“’Tis pure rubbish,” Dr. Andrews said. “But I will take care of my lady. Tell Miss Dunbar to have nae fear.” The coachman nodded and, after giving Harry a look, left the surgery.
“What has happened?” Alasdair found a cloth and handed it to her.
She just held the cloth in her hand.
“I don’t know anyone else I could ask,” she said.
“Aye?”
“I need you to take me to London.”
Despite the doctor’s gentle and sympathetic probing, Harry did not want to provide further explanation. She must not be hindered.
“Alasdair, it’s important. It’s a legal matter. I need you by my side.”
So Harry convinced the doctor, wise man that he was, that further protest would be fruitless.
He managed to get them out of the house and into the village square as the mail coach came by.
Harry and Dr. Andrews were fortunate enough to be able to purchase seats.
They should be in London by the afternoon.
She looked out the window of the coach. She was lucky to have Alasdair as a friend.
He was a good man. It would be too bad to lose him along with everything else when she left Sommerleigh.
Perhaps she could arrange for him to open a practice in London.
That cheered her momentarily, and then she realized she would be taking him away from Thomas.
How would Thomas continue his studies of the calculus without the doctor?
No. She could not be that selfish. Alasdair would have to stay in Sommerleigh. Harry would have to do without him.