Chapter 19 #2
Christina sank down against a tree, pressing her back to the rough bark, and closed her eyes. Her mind was whirring, throwing up options and discarding them just as quickly.
Then she heard it. Hoofbeats — distant but growing closer, coming from the direction of London.
She rose to her feet, stepping back into the shadow of the tree line. A horse rounded the bend in the road, moving fast, its rider hunched low in the saddle. The magnificent animal slowed to a stop only a short distance from the inn.
The rider swung down from the saddle, grasping the reins. He was close now, his silhouette sharp against the moonlight, but she could not see his face.
Christina gripped her courage in both hands and stepped forward. "Please," she said, her voice hoarse from fatigue. "Might you be of aid to me?"
The man jumped visibly but did not speak. His head turned toward her.
"I understand this must be very confusing," she continued, trembling. "I have suffered a great deal and — "
Without warning, the rider began to stride toward her. Christina's heart lurched, and she stumbled backward, suddenly certain she had made a terrible mistake.
"Christina, wait!"
The world stopped.
She could not move. Could not breathe. Could not reconcile the voice she was hearing with the impossibility of his being here, on this road, at this hour.
"But... you... how — "
He reached her. His hand touched hers — gently, carefully, as if she were something fragile that might shatter if he moved too quickly. She looked down at his fingers covering hers. They were trembling.
"I came in search of you." His voice was hoarse, as if the words had been lodged in his throat for too long. "Oh, Christina, thank God you are safe."
She stared at him. The moonlight caught the exhaustion in his face — the dust on his coat, the disheveled hair, the lines of worry carved deep around his eyes. He was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling with the effort of a man who had ridden through the night.
"How did you find me?" she whispered.
"Sarah told your family everything." His hand tightened over hers.
"Wickton and I rode the Great North Road — every posting house, every inn along the route.
At the second, a stable boy remembered a gentleman's carriage arriving late with a lady who —" his voice broke, "who did not look willing.
The innkeeper at the next village sent us here. "
The rescue was not luck. It was not fate. It was Isaac, on a borrowed horse, stopping at posting house after posting house in the dark, asking the same question over and over until someone answered it.
Christina stepped into his arms.
The sensation of his embrace — solid, warm, shaking with relief — broke the last wall she had been holding in place.
She wept, not with the quiet tears she had permitted herself in the locked room but with the full, broken, glorious sound of someone who had been carrying a weight too heavy for one person and had finally set it down.
He held her. His arms trembled, but they did not loosen. His head lowered, his cheek pressed against her hair, and she heard him whisper her name — just her name, over and over, as if saying it was the only thing anchoring him to the ground.
"My love." He leaned back, his hands rising to cup her face. His thumbs brushed the tears from her cheeks. "You are safe."
"Only because you came." She held his wrists, her fingers pressing into the pulse she could feel racing beneath his skin. "Only because you came."
"No." He shook his head, his eyes bright. "You escaped that inn yourself, Christina. It was your courage, your cleverness. I was only here to catch you."
She wanted to argue. She wanted to tell him that knowing he was searching for her was what had given her the strength to try. But the look in his eyes — fierce pride and overwhelming tenderness tangled together — silenced her.
He lowered his head and kissed her. It was not a kiss of passion. It was gentle, careful, full of gratitude, and the staggering relief of having almost lost something precious and finding it whole. Christina closed her eyes, her hands sliding from his wrists to his shoulders, holding on.
The sound of hooves prevented him from saying more, within a few moments, Christina was caught up in the crushing embrace of Lord Wickton.
"Pennington will pay for what he has done." Lord Wickton's face was white in the moonlight. "I will not — cannot — allow this to stand."
Lord Coventry put a hand on Lord Wickton's arm. "Then might I leave you with the gentleman? I will return Christina to London."
Lord Wickton nodded, looking to Christina. "Are you well enough to ride?"
"I am."
"I will find a carriage somewhere," Lord Coventry promised. "I will not return her to the house upon my horse. You need not fear that. I will do my utmost to keep the ton from hearing of this."
Lord Wickton nodded. "I thank you."
Without another word, he turned and marched towards the inn, leaving Christina and Lord Coventry alone again. He pulled her close once more, his head lowering so she could feel the heat of his breath on her neck. Raw, overwhelming relief poured through her as she clung to him.
"I feared I had lost you," he whispered, his voice catching. "I cannot imagine all you have endured."
"I trusted that you would find me." She held him as tightly as he held her, a smile breaking through the tears. "It was that hope that pushed me on."
His hands lifted from her waist, cupping her face so he could look into her eyes. They stood there, silent, the moonlight pooling around them and the night holding its breath.
"We have almost been twice lost to one another," he said, lowering his head.
"There is more to come, I am afraid. The ton may whisper, might hear of what has happened — but I want you to be assured of my devotion to you.
I care nothing for what society might say, nor what they think.
" His lips touched hers lightly. "All I care about is you, Christina.
I want nothing more than to bring you happiness.
" He kissed her again. "I love you desperately. "
"I love you too," she whispered, her eyes closing as she rested her head against his chest, hearing the steady beat of his heart.
In that moment, as they stood together beneath the wide, star-scattered sky, Christina's heart settled once more.
Despite Lord Pennington's threats, despite her own fears and dread, Lord Coventry had come for her. She had come for herself.
Now, she was finally back to where she truly belonged.