Opening her eyes, she blinked in the light of a surly dawn, remembering where she was and how she’d come to be there and knew that her sleeping presentiment had been right. Something dreadful was about to happen for the landau had come to a stop. ‘Oh dear…’ It felt strange to be standing still after traveling for so long. Sophie dragged the hood upwards, concealing her face, just as the door was opened. ‘You’re awake.’ Roxburghe said cheerfully, ‘I thought you might have fallen asleep.’ ‘I did.’ Sophie murmured, hoping that she sounded enough like her cousin to at least make it into the house, which stood twenty feet away up some broad stone steps. The weather helped; it was raining hard, the sound loud on the roof of the landau. ‘Come inside and we’ll take the chill of the road off you.’ He took her hand and helped her down from the carriage. They hurried up the steps and through a door that stood open in readiness. ‘Mrs. Chambers will show you upstairs. I’ll be with you shortly.’ To Sophie’s intense relief, his lordship turned and strode out into the rain again, leaving her with the housekeeper, a solid woman dressed in black bombazine who was eyeing her unenthusiastically.
