‘So sorry to have given you such a scare. Not my fault I assure you. We came on as quick as we could. No, I’m not hurt. Was Nora frightened? Where is she? I must go to her. Down in a minute. Tell you all about it then,’ and his feet came flying two steps at a time up the stairs to her side.
She stood with clasped hands expecting him, all the blood in her body mantling in her face.
‘Oh, Ilfracombe,’ was all she could say as he entered the room.
‘My darling, I am so sorry that brute frightened you all so by coming home without me. Jack and I were within a mile of home when the Black Prince shied suddenly at something and threw me clean over his head. We tried our best to catch him, but he bolted to his stables, and I had to walk back.’
‘And you are not hurt?’ she asked tremblingly; ‘not at all?’
‘Not at all,’ he echoed, ‘only splashed from head to foot with mud, and feeling very much as if I would like to have a warm bath before dinner. But, love, you are shaking all over. Has it really upset you like this?’
Nora drew back a little, ashamed of having displayed so much feeling.
‘It was rather alarming,’ she answered, with a slight laugh. ‘We—we—might—never have seen you again.’
‘And you would have grieved for me?’ said the earl, pressing her to his heart. ‘Oh, my dearest, you make me feel so happy.’
A sudden impulse, which she could not resist, seized Nora. She threw her slender arms round Ilfracombe and laid her cheek against his. It was the first evidence of deep feeling which she had ever given him. But a moment afterwards she seemed ashamed of it.