She supposed they were off to his sister, but the way was unfamiliar to her. The gentleman seemed to know the country like the back of his hand, as the saying was; he eschewed main roads and towns; kept to the solitary lanes, and ever and anon led her ’cross country, or turned off through some copse or meadow to avoid a village, or some lone cottage on the road. There would be no one to tell of this mad flight through the dark hours; no man would have seen them pass, nor any hear the beat of the horses’ hoofs racing by.
Sure, they seemed to be the only people awake in all England. The failing daylight had gone hours since; there had been a spell of darkness when they rested their horses in a walk along a deserted lane; and then the moon had risen, and there was a ghostly pale light to show them the way, and the trees threw weird shadows along the ground. There might be heard now and then the melancholy hoot of an owl, and the chirp and twitter of a nightjar, but all else was hushed: there was not so much as a breath of wind to rustle the leaves on the trees.
They saw squat villages lying darkly ahead, swung off to skirt them round, seeing occasionally the warm glow of a lamp-lit window, and reached the road again beyond. Once a dog barked in the distance and once a small animal ran across the road in front of them, and the mare shied and stumbled.
There was a quick hand ready to snatch at the bridle. Prudence laughed, and shook her head, bringing the mare up again. “Don’t fear for me, kind sir.”
“I need not, I know. Yet I can’t help myself.”
The moon was high above them when they reined in to a walk again. Prudence was helped into her greatcoat; the horses drew close, and the riders’ knees touched now and again.
“Tired, child?” Sir Anthony’s free hand came to rest a moment on hers.
Faith, it was a fine thing to be so precious in a man’s eyes. “Not I, sir. Do you take me into Hampshire?”
“Be sure of it. I’ll have you under my sister’s wing at last.”
Prudence made a wry face. “Egad, I wonder what she will say to me?”