“But it is nearly dark. Something must have happened. Let us go down to the gate, Rhoda. I am frightened.”
Rhoda could not persuade her to let her go alone, and they went together down the drive. Tom had just ridden off; they could hear the sound of his horse’s feet on the hilly road. But when that died away, a long period of silence ensued. They went out of the gates and down the hill towards the station, Miss Merivale clinging to Rhoda.
It was after what seemed hours to them both that they heard a horse trotting rapidly towards them. Miss Merivale leant against the low stone wall that divided the road on one side from the common.
“Rhoda, that is Tom. I could tell Black Beauty’s trot anywhere. Go on to meet him, dear. I cannot go any farther.”
Rhoda went quickly on. It was Tom; he sprang off his horse on catching sight of her.
“Miss Smythe has been badly hurt,” he said. “She is at the Rectory. Rose is with her.”
“Your sister is not hurt?”
“A bruise or two. They met that traction engine; Miss Smythe was driving, and tried to make Bob pass it. The result was that Bob bolted down the hill.”
They were walking quickly up the hill as he spoke. Rhoda told him that Miss Merivale was waiting for them, and a couple of moments brought them to her side. She refused to accept at first Tom’s emphatic assurances that Rose had escaped with only a bruise or two, and begged him to take her to the Rectory. Tom would not hear of her going. “Rose did not want to leave Miss Smythe, or I would have brought her home, Aunt Lucy. She is perfectly well. Rose is a plucky little girl She wasn’t half as frightened as you are.”
It was not till they got back to the house and he had made Miss Merivale drink the cup of tea Wilmot brought her, that he allowed her to know how serious Pauline’s injuries were.