Why was he helping her?

“There’s no one about,” she said.

“No,” he agreed. “The animals would be quiet if there were. Still, we must be on guard.”

She bit her lips, a habit she thought she’d outgrown. “I know.”

“There are quite a few dips and bends in the lane, and in the road. We’re in the South Downs, remember.”

“Are we? I’d no idea.”

“Mayfield is in Sussex.” He turned suddenly in the saddle. “Have you any relatives near?”

“Why?” she asked, surprised. “Could I not simply return to London?”

“Probably, but ’tis best to have a second choice. We can’t trust Oakhurst.” His voice was grim. “I don’t know why they chose it as a hiding place.”

“I’ve an aunt in Ardingly, near the Brighton road.”

“Northwest of here,” he said after a moment.

“Do you have a map?”

“In my head,” he said absently. With the dangerous curve behind them, he set Samson into an easy canter. “It isn’t quite as far as London, I believe.”

“I don’t know.” She had lowered her pistol, but still she kept it ready. She was not, she knew with acute awareness, out of danger yet. “Why do you think I might need to go there rather than London?”

“That’s what they’d expect. You were taken there,

weren’t you?” He turned in the saddle to look at her. “How were you taken, by the way?”

“I like to walk in the park of a morning,” she said. “Of course, I have my maid with me. On this particular day—three days ago?” She counted in her head. “No, four. They made me drink such vile-tasting stuff. It gave me such nasty dreams, that first night.”

“Laudanum, most likely.”

“That morning there was a carriage there. I didn’t think anything of it, really. Then the man you mentioned, the one with the coat from Stultz—”

“It could have been from Weston,” he interrupted, She smiled at the unexpected humor. “Possibly. His boots had quite a gloss. In any event, he stepped in front of me and spoke to me. I was surprised that he would accost me.” Her smile faded, and she tightened her grip around Major Kirk’s waist. “I don’t really know what happened next, ’tis so hazy. From the laudanum, I expect. Something was thrown over my head.” Her nose wrinkled. “A horse blanket, from the way it smelled.