Page 6 of Dared By a Lyon
“If anyone at the house party asks why I’m alone, what should I say?”
“Tell them that your cousin,Ashlyn, took ill and didn’t feel able to attend the party,” Elizabeth suggested. “No one will question that. You can say she plans to join the party when she feels better, but she feels it wouldn’t be good manners to expose everyone to a bad cold.”
The next day,Ashlyn watched her cousin board a boat—theFelicity—with Matteo Russo and depart for Italy. Matteo’s goodbye was overly effusive, but he was an excitable young man.She supposed it had to do with his being an artist. And Ashlyn had heard that Italians were a passionate people.
Nevertheless, she didn’t trust him, not one whit, but she had given up trying to convince her cousin to stay, knowing it was pointless. True to her promise, Elizabeth had written her parents a letter, which Ashlyn planned to leave with the hotel manager before she left for the house party, in case they arrived while she was away. And Elizabeth had also had the additional gowns altered to fit Ashlyn. Now she had more dresses than she had ever imagined having in her entire life.
As she waved at her cousin from the dock, she sent up a silent prayer for her safety. She hoped that Matteo was exactly who he claimed to be and would take care of Elizabeth. But she couldn’t help but worry that things would not end well.
Chapter Two
On the road to Bath
Two days later
Reluctantly, Ashlyn haddone as Elizabeth suggested and set out for the house party. Besides, she had no choice in the matter. As hard as it was to admit, Elizabeth had probably been right about one thing—no one could likely tell the difference between her and her cousin.
She wore her hair as her cousin did, and the hotel clerk had immediately called her Miss Vickers and smiled as she handed Elizabeth’s letter to him. Ashlyn speculated the man had been besotted with Elizabeth since their arrival. “Can you see that my parents get this, should they arrive before my return from the house party?”
“Yes, Miss Vickers. I’ll be glad to take care of that for you. Your coach is waiting for you and your maid out front.” He glanced around. “Will Miss March be joining you?” he asked.
“Oh, yes, but tomorrow. She left yesterday to visit a friend of her mother’s, who lives nearby in Mayfair, and will leave from there,” Ashlyn replied smoothly, feeling only the slightest trepidation when she should be shaking in her boots at theoutright lie. She needed to stop giving out so much information, she reminded herself.
Elizabeth had arranged for a well-appointed, black-lacquered coach and two sleek black horses to convey Ashlyn to Bath. Initially, she had insisted on four horses, but she settled for two when Ashlyn pointed out that they would not be traveling overnight.
“I just wanted to provide as much comfort as possible,” her cousin had said.
Ashlyn could never deny her cousin’s generosity. Elizabeth had always been that way, even growing up, insisting they both receive the same things whenever they shopped together.
As it turned out, the roads out of London had been quite crowded, and Ashlyn and Alice had sat in the very comfortable coach, going nowhere for what seemed like hours, as they wove through an endless amount of traffic. Once they cleared Town, the coach finally settled into a rhythm.
With Alice dozing across from her, Ashlyn leaned back against the black leather squabs and placed the book she had been trying to read since leaving the hotel beside her on the seat. Finally tucking her worries away, she felt her eyes grow heavy as the carriage’s movement lulled her to sleep.
A crash of thunder startled Ashlyn awake.When did it begin to storm?Lifting the curtain, she peered outside, noticing it had become dusk. She thought she would have arrived at the house party by now. Mrs. Dove-Lyon was holding it at a friend’s manor house just outside of Bath. They had been on the road for hours and had to be close.
“Miss Ashlyn…I mean, Miss Elizabeth,” Alice corrected herself. “I should get used to using your cousin’s name.”
Ashlyn had told Alice about the ruse. Her maid, ever loyal, had nodded in understanding. She was familiar with Elizabeth’s antics as well.
“Forgive me for falling asleep, Miss Elizabeth. But now I’m wide awake from this storm. It’s quite loud.”
“Yes! I did the very same, Alice. And thank you for going along with this crazy farce of my cousin’s,” Ashlyn answered. “It’s going to be hard to answer to a name that isn’t mine.”
“You get to play the part of an American heiress, Miss Ashlyn. I should think that would be fun. And the two of you look so much alike, I doubt that there’s anyone, outside of your parents and me, of course, who could tell the difference,” Alice said. “I’ll be sure to fix your hair in your cousin’s style.”
“Yes. That, too, may take some getting used to on my part.” Lightning flashed, and a few seconds later, thunder boomed so loudly that they both jumped in their seats. Then they felt another jolt—only this time from the carriage as it began careening down a hill. Alice looked at her wide-eyed, and Ashlyn leaned forward and grabbed her maid’s hands tightly.
They seemed to be rolling along faster and faster, and Ashlyn feared it could get out of the driver’s control. The drumbeat of rain on the roof became louder. Ashlyn peered outside the window and noticed there were large rocks that had rolled onto the road from the surrounding hills. The wind was howling. And what little moonlight that might have helped the horses see had been swallowed up by the rain and the low-hanging storm clouds. The carriage tilted and swayed, no doubt from the horses’ hooves slipping on the muddied road.
Alice let out a frightened gasp as the carriage rolled over another deep rut in the road.
Ashlyn squeezed the maid’s hand. “We’ll be all right, Alice. This is just a little—”
The axle groaned, followed by a sudden loud crack as they seemed to careen up on two wheels and the carriage barreled down the steep road.
“Oh, dear God,” Ashlyn managed to say as she and Alice were tossed into the air like rag dolls.
A sudden loud screech came from the horses, and she realized Alice had echoed it with a scream of her own.
