Page 5 of The Earl’s Inconvenient Nemesis

Alice hovered anxiously outside her brother’s bedchamber, straining to hear the low murmur of voices within. After what felt like an eternity, the door finally opened and her father emerged, followed by Dr Thompson.

The doctor offered her a kind smile. “Your brother is going to be quite all right, Miss Fairfax. It is a clean break and should heal well, though he will not be riding for some weeks.”

Relief washed over Alice. She accepted her father’s hug and a kiss upon her forehead before he escorted the doctor downstairs. The moment they were out of sight, she slipped into Henry’s room.

Her brother looked pale and strangely diminished against the white linens, but he managed a weak grin at the sight of her.

“Are you in a great deal of pain?” she asked softly.

Henry’s grimace was answer enough.

She had not been present when the accident occurred. Once again, she had been excluded while Henry and his irritating best friend rode out at dawn. She had missed him and had been looking forward to Henry being home from Oxford for the summer even if Anthony would no doubt be loitering around the whole time like he did not have his own home just next door.

She had been brushing Lucy in the stables, still smarting from being left behind and told to go hat shopping with her sisters, when she heard the thunder of approaching hooves and a desperate cry for help.

Turning, she saw Anthony galloping toward the house, leading Henry’s horse by the reins. The grooms dropped their tasks and ran forward.

Anthony reined in sharply. For a fleeting instant, his eyes locked with hers, sending an unexpected shiver through her.

“Henry fell on the far side of Bishop’s Tump,” he said, breathing hard. “I believe his leg is broken.”

One groom had already sprinted toward the house.

“Did he strike his head?” Alice asked, forcing herself to remain practical despite the fear clutching at her chest.

“I do not know. I was riding ahead and did not see him fall.”

“Was he conscious when you left him?”

“Yes… yes, he was.” Anthony dragged a hand through his hair, looking unusually shaken and vulnerable. Alice felt a strange pang of pity for the boy she had always found so annoying.

She quickly issued instructions to the grooms to prepare the carriage so they might bring Henry home as gently as possible. Before she could suggest Anthony dismount and compose himself, he had already wheeled his horse around.

“I must return to him at once and tell him help is coming,” he said, and galloped away as her father and sisters came hurrying out of the house.

“Where did he fall?” Alice’s father asked, anxiously.

“Don’t worry, Papa. It is not too far and he is conscious. Anthony is returning to him and the men are readying the carriage now. Thatcher,” Alice said, spotting the butler coming towards them. “Kindly send for Dr Thompson. Tell him it is an emergency.”

The butler bowed and hurried, with no loss to his usual dignity, back to the house.

The horses were almost all attached to the carriage, the grooms having worked in double quick time. Alice’s father swiftly climbed into the carriage and Alice went to follow him.

“You girls stay here,” her father said firmly.

“But…”

The look he gave her warned Alice not to argue. She stepped back from the carriage and watched it head off to rescue her brother.

Alice’s sisters tried to convince her to go into the house and await their brother’s return in the drawing room where a pot of tea and her embroidery would take her mind off what was going on, but they received a glare for their efforts.

Alice resumed grooming Lucy, listening out for the return of the carriage. She stretched out fussing over her horse until she could tell she had well and truly had enough and she let her out into the pasture so she could clean out her stables, something she insisted upon doing herself much to the chagrin of the stable boys. She enjoyed doing it. There was nothing she loved more than spending time with animals.

She heard the sound of galloping hooves and came out of the stables to find Anthony approaching on his horse. He was closely followed by Dr Thompson.

“The carriage will be returning with Henry soon,” Anthony said once he was in earshot.

Alice felt an urge to stay with Anthony, he seemed quite shaken by what had happened to his friend, but she reminded herself that Henry was the priority and that Anthony would no doubt be back to his usual annoying self soon. She found herself looking over her shoulder at Anthony once more though before she showed the doctor into the house and instructed the maid to prepare Henry’s bed for him.