Lois Menzel by Ruled by Passion

have?” He allowed the pair to trot, and the increased speed caused a correlating decrease in Anne’s equilibrium.
    “Please stop the carriage, my lord,” she whispered at length. “I must get down.” Before he could respond or reply she reached forward to grasp the reins in front of his hands and pulled back firmly. The horses, moving at an extended trot, were brought up short by this brutal usage. Both stopped almost immediately, the near one rearing onto his haunches in protest. Taken totally by surprise, Tenbury was busy for some moments in calming his outraged pair. He noticed only that Miss Waverly leaped from the carriage before it had completely stopped, forced her way through the hedges at the side of the road, and disappeared.
    When the horses were finally quiet, Tenbury glanced in the direction Miss Waverly had gone. There was no sign of her.
    “Miss Waverly,” he called, “Are you all right? I cannot leave the horses.”
    When there was no answer, he called again, “Miss Waverly!”
    “Give me but a moment, my lord.”
    When she finally emerged from the hedges, she appeared even paler than before. She stopped at the side of the carriage, refusing to look at him. “With your permission, Lord Tenbury, I should like to walk back to the Castle.”
    He had been prepared to rip up at her for mishandling his horses, but one look at her pale countenance drove all anger from him. “Why did you not tell me you suffered from motion sickness?”
    “It is not the sort of thing one advertises. How do you do. Carriages make me ill. ”
    He smiled. “Of course not, but when I insisted, surely you could have said something.”
    He jumped down from the curricle then and went to the horses’ heads. “Shall we walk on to Winthrop? It is only a little more than a mile, and I happen to know you are a vigorous walker.”
    She took the free arm he offered her for support, and he led the team as they continued down the relatively deserted country lane. Occasionally they passed a farmer’s cart or a lone horseman, but if anyone thought it unusual for them to be walking when they had such a slap-up rig to drive, no one indicated as much. They only smiled or nodded as they went on their way.
    “It is nothing to be ashamed of,” he said.
    “Well, I have been ashamed of it. All my life.”
    “You have been troubled always? Since  childhood?”
    “Yes.”
    “Children often outgrow carriage sickness.”
    “It seems that I have not.”
    “Were you afraid of carriages as a child?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you afraid of them now?”
    “Only when they are moving.”
    He smiled. “And the day you arrived at Tenton, your illness then was due to the same thing?”
    “Things were rather worse that day for I had not eaten.”
    “Had not eaten that whole day?”
    “I had not eaten for the entire trip.”
    “What foolishness! Better to eat moderately and cast up your accounts if you must, than to starve yourself to the point of fainting. I believe you refine too much upon this. Nelson was sick at sea. I have seen men sick with fear before a battle and sick with horror afterward. Our bodies betray us from time to time. There is no cause for shame in that.”
    When they arrived in Winthrop, Anne made her purchase while Tenbury waited for her in the street outside. As she emerged from the shop, he said, “There is a posting inn at the edge of the town that has tolerable food. I think you should have another lunch.”
    Anne was inclined to object until she realized she was truly hungry. They walked together to the Duck ’N’ Drake where an ostler took the horses and Tenbury ordered a private parlor and a simple meal.
    “This cannot be prudent, sir,” Anne objected. “Will people not think it odd?”
    “They will think I have driven my niece’s governess to town for some needles and have stopped to eat. I am well known here, Miss Waverly. My credit can withstand a simple luncheon and a drive, or rather walk, in broad