Stages of Desire by Julia Tagan Page A

was no point in going back to the village, dragging Miss Entwhistle and Harriet with him, on the unlikely chance two rooms were available. He’d be sleeping in the barn.
    William stabled his horse and carriage in the barn and the group shared a simple dinner. After, the men allowed him the most private corner of the hayloft and the softest quilts, and he was grateful. He found himself lulled to sleep by the sounds of the horses below, the quiet snores of the man named Toby and the sweet smell of hay.
    Sometime after midnight, a strange noise woke him. He wasn’t sure where he was at first, and could barely make out the shapes of the other men in the darkness. He heard a tapping noise that sounded like rain. But something was off. The acrid smell of smoke hit his nostrils and the whinnies of the horses brought him fully to his senses.
    The barn was on fire.

Chapter 6
    Harriet woke to the sound of yelling, followed by a loud crash. For a moment, she was back in the duchess’s residence in London, with Marianne throwing another of her tantrums. Then Miss Entwhistle and Mrs. Kembler popped up in bed beside her. No. She was in Adam’s cottage in Chipping Norton. And something was terribly wrong.
    She leaped out of bed, telling the two older women to stay put, but had barely made it across the room when the door to the bedroom flung open. A figure barreled into her.
    â€œWhere’s Harriet?” cried a familiar voice.
    Harriet pushed herself away from him and stared. “Freddie?”
    Her brother was unrecognizable, no longer a floppy-haired, lanky boy. Before her stood a man, taller than she by several inches and covered in sweat. He was panting hard and one sleeve of his shirt was in tatters.
    â€œHarriet, thank God. You’ve got to get out, there’s a terrible fire.”
    Harriet had a dozen questions, but there was no time to even embrace him. Instead, she bundled up the two older women and herded them out the door of the cottage. Freddie followed behind.
    Outside, flames engulfed half of the barn. The heat was intense and a dry wind had already whipped the fire into a frenzy. Flames licked up into the night sky as thick smoke roiled out of every crevice of the ramshackle structure. Adam and Lord Abingdon and the others were in terrible danger. Her heart pounded wildly.
    â€œGo to the far side of the street and wait there,” Freddie instructed, then took off running toward the inferno.
    â€œBut Freddie, wait, where are you going?”
    He disappeared out of sight in a flash, and the roar of the inferno drowned out Harriet’s cries.
    She gripped the women’s hands and led them through the front yard of the house and across the street. “Stay here, in the grass. If the fire overcomes the cottage, head to town, staying near the river.”
    Mrs. Kembler nodded her head and drew Miss Entwhistle to her. “Don’t go back there,” she pleaded.
    â€œI won’t be long, I promise.”
    Harriet dashed across the road. She wondered if she could get word to the fire brigade, or if there even was a fire brigade in the village.
    Dark figures silhouetted by the fire raced back and forth between the barn and the well. Harriet made out the boy Martin’s small shape, and Adam’s stooped one. She ran to the well and dropped a bucket, heaved it up and dropped another.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” Toby appeared, panting heavily. He braced his hands against his knees to catch his breath.
    â€œYou need help. The other women are safe.”
    Toby grunted, heaved the buckets up and ran back to the barn.
    â€œWhere is Lord Abingdon?”
    Her question went unanswered. She imagined him, asleep in the hayloft as the flames crept up. The smoke was intense. If he didn’t make it out, if he perished in the flames, it would be her fault. He’d come after her to save her reputation and she’d led him to a terrible end. The thought was