The Accidental Marriage by Sally James

did, for she knew he was always a welcome visitor.
    ‘Is Lady Cunningham in?’ he asked, and Klara shook her head.
    ‘They left,’ she said. ‘My mistress is back home.’
    ‘Left? You mean they have moved to another apartment?’
    ‘Oh, no, they have gone to England. With Herr Pryce and his family.’
    ‘All of them?’ he asked blankly, and then chastised himself as a fool. Of course they would all have gone, What did he expect?
    ‘Yes, all of them,’ Klara said cheerfully, and began to shut the door.
    ‘Did they leave a message?’ he asked, and she smiled and shook her head as the door finally closed.
    He stared at it, then turned away. Of course they would not leave him a message. He was just one of many acquaintances. Perhaps they had left in haste, and would not have had time. He would have liked to say farewell. It was unlikely they would meet in England, but he felt a nagging curiosity to learn what happened, whether Sir Frederick tired of his Russian mistress, and whether Lady Cunningham forgave him and took him back.
    What would Julia do? She was good with children, and he could imagine her as a governess far better than he could as a companion to some crotchety old lady.
    He went on to his own rooms, to find a letter from Angelica waiting for him. He slit it open eagerly. It had been several weeks since he had heard from her, and he was anxious to hear how she was.
    * * * *
    It was almost dusk, and they were passing through a pretty village, planning to stop soon for the night at a large inn a few miles ahead.
    ‘We stayed there on the way here,’ Spicer informed Julia.
    Maggie was exclaiming at the brightly painted cottages, and the snow which still covered the ground, when the coach tilted alarmingly. Julia looked out of the window and saw they were about to descend a steep slope towards a ford at the bottom of a little river valley.
    She hung out of the window, watching anxiously. It was bitterly cold, and she was thankful for her warm cloak with the hood. The slush they had been driving through was hardening into icy ruts. One of the horses slipped, but managed to regain his feet. The coach slowed to a crawl, and they reached the bottom of the slope without mishap. On the opposite side of the river the road rose more gently, and Julia breathed a sigh of relief. If it had been equally as steep the horses might not have been able to pull the coach up it.
    She glanced down at the water, very shallow here in the path of the ford, but immediately downstream it seemed to dive into a deep pool, where it swirled and eddied round huge boulders.
    They had almost reached the far side, and the horses were out of the water, when Julia heard an ominous cracking sound, and before she could think what it was the coach listed sideways, only prevented from toppling over by one huge boulder.
    Maggie fell against Julia, and the door swung open. Because Julia was holding onto it she managed to break her fall, and cling onto the side of the coach, but Maggie, screaming, fell past her, and vanished into the swirling waters of the downstream pool. Julia could not have described exactly what happened next. She was only aware of the luggage, torn from the roof of the coach, falling past her, and being hit by the odd corner as the trunks slithered into the river.
    In the midst of the confusion she thought she heard Williams shouting, and then the coach was being dragged along by the terrified horses. She clung on to the wildly swinging door, but it was being torn away from the hinges. Julia glanced desperately over her shoulder, and saw that within moments she would be smashed to pieces against the boulder.
    There was only one thing to do, and Julia, taking a deep breath, let go and dropped into the icy water.

 
Chapter Six
     
    They were almost at Frankfurt when Fanny accepted the truth. For some days she had tried to persuade herself that the constant nausea she was suffering was no more than the result of the