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justification was cut short by a blood-curdling female scream outside his
door and Daniel sprang into action, wrenching open the door and racing out to
the street.
    Harry’s wife was holding on to the edge of a carriage door
frame with all her might as a man tried to drag her completely into the
carriage with an arm around her waist. Because of her pregnancy he was unable
to get his arm all the way around her and couldn’t get the necessary leverage
to yank her out of her handhold.
    “Stop!” Daniel cried. “Unhand her!”
    Before he could reach the carriage it took off, Mrs. Ashbury
hanging out the door precariously, yelling in anger. Daniel ran to catch the
carriage but knew he wasn’t fast enough. Suddenly a man leaped out of the
shadows and onto the carriage steps, which were still hanging down. He gave a
mighty shove to the man holding her and then grabbed her and jumped from the
moving vehicle. Daniel stopped breathing for a moment, imagining the poor woman
crushed under the wheels after he’d coldheartedly sent her on her way. But the
good Samaritan who’d rescued her held her easily as he landed surefooted on the
street and took several steps forward to regain his balance. The carriage
continued down the street at breakneck speed and turned a corner, too far ahead
to catch.
    “Did you by chance misplace a lady?” the man asked when
Daniel ran up to him, out of breath and shaking in the aftermath of the
incident.
    The voice was strangely familiar and Daniel peered closely
at him in the fading light of evening. “Galahad?” he asked, unable to believe
his old childhood friend had appeared at such an opportune time. But there was
no mistaking his tall, lanky frame and boyish grin.
    “I generally go by Mr. Manderley these days,” he said, “or
just Robert. But, yes, it’s me.”
    Daniel began to laugh, both at the coincidence and in
relief. “You always did have a nasty habit of rescuing damsels in distress.”
    Robert Manderley set Mrs. Ashbury down. She was ashen and
shaking more than Daniel. “I consider it more of a vocation,” Robert said,
holding on to her arm to steady her. “Are you all right, madam?”
    “No, I am not,” she said in a voice that sounded perilously
close to tears. “I have just almost been abducted, surely with ill intent, and
rescued with almost as much disregard for my well-being as my abductors
demonstrated.”
    “I apologize,” Robert said sincerely. “But I simply couldn’t
think of another way to get you off the carriage quickly.”
    She shook her head. “No, there is no need to apologize. You
rescued me. I didn’t mean to criticize you. I was just explaining why I was not
all right.” She sounded out of breath and her color was not improving.
    “Bring her to my house,” Daniel said in concern, taking her
other arm. “Where is your carriage, Mrs. Ashbury?”
    “I haven’t got one,” she said weakly. “I took a hackney,
which was gone when I exited your home.”
    “What?” Daniel exclaimed angrily. “Why didn’t you tell me
that? I would have secured safe transportation for you.”
    “I didn’t realize it until I reached the street,” she
snapped back, though her voice was still weak. “I am not a ninny, nor am I averse
to asking for help, as you well know.”
    “Daniel,” Robert said in a tone he remembered well from
their schooldays, “I don’t think this is the time to reprimand the lady.”
    On cue, Mrs. Ashbury stumbled and then went limp. Daniel
barely had time to catch her before she fell to the pavement. Robert swept her
into his arms again and followed Daniel back into the house, past a shocked
Matheson.

Chapter Five
     
    “Fetch some wine,” Daniel snapped at his butler. He led the
way back into his library and pointed at, appropriately, a fainting couch in
the corner. “There.”
    When Matheson returned with a bottle and a glass, Daniel
took them and immediately poured a glass. He downed it in one swallow.
    “I believe the lady