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of the carriage and, without comment, let down the step.
    Elise didn’t wait for assistance but flew down the step, clutching Anne to her. She took great gulps of air, moving quickly away from the carriage, uncaring that the rain continued to fall. Only when she reached a bench just outside the entrance under a protective awning did she stop. Anne had understandably awoken. She watched Elise with surprise. All Elise could do was hold her and try to breathe.
    She hadn’t expected the ride to be as bad as it was. She’d anticipated some discomfort but not the panic. Too many memories. Too much pain.
    “Elise?”
    She couldn’t endure Miles’s company just then. She hadn’t the strength to keep herself calm and in control.
    “What’s wrong, Elise? Can I do anything for you?”
    “No.”
    “But you—”
    “I didn’t ask you to drag me away from my home, so you can just leave me alone now that you’ve forced me into it.” She turned enough to shield Anne from the mist of rain making its way under the overhang.
    “The rain has stopped a great many travelers, Grenton,” Mr. Langley said to Miles. Grenton? Miles’s new title? “There are only the two rooms we reserved earlier.”
    Elise pulled Anne to her. They had no place to sleep, it seemed. She would think of a solution. She had learned self-sufficiency very quickly not many years back.
    “Perhaps Beth could share with Elise and Anne. You and I could use the other room,” Miles suggested.
    Mr. Langley nodded his approval. “The rooms are adjacent to one another,” Mr. Langley said, though Elise wasn’t sure whom he was trying to reassure. “There should be no concern over anyone’s safety.”
    “Anne needs to rest,” Elise said to the others in general. “If you’d show us to our room, I’d be appreciative.”
    They were quickly deposited in a snug room with a bed and a trundle. Beth’s maid laid out their meager clothes, a luxury Elise had been long without. A sudden surge of emotion accompanied the realization that someone was looking out for her again. She clamped the emotion down as she always did. She simply could not let herself be lulled by long-forgotten familiarity or pleasant luxuries.
    The others would most likely expect her at dinner, but Elise couldn’t bring herself to go. She was tired and overwhelmed and plagued by flashes of memory. She missed Mama Jones, the only friend she’d had for years.
    Elise laid Anne on the trundle, then lay down beside her, knowing she’d probably never sleep.
    The enormity of all that had happened settled on her like a crushing weight. She was back in Miles’s sphere again, where he held so much sway. He’d had the power before to sever every lifeline she’d had. Now he was a titled member of the aristocracy. She hadn’t warranted his consideration before. Their circumstances were now horribly disparate. She could no longer expect to be extended the kindness she had once taken for granted. He hadn’t thought her worthy of it even before she’d sunk so low, so he certainly wouldn’t now.
    Elise stroked Anne’s hair. Her breaths had already grown deep and slow, a sure sign the child slept. Did Anne realize the magnitude of their change in situation? Elise hoped at the very least Anne wasn’t afraid. Elise was afraid enough for the both of them.
    Oh, my sweet girl, I fear I may be in deeper than I can stand.
    She was returning to Epsworth, Miles’s home, a place she’d dreamed of and dreaded for years. She’d known some of the most wonderful days of her life there but had passed the worst in those halls as well. Being there again would put her within walking distance of Furlong House, though she had no idea who lived there now.
    She could see all of it so clearly in her mind. The meadow so large that both estates had claim to part of it. The apple trees they’d climbed as children. The rambling garden, where they’d often played. The bower in front of Epsworth, where Elise had tried to buy