their temporary sanctuary. She let the curtain fall back across the window and hurried from the room.
“Mrs. Danvers, have you seen Mr. Hall anywhere?” Clara stopped the housekeeper en route to the kitchen.
“I believe he’s still out with Master Andrew, Mrs. Hall.”
Clara headed toward the drawing room. Sebastian’s voice resonated from the doors opening to the garden as he and Andrew entered. Their clothes were streaked with dirt, their hair messy from the wind. The area around Clara’s heart tightened at the sight of them, at the reminder that her husband and son had developed a strong rapport in less than two days.
“If you apply an extra coat of linseed oil, the seams are even stronger,” Sebastian told Andrew in the moment before they looked up and saw her standing there.
Andrew stopped. Sebastian frowned.
“Clara?”
She swallowed past the tightness in her throat and gestured to the foyer. “There’s…someone’s arrived. I don’t know who it is.”
Sebastian’s frown deepened. He said something to Andrew that Clara didn’t hear, and went to the foyer. He wrenched open the door and descended the steps.
Clara followed, putting out a hand to keep Andrew behind her as the boy approached her side. The horses stamped and shuffled as the groom vaulted from the bench to open the door.
Shock froze Clara’s blood to ice as her father stepped down from the carriage, followed by the stern, unyielding figure of the Earl of Rushton. Instinctively, Clara stepped backward, her hand closing around Andrew’s shoulder. Panic clawed at her.
“Sebastian.” Rushton strode forward, his sharp gaze flickering from Clara to his son. “We’ve come to reclaim the boy.”
A black pit seemed to open beneath Clara’s feet. She felt herself falling, falling, spiraling into a darkness that had no beginning or end.
Tension and anger stiffened Sebastian’s shoulders. He slanted a glare at Fairfax. “I will not allow Andrew to be removed from his mother or placed in an institution.”
“You have no say in the matter,” Fairfax snapped, his lean figure rigid with determination. “You have committed a hanging offense by abducting that boy from my custody, and rest assured I will see you charged unless you return him to me.”
Clara felt Andrew start to shake. Her throat closed over. She hugged him to her side as the panic clawed harder.
Run. The command beat into her blood again, but this time she had nowhere to go. This time there was no escape.
“Lord Rushton, please.” She tightened her grip on Andrew and focused on the earl, willing him to find some degree of sympathy for their plight. “I want only to be with my son. Lord Fairfax will not allow me anywhere near him, and I—”
“We have discussed this already, Mrs. Hall,” Rushton replied curtly. “And the fact remains that Lord Fairfax is Andrew’s legal guardian. If you do not yield custody of him at once, your father will make good on his threat to have both you and Sebastian arrested.”
Clara knew that. For herself, she didn’t care. Even in prison, she would somehow find a way to keep fighting for her son if she had to write letters to every justice in the country and the queen herself. But she could not bear the thought of Sebastian being censured for an act that had been entirely her doing. She could not allow him to take any blame when he had only sought to help her.
Shame split her heart in two. Her breath jolted from her throat when Fairfax strode toward her. She stiffened her spine and clutched Andrew to her side.
“Andrew!” Fairfax’s mouth compressed with irritation. “Get in the carriage at once.”
Andrew shook his head, half-concealed behind the folds of Clara’s skirt.
Fairfax pierced Clara with a glare. “What has he said to you?”
“He hasn’t said anything!” The admission ripped at her chest. “What have you done to him to make him stop speaking?”
“He has been despondent over his father’s death,” Fairfax replied. “Andrew, get in the carriage. You know the consequences should you disobey.”
“He is not going anywhere with you,” Sebastian said.
“He is, or you will be imprisoned before the day is out,” Fairfax replied curtly. “Is that what you want, Mr. Hall? After the scandalous events of recent years, do you want your family to contend with your arrest for abduction? Imagine what such gossip will do to your father’s reputation. Not to mention his position with the Home Office.”
A heavy stillness settled between them, as if even the air itself stopped moving. The edges of Clara’s vision darkened. Fairfax clenched a