were injured.”
Elijah’s heart stopped. “The stagecoach?”
“Yes,” the innkeeper said. “It was near empty, but from what I’m told there is concern regarding a young woman. We just heard of it. They are all still there.”
Elijah didn’t stop to hear anymore. All he could think of was that his sister was on that coach. He pushed back his chair, grateful that he had brought his cloak with him. He threw it over his shoulders and was nearing the door when it burst open, and a bedraggled, nearly crazed Thatcher stumbled in.
“Thatcher!” Elijah gasped, taking him by the shoulders and shaking him, likely much harder than was due. “What happened? Where’s Caroline?”
“She’s in the carriage still,” he said, his eyes looking around him wildly. “We need a physician. I didn’t know where to find one, so I came here. It’s the only building I knew. We stayed the night, then left early this morning. Knew you were here…”
He didn’t seem to have any control of his emotions nor his words, and Elijah realized that he had likely been so shocked from the incident that he had lost any sense.
“Will you come? Will you help me?” he asked, his focus finding Elijah once more. “There are people there, but—”
“Of course,” Elijah said with a firm nod. “Of course.”
He looked back, finding the entire dining room was staring at them.
“Find the physician!” he shouted to the innkeeper, and then followed Thatcher out the door. “Let’s go,” he said as they stepped out into the snow, only to find a familiar figure coming up the path.
“Alex!” he called out to his brother, who approached, looking as weary as Elijah himself had felt yesterday. “Did you hear what happened?”
“About the stagecoach?” he asked with a shrug. “What of it?”
“Caroline is in it,” he said, “we’re going to her now.”
Alex finally seemed to register Thatcher’s presence. “I’m coming,” he said, immediately returning back the way he had come, but he looked so cold that Elijah knew he would be no help whatsoever.
“Go warm up. I’ll go with Thatcher,” he said, nodding toward the inn as a niggling thought invaded the back of his mind. He was forgetting something, but what?
Suddenly a flood of memories came rushing back from the night before, along with a sense of guilt over having completely forgotten.
“Joanna,” he said, surprising both his brother and Thatcher. “Joanna is still at the inn. Sleeping.”
Alex’s eyebrows raised as though he wondered just how Elijah was aware of what she was currently doing, but he didn’t remark upon it.
“Stay there,” Elijah said with a wave of his hand. “Warm up in the dining room. When Joanna comes down, tell her what happened. I’ll be back shortly. Can you do that?”
Alex nodded. “Of course. Go make sure Caroline is all right.”
Elijah looked back, finding that Thatcher was already nearing the stable. He understood his urgency. If it had been Joanna who is in trouble, he would be wild with worry.
“I’ll be back.”
Joanna woke up languidly, stretching her arms over her head. She was sore, and yet… strangely satisfied. Why? What had happ—oh. Oh, yes.
She remembered now. She opened her eyes and rolled to her side, reaching out, expecting to find Elijah, her lips already curling into a grin at the thought.
Her hand came up empty.
She opened her eyes, finding nothing there but the impression of where his body had been. She sat up, holding the blanket around herself as she looked around the room.
No Elijah. Nor any sign that he had ever been here.
She frowned as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. She supposed that this is what she should have expected. He had likely been thinking that they should avoid being found together, that was all.
Perhaps he was downstairs.
She dressed as well as she could without any help. Her blasted stays were too difficult to do alone, so she ended up just managing to tie the ends, but so loosely they nearly fell off when she pulled on her dress.
A knock came at the door and she ran over to it, opening it hurriedly, convinced Elijah was on the other side.
She was to be disappointed.
It was a middle-aged woman she supposed was the innkeeper’s wife.
“Pardon me, my lady, but I noticed you were without a maid and I was wondering if you needed any help getting dressed.”
“Actually, that would be lovely,” Joanna said, stepping back and turning around so that the woman could quickly help her with the last of the fastenings.
“Will there