Free A Virtuous Lady by Elizabeth Thornton Page B

to be drawn out of the safety of her slumber, she thought drowsily. If she refused to waken, she need never face the cruel world again. A hand lifted her head from the pillow and a cup was pressed against her lips.
    "Drink this," said a soft, sweet, feminine voice. Briony opened her eyes and gazed at the angelic, smiling face.
    "Am I in heaven?" she asked haltingly.
    She heard the low, musical laughter. "No, you poor girl. But if you try to run down any more coaches, you will soon have your wish. What is your name? Your parents, your guardians will be worried about you. I must inform them of your whereabouts."
    "Briony. I am . . . Briony ," she managed before slipping into a welcoming insensibility once more.
    When Briony reluctantly awakened to full consciousness, the room was in semidarkness. Her head ached abominably and when she moved she felt a searing pain in the small of her back. She moaned softly. A cool hand was laid on her forehead and she recognized the charming countenance of the lady she was beginning to believe was her guardian angel. Briony pulled herself up to lie back on the pillows and groaned.
    "Now, you will drink this," said the. Angel firmly and she pushed a cup of warm broth to Briony's lips. Briony greedily drank dawn the hot soup.
    "Where am I?" she asked. "How long have I been here?"
    The Beauty removed the empty cup from Briony's fingers and sat down on the edge of the bed. "You are in my home. Yesterday evening, you were run down by the hackney coach in which I was a passenger. You might easily have been killed, you know. You ran straight across the Oxford Road without a thought for your safety. I was on my way home from the opera with my two sisters."
    'The three muses!" Briony suddenly remembered.
    The lady bestowed a disbelieving smile on Briony. "My sisters and I are not in the least alike," she demured .
    "But you are all beautiful," responded Briony honestly.
    "That's as may be. But you, young lady, have given us all a fearful fright! We might have killed you! Now will you please give me the direction of your parents or guardians so that I may put their minds at rest?"
    Briony did so, and the Vision glided from the room. Briony heard her low, melodious voice giving someone instructions on the other side of the door.
    She eased back into the soft, feather pillows and winced. Her emotional pain was as tangible as the physical pain in her bruised back. The events of the evening came back to her in a rush—the humiliating rejection of her peers and the contemptible proposal which Ravensworth had put to her. Her cheeks grew warm with embarrassment when she recalled his tantalizing caresses and how shamelessly she had welcomed them. She hoped fervently that she would never set eyes on the ignoble nobleman again.
    For the anxiety which Harriet and Aunt Sophy must be experiencing on her behalf, Briony reproached herself bitterly. It never entered her head that Ravensworth himself would be suffering worse agonies of remorse and reproaching himself even more bitterly for being the cause of her precipitous flight.
    She blamed herself for having left the party unescorted, but she had been half delirious with wounded pride. The thought of it roused the same feelings of overpowering mortification and helpless fury. She repressed the sobs that rose in h ?r throat and she began to hiccup softly. She wondered how she could ever again face the world, and tears of self-pity coursed down her cheeks.
    The Angel returned and halted abruptly when she saw her patient's overwrought condition. "My dear," she said solicitously, moving toward a trembling Briony to take her hands. "Tell me at once what ails you. Perhaps I should send for Dr. Pemberton again?"
    Briony, who was habitually a diffident, constrained young lady, was completely disarmed by the note of genuine concern in her nurse's warm voice. Before she knew what she was about, she had spilled out the whole sorry story, omitting only the part about