Free Practice to Deceive by Patricia Veryan

my question,” he evaded. “How bad is his hurt?”
    They meant to leave her! Penelope fought down the urge to demand that their agreement be honoured. It had been a nightmarish day, and tears stung her eyes, but she would not cry—she would not! ‘Let them just try to leave me,’ she thought fiercely. ‘Let them just try!’ And she answered, “It is an ugly wound and much inflamed, but not infected, as I had feared at first. If he has rest and care when he reaches your hiding place, it should heal quickly.”
    â€œ Hiding place? Egad, ma’am, we’ve no hiding place! We’ve to ride for our lives! Even do we escape your uncle and his people, Quentin is an escaped rebel with a large price on his head. Every hand will be against us. Every door closed. We have horses well hidden nearby, and if we can but reach them safely, our one hope is to come to Lac Brillant, which is something more than a hundred and fifteen miles from here.”
    Penelope’s heart sank. She had cherished vague hopes that their plans were better made than this. She thought, ‘They’ll carry a corpse to Lac Brillant.’
    Quentin had seen fear darken this valiant girl’s expressive eyes. “Stuff!” he said cheerily. “What a piece of work you make of it.” He swung his long legs over the side of the bed. “I’ve had a good rest and shall do very nicely. Have no fears that…” He stood, showing more confidence than he felt. And crumpled. The Corporal leapt to catch him and sit him back down again.
    Inwardly dismayed, Gordon met his brother’s appalled gaze and said with a rather strained grin, “Oh, you’ll do, all right! I wonder, rabble, that you do not pop down the oak and toddle home alone! I fancy Killiam and I would have our work cut out to come up with you.”
    â€œHere’s a fine bumble broth,” Quentin muttered unsteadily. “I’d not thought, you know, that I was so … so blasted pulled.”
    The Corporal said with considerable indignation, “And why should you not be pulled, I’d like to know? From the look of you, you’ve not eaten in a month, to say nought of the loss of blood and misery you’ve endured.”
    â€œNever fret so, old fellow,” said Gordon kindly. “I’m a fool for ever thinking you could get to the horses. No matter. We’ll simply bring them closer. We’ll have you away, yet! Found you, didn’t we?”
    Quentin passed a weary hand across his eyes. “I cannot seem to think. Gordie … how did you find me?”
    Gordon’s eyes flickered to Penelope. “A message reached us.”
    â€œI see. And—and is it known then, that I fought for Charlie?” Anxiety sharpened his voice. “If ’tis, Lac Brillant will be watched and you and my father in jeopardy!”
    â€œEasy, easy! We are not watched. Still, we must go carefully.”
    Penelope, who had been thinking desperately, said in her quiet way, “I think it were better, sir, that we do not go at all.”
    Three heads turned to her in alarm. Suspicion flaring in his eyes, Gordon demanded, “Ma’am? Are you saying—”
    â€œI am saying that you have no choice,” she interposed. “All I could think of at first was to get Quentin out of their reach. I see now that it will not do for him to undertake such a long and hazardous ride.”
    â€œBe dead inside a week,” the Corporal said with a heavy sigh.
    â€œQuite so,” said Penelope, for the first time appreciating this man’s apparently habitual gloom. “And thus, gentlemen, it would seem the safest place for Major Chandler is—here. At Highview.”
    Starting up, his eyes dilating with horror, Quentin exclaimed, “No! Dammitall, you do not know what you invite, Penny! No! ”
    Gordon said thoughtfully, “He’d be found in one