Read Lady Midnight for Free Online Page A

to the team of horses and began to unhitch one.
    Kate watched him, confused. And, she had to admit, a little frightened. "Am I to stay here alone, then?" she cried, bitter panic welling up in her throat. Alone. Such a horrid word.
    "Not for long, miss. Suddley is only a few miles off. I'll be back in a trice. Or you could ride one of the other horses. 'Twould have to be bareback, though." The man swept her a long, lascivious glance as if he pictured her naked legs already.
    That expression was like cold water on her panic, and she stepped back, giving him her iciest glare. She worked so hard at appearing to be a respectable lady! If this rough post chaise driver could begin to see through her charade, surely everyone else could, too.
    Then her new life would be over before it began.
    This fear had plagued her ever since she arrived on English shores. But now she had a more practical worry, as well.
    "I have never ridden a horse," she said.
    The lascivious look turned immediately to one of shock. "What, never?"
    She shook her head. All her life, water had carried her everywhere she needed to go. There was no need of big, smelly, scary horses.
    "Oh. That is a pity. You won't get far around here without horses." The man swung himself up onto the fearsome beast's broad back and turned back onto the road. "Never fear, though, miss! I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail."
    Kate could hardly believe that this man, rude as he was, would actually leave her here alone! She watched in utter astonishment as he galloped off down the lane, waving his hat at her in farewell.
    "But wait!" she cried, that freezing panic coming back over her. Her words were snatched away by the wind.
    The coachman turned a corner on the road and was gone. Kate was completely alone. Alone—except for the sheep. And the horses.
    Clutching her heavy valise against her like a lifeline, Kate gave the clustered sheep a wary glance. They completely ignored her, just went on chewing up the turf. Somewhat reassured, she made her way up the slope of a little hillock and sat down on a large, flat rock to wait. She placed the valise carefully at her feet.
    To wait for what here? She was not sure. A sheep attack? A rainstorm? The earth to cave in?
    Well, she decided, as long as she was waiting for catastrophe, she might as well take stock of her surroundings.
    It was a lonely country, no doubt about that. There was no sign of life as far as the horizons stretched, and no sound save the faint tinkling of the sheep's bells and the constant whistling of the wind. Never in her life had she felt so alone, not even when she woke up on that beach to find her old life swept away. Yet there was a beauty to this land, too, which she had never known before. She had thought it all gray, but that wasn't true. There was also green, and yellow, white, pale pink, blackest black. It all undulated like a velvety patchwork counterpane in that wind, an entire world unto itself.
    As she examined this mysterious landscape, breathed in the fresh, crisp air, her deep fears of being left alone melted away in her heart and she felt a measure of the great peace. All her life she had lived among noisy places where a girl could easily lose herself in the chaos—or never find herself at all.
    Maybe here, in the fresh, crisp air, she could begin to find out who Kate truly was. If she really wanted to know. Was she the daughter of the wild Lucrezia Bruni, looking forward to following in her mother's flamboyant footsteps? Was she dependent on other people to survive, or could she depend only on herself? What did she truly seek?
    That was why she had come here.
    Kate closed her eyes and inhaled deeply of the crisp, clean breeze, with no taint of the teeming city. She listened very carefully to the quiet. The distant bleet of the sheep, the whistle of the wind, the rumble of wheels...
    Wheels?
    Kate's eyes flew open, her moment of rural transcendence abruptly finished. Surely the post chaise driver