Her Stepsisters Left Her in the Snow to Make Room for the Duke's Trunk — He Walked Back for Her

There was room in the carriage for five people, or four people and the Duke's trunk. Clarinda Delaval chose the trunk. "Jane can wait at the toll-house for the carrier," she said, and shut the door while the snow came in sideways off the moor. Two miles on, the Duke of Ravensby woke, counted the faces, and asked where Miss Arden was. "She preferred to walk, Your Grace." He did not answer Clarinda. He banged on the roof with his stick, sent the carriage on to Ravensby, and climbed down into snow to his shins to go back on foot. At the toll-house Jane Arden, a poor relation with a fire the size of a teacup and fingers she could no longer feel, was singing a hymn under her breath to stay awake. When she opened the door, the Duke stood there hatless and white with cold, his teeth chattering. The light is gone, the turnpike bench is the only firewood, and he has come with something on his mind that he cannot yet tell her. What did he count on that long walk, and what will it cost the Delaval family? A Regency romance about a companion left on a snowbound road and a duke who turned back for her. This is original fiction: every person in it is invented and a grown adult. Subscribe to The Poor Relation for more Regency stories.