Blackstone and Broken Things

Chapter 12

 He was gone.

Vanished.

Again.

Just as he had after their wedding.

No one was certain when he left. Sometime early the next morning or well past when everyone had gone to bed that night. It had taken nearly a whole day before anyone had noticed their newly returned Lord was missing. And it took another two to confirm that he was indeed gone and not laying dead in a ditch somewhere. This was determined after Larc had assured her that if Nathan were dead, it would have been by his hands. And if someone other than him had tried to end her husband, a corpse or two or three would have turned up with Nathan's. However, by that time, Ana was so wrapped up in her fury that Nathan had left without so much as a note to explain his departure that she would have vastly preferred that he was dead. Truly, in the end, it did not matter so much when he had made his disappearance. It was the fact that he had.

And not a soul, not even Larc, knew where he had gone to.

Ana should have been overjoyed that he was gone, relieved at the very least. She had told him all that had gone on here, both past and present, and had introduced him to his daughter. She had done her duty and would continue to do so, just as she had before. She should have been happy.

Perhaps she even would have been if she did not spy her daughter going to the stables every morning, looking for a horse she did not know. And came to dinner every evening asking after a father she had only met the once. If not for her worry for Lily, Ana was sure she would be rejoicing in her husband's renewed absence. She was certain Larc's assurances that Nathan's departure was a good thing would have held more weight. She was confident the worm she felt borrowing deeper in her belly at being cast aside without a second thought, yet again, would not be causing her as much agony as it had the first time.

Or so she had been telling herself for just over a week.

In all honesty, Nathan's leaving left her with all manner of thoughts and feelings she had not been prepared for. Some were as simple and pure as the anger she felt on her daughter's behalf. Lily had barely met the man, and despite how bright she was, despite knowing her lot in life may not be a kind or gentle one because of his choices, she had held hope that her father would return and they would become a true family. It was a dream Lily had held since she was old enough to notice her lack of a father. And Ana dreaded the day that dream died. She also vowed she would find and kill Nathan herself if he did not return before that happened.

The other less simple emotions that plagued her were a myriad of things that seemed to dance in and out of her thoughts like a line of greedy fortune hunters after a naive heiress. But none so frequently as frustration, concern, and disappointment.

Frustration was her most familiar dance partner. She knew his steps like the beat of her own heart. And could always depend on him showing up just when things were starting to go her way. Concern her most ardent, loving nothing more than to keep her mind wracked with worry for days and nights on end. And then, there was disappointment, though not as persistent as her other admirers. His presence, she always felt the keenest and the longest.

Even now, as she sat beside Thomas in the wagon coming back from town, her thoughts were preoccupied with her disappointment that Nathan had left, her frustration in the manner he had left, and her concern for the reason or reasons he had left. It was not until the wagon made an unexpected jolt and Ana was rocked hard into Thomas's side that she was brought back to the world around her.

"Good heavens!" she gasped, looking about for whatever had caused the incident. "What happened?" she gawked, seeing nothing about them but an open field, a well-trodden road, and the tree line that stood not too far off.