As Melbury surmised, Fitzpiers had in the darkness taken Blossom for
Darling, and he had not discovered his mistake when he came up opposite
the boy, though he was somewhat surprised at the liveliness of his
usually placid mare. The only other pair of eyes on the spot whose
vision was keen as the young carter's were those of the horse; and,
with that strongly conservative objection to the unusual which animals
show, Blossom, on eying the collar under the tree--quite invisible to
Fitzpiers--exercised none of the patience of the older horse, but shied
sufficiently to unseat so second-rate an equestrian as the surgeon.
He fell, and did not move, lying as Melbury afterwards found him. The
boy ran away, salving his conscience for the desertion by thinking how
vigorously he would spread the alarm of the accident when he got to
Hintock--which he uncompromisingly did, incrusting the skeleton event
with a load of dramatic horrors.
Grace had returned, and the fly hired on her account, though not by her
husband, at the Crown Hotel, Shottsford-Forum, had been paid for and
dismissed. The long drive had somewhat revived her, her illness being
a feverish intermittent nervousness which had more to do with mind than
body, and she walked about her sitting-room in something of a hopeful
mood. Mrs. Melbury had told her as soon as she arrived that her
husband had returned from London. He had gone out, she said, to see a
patient, as she supposed, and he must soon be back, since he had had no
dinner or tea. Grace would not allow her mind to harbor any suspicion
of his whereabouts, and her step-mother said nothing of Mrs. Charmond's
rumored sorrows and plans of departure.
So the young wife sat by the fire, waiting silently. She had left
Hintock in a turmoil of feeling after the revelation of Mrs. Charmond,
and had intended not to be at home when her husband returned. But she
had thought the matter over, and had allowed her father's influence to
prevail and bring her back; and now somewhat regretted that Edgar's
arrival had preceded hers.
By-and-by Mrs. Melbury came up-stairs with a slight air of flurry and
abruptness.
"I have something to tell--some bad news," she said. "But you must not
be alarmed, as it is not so bad as it might have been. Edgar has been
thrown off his horse. We don't think he is hurt much. It happened in
the wood the other side of Nellcombe Bottom, where 'tis said the ghosts
of the brothers walk."
She went on to give a few of the particulars, but none of the invented
horrors that had been communicated by the boy. "I thought it better to
tell you at once," she added, "in case he should not be very well able
to walk home, and somebody should bring him."