2 On the Way to London

The carriage ride to London would take about 10 hours so Charlotte had ensured she would have plenty to read and even brought her embroidery, although she was abysmal with the needle and thread no matter how much any of her helpful employees had tried to encourage her in the practice. After about the third hour, she had dozed off, the carriage had been well sprung and thus was much more like a rocking bed than a carriage, though her position in it would leave her with aches in her body.

When she finally awoke, her eyelashes slowly fluttered to reveal they had stopped just beyond the halfway point. This was curious, usually, in a one-day trip, they didn't need to stop along the route. It could be rather dangerous to do so, with highwaymen threatening the route and the like. She looked across to her ladies maid, Evelyn, but she had also succumbed to the gentle sway of the carriage and thus was of no use in determining what had caused their delay.

Charlotte decided to alight the carriage and find out what had occurred herself. She hadn't anyone else to do so for her, and she certainly wasn't going to wake Evelyn for such a simple task.

Charlotte carefully opened the carriage door which triggered the steps on her state-of-the-art carriage to tumble down. She gingerly took the steps, one at a time and with her full attention, not wishing to trip and fall in her long skirts and make a fool of herself even amongst the small group of people who might as well be her family.

When she finally descended the steps, she heard one of her footmen cry out, "Lady Charlotte, no!" This was rather disconcerting but she assumed they were simply wanting her to wait for a footman to assist her to descend the carriage steps. However, when she turned her head toward her carriage driver she realized that was not the case at all.

She could not believe what she was seeing. There stood a man with a pistol to her driver's head. This was not good. Not good at all. Charlotte let out a little shriek of, "oof!" and quickly backed up the stairs to her carriage to pull the drapes shut. The best she could do to help for now was to pretend she was aboard the carriage with a husband, a brother, or a father, but clearly none existed on this trip. Charlotte slammed down the bar to the barricade on her door, it would do her no good to be compromised as well as robbed and at this moment she was determined to come up with a plan. She would not let any harm come to any of the good people she'd known most of her life.

What exactly she'd do, she was not sure but she had to formulate a plan. She would not tolerate anything further being taken from her. The fates had already seen her parents taken from her, she would not rescind anything further.