The hoof beats clattered closer, pounding along the rain-slicked road. Gabe must have thought better of chucking her out. Mrs. Hanney had been furnished with a guinea to say nothing, but then she'd rooted out Old Stumpy to carry Topaz, so Hanney knew they were planning on reaching the Stag and Maiden coaching inn. The Oxford coach was the only one leaving from there tonight. So it wasn't outside the bounds of possibility that Hanney had told Gabe that much.

The hoofbeats ...