Women were being assisted from inside the coach, weeping more with fright than from any vital injury.
The Duke drew his phaeton to a standstill, handed the reins over to Fowler and stepped into the road.
The noise of the altercation between his coachman and the driver of the stagecoach was now almost deafening.
The Duke, striding up to the irate coachman, ordered him tersely,
“Go to your horses’ heads, you fool!”
The man after a startled look at the tall commanding figure speaking to him, instinctively obeyed the voice of authority and at once ceased his blasphemous abuse and turned to do what he was told.
In what seemed a remarkably short space of time, the Duke replaced chaos with order.
The stagecoach horses were freed from the traces and dragged onto the road, the coach was towe
