In truth, neither of the two scenarios gave him anything other than the gravest disquiet, but he could think of nothing else. Unless, of course, she had been out walking and had met with some misfortune, even been injured and unable to make her way home again. At the very idea, he heeled his horse harder still and cantered ever faster.
“Lord Addison, I cannot thank you enough for coming so soon.” Rose was already waiting on the stone steps of Tarlton Manor House wringing her hands repeatedly.
Her face was so pale and her eyes red from crying that he wanted to put an arm around her shoulders and tell her that everything would be alright. But they were yet to be well enough acquainted for him to behave as a brother-in-law might, assuming that he ever would be her brother-in-law.
“Miss Fitzgerald, I am sure that there is a simple explanation,” he said and hurried into the house behind her.
“At first, I had thought that she must have hurt herself, maybe fallen out in the woods or on one of the pathways. But all of our servants went out before darkness had fallen last night and could see no sign of her.”
“But how far did they search?” Hunter said as he strode into the drawing room to see Constance Fitzgerald, equally red-eyed and drawn, sitting bolt upright in one of the armchairs.
“They searched all of her routes, Sir,” Rose said with certainty. “My sister is a creature of habit, and I know each and every one of her daily walks. And all of them, all of them without fail, have been searched thoroughly, and there is no sign of her.”
“And what of her friends? Might she not have gone visiting and chosen to stay somewhere?” Even as he spoke, Hunter knew it was distinctly unlikely.
“Emmeline does not see friends quite so much anymore, Lord Addison.” Constance Fitzgerald joined the conversation sadly. “I am afraid that she has become a little wary of friendship of late. Since Clara Lovett, you understand.”
“Indeed, I do understand.” He smiled and sat down in the armchair opposite Constance. “And I am sure that Emmeline would never stay away without finding some way to get a message to you. She went on foot, did she not?” He turned to look at Rose.
“Indeed, she did, Sir. All of our horses are still here, and Rose and I had the carriage in town.”
“Miss Fitzgerald, might I ask you outright if you have a theory of your own in your sister’s disappearance?” Hunter said, knowing he was being a little forceful but needing to hear the truth. When she did not answer him immediately, he went on. “Forgive me if my question seems intrusive, but I would beg that you tell me the truth. Is your sister in some regret over our engagement? After all, it cannot have been easy for her to become publicly engaged with Christopher Lennox in attendance.” Hunter hoped that he would not need to elaborate any further. He hoped that Rose would pick up on his meaning without an outright question.
“Are you asking me if my sister is still in love with Christopher Lennox, Sir?” Rose said, phrasing his thoughts perfectly.
“Forgive me, Miss Fitzgerald, but that is precisely my question.” He bowed a little in apology.
“Then you need not make yourself uneasy, Sir. My sister is not in love with Christopher Lennox.” Rose gave him the briefest of smiles, and Hunter felt the greatest sense of relief he had ever felt in his life. “And she has lately confided in me that she now believes that she was never in love with Christopher Lennox. The awful humiliation and gossip notwithstanding, I believe my sister is relieved now that Christopher Lennox chose to marry Clara Lovett.”
“And you are quite sure that?” Hunter said, wanting confirmation even though he knew she spoke the truth.
“I had it from her own lips, Sir. And not only did she tell it to me, but she told it to Clara herself at your engagement ball. She did not do it to be haughty or clever, she genuinely meant it.”
“Might she not have said it to put Mrs Lennox at her ease? Perhaps to assuage that lady’s guilt?”
“No, she did not. Clara asked my sister to forgive her and said that she hoped she would find happiness now. My sister thanked her kindly and told her that she wished her happiness equally, but that she would never forgive her. She told Clara that whilst she had not loved Christopher Lennox, she had loved Clara as the finest friend she had ever known, and it was her betrayal that was the greatest. And so you see, Lord Addison, my sister would not have said such a thing simply to make Clara Lennox feel better. She said it because it was the truth, nothing more nothing less.”
“And so, you do not believe that your sister has fled so that she does not have to marry me?” Hunter said quietly.
“No, no that is not the case. I know that in my heart and can answer you most firmly.”
“Then I can only think of one other thing, Miss Fitzgerald. I can only presume that your sister has chosen to accept the proposal of marriage from your cousin, Kent Fitzgerald. Perhaps she has decided that to leave Tarlton Manor would be so great a wrench that she cannot manage it.”
“Kent Fitzgerald?” Constance gasped and sat so far forward in her seat and so suddenly that Hunter feared she might topple to the floor.
“Forgive me, Mama, but our cousin did show some interest in Emmeline. But it was an interest that she did not return in any way, shape, or form, and she only kept it to herself because she did not want to worry you and have the last weeks here at Tarlton ruined by that dreadful man.”
“But he did propose, did he not?” Hunter went on.
“I do not believe he proposed properly, no,” Rose said calmly. “He made some very obvious attempts to show his interest in my sister, attempts that she was most uncomfortable with. Although he did nothing that she could accuse him of, as she told me, still he made her feel a deep sense of disquiet. He did not propose to her in the ordinary way, Lord Addison, rather he suggested that it would be sensible for her to marry him so that she might save herself and her mother and sister from financial penury in poor lodgings.”
“That dreadful man!” Constance Fitzgerald rose to her feet and began to pace the room, hands firmly on her hips in a more aggressive stance than Hunter could ever have given her credit for.
Still, she was a mother, and their love could be as fierce as it was gentle. He knew that from his own dear mother who would have fought with her fists to the death to protect him if she’d had to.
“And what did she tell him?” Hunter said, unable to leave it alone.
“I think she made her feelings clear, Sir when she turned from him and ran away,” Rose said in a curiously comical turn of phrase which reminded him so very much of her beautiful sister.
“I see.”
“But surely if you know this, Lord Addison, you know that she refused him without question,” Rose said and sounded a little confused.
“In truth, Emmeline did not tell me of the proposal. Rather Kent Fitzgerald himself did at an evening of cards at Croston Hall laid on by Giles Calloway. When I look at it now, I realize that he was likely trying to put me off in some way, to have me think twice about making a similar proposal myself.”
“I would not doubt it. I have come to realize that Kent Fitzgerald is a most devious character. He has engineered many a coincidence, an opportunity to be in my sister’s company, that has made me feel most unsettled. I truly believe that he has greatly used Mr Calloway and their tentative acquaintance to achieve such a thing. It is most calculated, Sir, and it is a thing which gives me the greatest concern of all for her safety now,” Rose said, and Hunter realized that she was finally about to give him her theory.
“Then you think that your sister’s disappearance has something to do with your cousin? You think that she has gone away with Kent Fitzgerald?” Hunter said, his mouth dry and his fists surreptitiously clenched.
“I do not think that she has gone away with him. But I think he has her, has taken her with him against her will.”
“Dear Lord, why did you not say so?” Constance Fitzgerald said desperately.
“Because I wanted Lord Addison to be here
when I did. There would have been no use in me telling it to you Mama, in burdening you so, without a man’s help on hand. If he has taken her, Mama, there is nothing that you or I can do about it, do you not see?” Rose said and hurried across the room to take her mother’s hands in her own. “Forgive me, Mama, but I only did what I thought was best.”
Hunter could see such similarity between Rose and her sister now that it almost broke his heart. She was showing the same sense and bravery that Emmeline had shown on the night of her humiliation at Ashton House. It was clear to him that Charles and Constance Fitzgerald had raised two very fine young ladies.
“Are you quite sure that your sister would not have gone with him willingly? Are you quite sure that the idea of saving her family home, her childhood home, was not too great to resist?” Hunter said, feeling that they had all now reached an understanding whereby they could speak their minds a little more freely than etiquette might ordinarily allow for.
“If she had gone with him freely, Lord Addison, my sister would have taken her clothes. As it is, she has taken nothing, not even a shawl. That is what first worried me when I had thought that she had simply gone for a walk, the idea that she had not even a shawl around her shoulders. Wherever she is, she is in the gown that she was wearing in this drawing room yesterday, with no other warm clothing at all. Emmeline is too sensible a woman to have left the house without taking anything, anything at all.”
“And what of your servants? Did none of them see or hear anything?”
“None of them had seen anybody come to the house, and none of them saw my sister leave at all. The first they had heard of her disappearance was when my mother and I questioned them thoroughly as to my sister’s whereabouts.”
“So, there is nothing to suggest a struggle?”
“No, there is nothing to suggest a struggle. But one of the maids felt sure she heard carriage wheels upon the driveway. Thinking that it was my mother and I returned from our trip into town, the maid hastened to the front of the house to see if she could help us with our parcels of fabric. But when she arrived, there was no sign of any carriage.” Rose paused for a moment to compose herself. “But I do believe that she heard a carriage, Sir. But it was the sound of a carriage leaving, not arriving. Our driveway is short, and it is perfectly feasible that there would have been no sign of the carriage at all by the time the maid had reached the front of the house. It would have been gone, already some distance away and behind the cover of the trees which line the roadway.”
“I must admit that everything you say begins to add up, Miss Fitzgerald. I think it very likely that your sister left this house in the carriage. But I must ask you, once and for all, are you absolutely certain that your sister has no fond feeling for Mr Fitzgerald whatsoever?”
“For heaven’s sake, Lord Addison, my sister has fond feelings for no other man but you,” Rose said in complete exasperation.
“But I …” Hunter said and found himself unable to complete the sentence.
“I understand that you might not want to hear this, given the conditions of your proposal to my sister, but she loves you. I know this because she told me so in secret and begged that I would say nothing lest you hear of it.”
“But why would she not tell me?”
“Because she feared that you would choose not to marry her in the end. She knows that you do not wish for love yourself and had decided to keep her own love for you tucked away in her heart.” Rose was becoming distressed. “In truth, I would not break my sister’s confidence so, but you must understand that I tell you this so that you might realize that my sister would never leave this house willingly with any man but you. Whatever comes of it, whatever you now choose to do, whether you break your engagement or not, hardly matters to me anymore. All I care about is my sister, and I would beg that you believe me that she has been taken from this house against her will. Please help us, Lord Addison, I beg you.”
Hunter rose to his feet and strode across the room to take the weeping young woman in his arms. He held her tightly, doing what he could to reassure her. At that moment, as he held her sister, he felt ever closer to Emmeline. He felt as if he had become a part of that family, finally, and they had become a part of his. He would find her, whatever the cost, and he would marry her. But it would not be a marriage of convenience, not anymore. It would be a marriage of the utmost love.
“Mrs Fitzgerald, please write down for me the address of Kent Fitzgerald in the Midlands,” Hunter said decisively, and Rose let out a great sigh of relief.
Chapter 26
Emmeline was finally fully awake. She came to with her head pounding hard and a very strong feeling of nausea. She opened her eyes little by little, squinting so as not to draw attention to herself. She knew that Kent Fitzgerald was in the room with her, but she did not, at that moment, want him to realize that she was awake. Instead, Emmeline wanted to get the lay of the land, to see exactly where she was and, more importantly, how she might escape.
The room they were in was large, almost as big as her own bedroom at Tarlton Manor. However, there the similarity ended as she looked at the very poor furnishings. The room was a little damp, and she could see that the walls were peeling here and there, most particularly in the corners. The walls were white, although it was clear that it had been many years since they were painted and far from being brilliant, they were grayish in appearance, dirty looking.
Feeling a tightness at her wrists, she surreptitiously cast her eyes down to see that she was, indeed, still tied tightly. Her wrists were bound together with thin rope which bit into her skin angrily. From the bindings at her wrist, another thin rope was tied around the bedstead, effectively anchoring her to the spot.
Emmeline had been laid on her side on the bed, and she shuddered as she remembered Kent Fitzgerald and his dreadful, liquor-soaked driver pushing her down onto it. They had walked her up the stairs almost between them, that much she remembered. But she had felt as if she were in a dream, hardly herself at all, and wondered how on earth she had managed to put one foot in front of the other.
Hearing Kent move about, Emmeline hurriedly closed her eyes almost completely, leaving just the slimmest gap for the sake of safety. With much of the room now just a blur to her, her other senses took over, and she became aware of just how dreadful the bedding smelled, not to mention the room in general. Everywhere was an air of fustiness, of dampness, which smelled almost rotten. Wherever her cousin had bought her, it was hardly the most salubrious of surroundings. But, of course, he was not yet a wealthy man, not for the next few weeks, at any rate.
With her head still pounding, Emmeline allowed her eyes to close altogether, and she lay as still as a stone statue, the only movement seemingly inside her head. Again, her other senses took over, and she was aware of voices outside on the street. They were angry voices, two or three men deep in an argument, their slurred words informing Emmeline most distinctly that it was a drunken argument.
But the accents were not of her own county. They were neither northern or southern, but that very distinct and unique accent of the Midlands. So, Kent Fitzgerald had driven her a long way, all the way back to his own home town.
At that moment, Emmeline almost wept. She really was so far away from home, and there was nobody to know where on earth she was.
“Open your eyes, I know you are awake.” Suddenly she heard movement, and her eyes flew open to see Kent striding across the room towards her.
“My head hurts terribly, cousin,” Emmeline said, hoping to remind him of their familial connection just in case there was any chance of appealing to his sense of decency.
“Well, it would not hurt so had you simply come along with me in the first place. And we would not be here now in this room which seems to displease your delicate nostrils so, my dear, had you taken better notice of my earlier regard for you. Instead of being here, we might already be husband and wife and living at Tarlton Manor. Instead, you have forced me to overpower you and bring you
here. You have nobody to blame but yourself.” Kent looked at her disapprovingly.
Emmeline noticed that Kent did not look as smart as ordinarily he did. His clothes were the same as he had worn when he had entered her drawing room the day before, but he was very much more disheveled. His nondescript brown hair seemed to stand up in tufts here and there as if he had slept very badly, and his pale chin had all the signs of a burgeoning growth, giving him a somewhat swarthy look.
But more than that, his eyes told their own story. He was a man who was clearly determined to carry through whatever plan he had come up with, and yet, at the same time, that same plan seemed to be torturing him. Emmeline felt certain that it was not his conscience, however, which upended him so, but rather his own fear. In truth, he seemed both determined and a little lost all at the same time.
His demeanour at that moment was vastly different from the one he had displayed in her drawing room. And when she had begun to come to after he had first struck her, her eyes fluttering painfully open, Emmeline had been aware of that determination.
She had realized immediately that they were in transit, feeling every bump of the road as she lay in the middle of the carriage on the floor between the seats. Her hands had been bound in front of her, and a scarf had been tied tightly and painfully around her mouth. Her head hurt dreadfully, and she felt dizzy and nauseous. When Emmeline had tried to entreat her cousin with nothing more than her eyes, he had looked away from her. But what she had seen on his face before he looked away was self-satisfaction, plain and simple. As the carriage continued to roll along, Emmeline could almost feel his determination and confidence. However, after many hours of dipping in and out of consciousness, Emmeline could now see something else altogether. Whilst the determination was still there, the confidence had gone entirely. She could not help wondering if its lack would make him less of a threat or more of one.
A Bride for the Betrayed Earl Page 19