‘No, not blackmail,’ Leighton replied. ‘Dalwinton has no need of money; his estates are amongst the richest in the country. Besides, if Marianne had laid herself open to anything of that kind, he’d have used the information gained to torment me. The whole of society knew we were about to be betrothed, and he has scores to settle.’
‘Then we come, as always, to the same answer,’ Clarissa confirmed wearily. ‘Marianne made an appointment to meet a mysterious person in a respectable, but not particularly refined part of the city, and promptly disappeared for no reason we can discover.’
‘Not quite so,’ Leighton reminded her. ‘We have a meeting place, and we have suspects, even if we can’t decide on their motives.’ He held up his hand when Clarissa opened her mouth to speak. ‘We also have Marianne’s written word that she intends to return. That suggests that neither of our suspects has her held against her will.’ He thought for a moment longer before laying out his plans. ‘It’ll be interesting to find out if Dalwinton knows where to prosecute his search, if indeed he does intend to institute an investigation of his own. I will also undertake to find the lad you mentioned. Stephen, wasn’t it?’
‘He was an army officer; on leave from the Continent, I believe.’ Clarissa stared at her lover. ‘How can you trace him?’
‘I have some contacts at Horse Guards who might be useful.’ He shrugged off the question. ‘But in the meantime, Tom can guide me to the scene. I’ve not yet seen the park.’
‘What about me?’
‘You have a luncheon appointment with my sister.’
And with that Clarissa had to be satisfied.
Next morning Richard called on Clarissa early and, although she was still at breakfast, she immediately rose from the table to go to him. To her surprise Aunt Eleanor was there before her.
‘I’ve been telling your aunt,’ he told her mysteriously, ‘that my sister urgently begs your company.’
The suppressed excitement in his voice convinced her there was more to be said and, were it not for her aunt’s inhibiting presence, she would have begged him to tell her immediately.
‘I’m sure you won’t disappoint her,’ he continued urbanely, but with such a look in his eye that Clarissa could guess the matter was urgent.
‘Of course not,’ she agreed, ruefully surveying her morning dress and deciding it wasn’t suitable for a visit to such a fashionable lady, ‘but first I must change. I don’t doubt Aunt Eleanor will entertain you in the meantime.’
‘Don’t be too long, Tom’s walking the horses,’ Leighton warned her and bowed politely to her aunt, refusing any attempt to offer him sustenance. ‘I must wait with him, ma’am.’
Leighton was all too obviously in a hurry and Clarissa wasted no more time than it took to snatch up a warm pelisse and reticule before she set off for the door. Her gown would have to do after all.
Aunt Eleanor had other ideas.
‘Clarissa,’ she scolded impatiently, too over-set to consider one of the servants might overhear her using the girl’s true name. ‘You cannot go driving alone with a single gentleman under such sudden circumstances, even if you are as good as betrothed. In such a rush too. You’ve only just emerged from breakfast. What would anyone think of you?’
‘Caroline has need of me, Aunt.’ What could Clarissa care of her reputation when it was obvious to her that Richard had a lead on Marianne’s disappearance. ‘I’ll be back directly,’ and she slipped through the door.
‘Good girl,’ Richard told her, while he handed her on to the vehicle. ‘I haven’t heard the whole myself as yet, but I can give you the gist, and my groom will update us both once we reach Caroline’s.’ Leaping athletically to the seat beside her, he took up the reins and began to tool the sporting carriage down the streets at a spanking pace.
‘Teddy has been with me for several years and I’d trust him with my life. Indeed, I did so while he was my batman in the Peninsula. He’s now my personal groom and is normally found playing tiger on my curricle.’ He took a glance behind where Tom had usurped his fiercely loyal servant’s place. ‘I set him on to watch Dalwinton in case the old roué tried out any of his tricks.’
‘Am I to assume he did?’
‘Dalwinton led him directly to the very same part of the city as you described and Tom showed me.’ His voice betrayed the excitement in his breast. ‘It cannot any longer be doubted that Dalwinton has more knowledge than mere gossip to go on.’ He held up one long, elegant finger to further capture her interest. ‘Moreover,’ he told her, ‘Dalwinton’s servant was sent chasing after a girl matching Sophie’s description, who ran off to escape him.’
‘Did she evade him?’
‘She did, but you’ll hear the whole from Teddy.’
‘Good morning to you, miss.’ Teddy greeted her politely when he was shown into Caroline’s morning-room. Once again she’d obligingly given it up to their sole use.
Anxious to hear the entire story, Leighton cut through the preliminary obsequies with a request for his groom to ‘cut wheedle.’
‘Aye, sir. As you know I followed Lord Dalwinton to the same park as young Tom showed us earlier in the day. He dismounted from his carriage and, after looking about, began to stroll down one of the paths, the same route as Tom said the young lady took.’ He paused slightly and coughed delicately, ‘By which I mean your sister, begging your pardon, miss. Another cove, a manservant from the look of him, followed a pace or two behind.
‘All of a sudden he raised his stick and pointed out a girl on the far side of the green. Pretty young thing she was, carrying a small bundle, and must have seen them as soon as they saw her, for she went off like a hare. Dalwinton’s servant ran off after her, but she gave him the slip easy. Knew the back doubles like a native, she did. Don’t slip my leash so easy, though. I was born in the stews and knows the streets as well as her.
‘I thought she might not suspicion me at first, but she was cunning like. Took me right to the heart of the stews; like a rabbit warren it was. Then, when we entered the market I had to follow close in case she slipped out of sight in the crowds, like she wanted to. This big codger, he started to suspicion I was chasing her for no good. Right bully boy, he was, an’ I reckon she set him on to me. No good to argue, but by the time I’d won free, the girl had disappeared.’
‘Damnation.’ Leighton gave vent to his feelings, but Clarissa, who vividly remembered suffering much the same experiences when she’d chased the girl herself, was apt to be kinder.
‘I did get hold of this, gov.’ Teddy continued his story, and handed over a bloodstained scarf.
‘Marianne’s. It was one of her favourites.’ Clarissa turned quite pale when the groom exhibited the gory article.
‘Old blood,’ stated Leighton, examining the scarf in some detail. ‘It must have dried up weeks since.’ Then he attempted to calm his love’s fears. ‘A little blood goes a long way and it may not even be Marianne’s.’
‘No.’ Clarissa was uncharacteristically quiet. ‘But for all that someone was hurt and it wasn’t Sophie.’ Perhaps they had it wrong. Was Marianne being held against her will? Perhaps she was hurt, but why then wouldn’t she return. Not dead, or Sophie wouldn’t still be visiting her. ‘Has she been kidnapped?’ She turned her eyes on Richard.
‘I don’t know,’ he told her gently, ‘but I intend to set a watch on the neighbourhood myself. Teddy stayed out all night so he must be allowed to rest now.’
‘Oh Teddy.’ To the embarrassed groom’s scarlet-faced amazement, Clarissa caught hold of one of his filthy hands and pressed it to her lips. ‘Thank you, Teddy. You don’t know how worried I’ve been for my sister’s safety. She has a true friend in you.’ She turned to Leighton and announced her own intentions. ‘I’ll accompany you, Richard. You may have need of me.’
‘No.’ He was firm on the point. ‘Teddy has lent me suitably dirt-soiled work clothes to blend in with my surroundings. You’d stick out like a sore thumb.’
‘I must in
sist.’ Clarissa’s voice had an edge of unwavering resolution he’d never heard before. ‘I have a gown in my room, suitable only for the garden. Let me remind you too, that Sophie is hardly likely to open up to you even if you should catch her. Under such circumstances she may, however, speak more frankly to me.’
‘When I find that silly girl, she’ll give me the information I want.’ Leighton, looking unusually leonine, was sure of his methods, though he had to admit that Clarissa’s presence might smooth the way.
‘We would also attract far less attention as a couple.’ Clarissa heard the hesitation in his voice and pressed her advantage. ‘If Marianne is found to be injured and abed, it will make things easier for you if her sister is available to nurse her.’
‘No.’
‘Then I’ll make my own way there.’
It was a clincher and Leighton had to admit it. He conceded, justifying the decision by telling himself he could hardly lock her up, and furthermore, there was no risk of injury. Besides, in all likelihood they’d have to wait around for hours, during which time he could tease the girl to his heart’s content.
‘There’s no time to drive you home,’ he told her shortly. ‘I’ll instruct Caroline to requisition some old clothes from her maids. I dare say at least one of them is close enough to your size.’
Thus it was that less than an hour later, as disreputable couple as ever they’d hoped was to be found strolling in the park. Teddy’s work clothes, a size too small for the viscount, were as dirty and greasy as Clarissa had expected, and her own, borrowed surreptitiously from the Cook’s oldest daughter, were quite the shabbiest she’d ever worn.
However, though they waited for most of the day, they were unable to discover any trace of Sophie, or anyone else they knew.
‘She must have been frightened off,’ Leighton told Clarissa grimly, ‘or she may not visit every day.’
‘There’s foul play involved,’ returned the girl with a worried frown. ‘Witness the blood on her scarf. That Dalwinton should be searching for her puts him under suspicion. Perhaps she remains in hiding from him.’
‘That would explain Sophie running on sight of him yesterday,’ admitted Leighton, ‘but where would Marianne hide? She’d be safer from his attentions with the Markhams.’
‘How about Lady Darcross? Jealousy may have caused her to imprison my sister. She knows Dalwinton well, I hear, and may have mentioned something to him that aroused his suspicions.’
‘If you’re referring to my recent amours, Lady Darcross’s jealous rages are well known,’ replied Leighton, ‘but seldom go beyond throwing whatever article is handiest at her latest lover. My casting her off is unlikely to have caused a lasting fit, when she was seen in the company of a fine dandy the very next day.
‘In any case, simply to abduct the girl makes no sense. If she did it to revenge herself on me, then she would need to flaunt the crime in my face and, by doing so, incriminate herself.’
‘Then we’re thwarted yet again.’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Found and Lost
Three days later they still had no additional clues, though Teddy continued to haunt the places he’d spotted Sophie, eating and sleeping in the roughest of conditions. Either the maid had discontinued her surreptitious visits to her mistress, or she was too fly to be caught again.
Leighton met him at least once every day and carried back his dispatches to Clarissa, who waited on his report with baited breath. The pair of them continued with their own pleasures most mornings, pretending to visit the sights, but in fact to keep the park under surveillance, though they never again bothered to don their rough disguises. Teddy, with all the advantages of his upbringing in the stews, might attempt to pursue her if he were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the girl, but they could never hope for success in such a venture. They could only aspire to snatch the girl if she was imprudent enough to come to close quarters. Unknown to Clarissa, Leighton, anxious to conclude the ugly deception, continued his watch into the afternoons as well.
Thus it was all the more surprising when the lucky break came not to Leighton, or his groom, but to Clarissa herself.
She had been used to spending her afternoons in the company of Caroline, with whom she’d forged a close friendship. On that day, the two fashionable ladies, accompanied by Caroline’s maid and a young footman to carry the parcels, had repaired to the Emporium at the corner of Bridge Street to undertake the purchase of sufficient ribbons and bows to refurbish some of her ladyship’s hats. The pile of parcels carried by Lady Burnett’s footman bore mute witness to the success of their shopping, and they were returning to her carriage congratulating each other, when a lad, little older than Clarissa herself, appeared out of nowhere.
‘Marianne!’ Accustomed by now to reacting to her sister’s name, Clarissa turned to regard the youngster quizzically, and immediately recognized he was older than she’d first speculated. Taller too, though that may have been due to the straightness in the way he held himself, a military man perhaps. He had an air of command to him, though it was currently overborne by the suspicion in his breast that he’d made a mistake. If he was indeed in the military, then his manners indicated it was as an officer, though he wore no uniform. Bought out perhaps; many young men of her acquaintance had done as much with the end of the wars against the French. Pale-faced, looked as though he’d recently been ill.
‘Marianne, is it you?’ He tried again, less sure of himself, but staring at Clarissa’s face as though mesmerized.
‘Yes.’ Clarissa was sure she hadn’t met the youth before, although he plainly knew her sister. No more than a slight acquaintance, or Marianne would have written of him.
‘I beg your pardon, ma’am.’ The lad held himself straighter than ever, and bowed slightly before he turned away.
‘No, sir. I am indeed Marianne. You must forgive me for not recognizing you.’ She risked a glance at Caroline who gave the slightest of nods to show she, too, had failed to identify him.
‘Not the lady I know, however.’ His embarrassment was betrayed by the flush on his face. ‘Though you bear an astonishing likeness.’
‘Stephen,’ Clarissa ejaculated. The only astonishing likeness she bore was to her sister, and the only name she could associate with her sister’s disappearance was that of the unknown lad who had himself vanished also. Though not, apparently, back to his regiment on the Continent.
‘Ma’am.’
She was right. He didn’t attempt to deny it, but even if he had, she’d already seen the answer in his eyes. He was astonished that she recognized him, more puzzled than she, for Clarissa held by far the greater number of pieces.
‘How do you do? I’ve been wanting to meet you again.’ Clarissa had often felt Stephen might be the catalyst to the whole damned enigma, but rumours of his continued service on the Continent scotched any such considerations. But if Stephen were still in the country then Marianne might not be far away either. Clarissa allowed the options to run swiftly through her mind. Elopement, abduction, even that he’d offered her a carte blanche. Each option was rejected as unlikely almost as soon as she conceived it.
‘How do you do, ma’am?’ Stephen executed another polite little bow and turned towards Caroline.
Clarissa risked another glance at her companion before she made the introduction. Did Caroline know about Stephen? She didn’t recall she’d mentioned the name to her, but Richard might have done so. The pair of them must have spoken of the matter when they were alone together.
‘Lady Burnett,’ she continued, politely introducing the pair automatically while her brain cogitated on how to rid herself of her friend.
‘Ma’am.’ The lad executed another bow, and with a final, awkward glance at Clarissa’s profile, made his apologies in form. ‘It is most unfortunate, but I must beg you to allow me to leave. I have a most pressing engagement to attend.’ A final flourish and he turned to walk away.
Clarissa’s next move startled Caroline as mu
ch as the lad himself. Almost without thinking, she stepped smartly to his side and slipped an arm gently under his own. There was no way she was going to let the youthful officer out of her sight while he remained the missing link in her puzzle.
‘I’m going your way myself,’ she told him, airily waving a dismissal to Leighton’s sister who looked as though she was preparing to make an attempt to stop her. ‘Perhaps you’ll be good enough to escort me.’
‘Oh … Ah.’
‘Marianne is in the greatest danger,’ she hissed quietly in his ear in an attempt to still his faltering protests.
‘Of course, ma’am.’ He reacted to the name quickly, and though he quizzed her with his eyes, made no attempt to engage her in conversation until they were out of Caroline’s earshot.
‘Who the devil are you?’ He started the interrogation while Leighton’s sister stared after them, still undecided what she should do. Leighton would never forgive her if any harm came to Clarissa, and yet, though she’d known the girl for no more than a few weeks, she seemed to have a decided mind of her own. What could she do if Clarissa made up her mind to accompany the gentleman? Walk with her? The girl had clearly warned her off that notion.
‘Be quiet.’ Clarissa could imagine the thoughts whirling around her friend’s brain, but Stephen was the first solid lead she’d found since Sophie had fled. She was determined not to mishandle him and, in her opinion, the lad would admit nothing to any wider audience than Marianne’s twin. She steered him adroitly around a corner and into a narrow alleyway, noting that he limped heavily. An old war wound perhaps.
‘Please, ma’am, I must insist.’
The pressure on Clarissa’s arm persuaded her he was in earnest and she allowed him to bring their progress to a halt.
A Fraudulent Betrothal Page 14