Her mother wasn’t making any sense, and Sara’s mind was reeling. Of course there were matchmaking mamas throughout society. Far more than one was comfortable with. Sara had never seen this side of her mother; she’d had no idea that Meredith’s betrothal was not as…spontaneous as most were led to believe. Did Ross know? But of course he did. How did one not know something like this?
“Wear this,” Carolina said, tossing a dark blue gown on the bed. “Lord Newport is waiting.”
Sara shelved her concerns and questions. She needed time to think before she said anything else. “I’m not going riding with Lord Newport,” she said instead.
“Of course you are. I refuse to allow you to wallow in this room any longer. And you’re not returning to Hadley Springs. We are going to find you a husband.”
“No, we are not finding me a husband. I am using my dowry to purchase a home for the orphan children, and I am going to educate them so they have a better life.”
Carolina made a sound of disgust. “Not that again. You are full of impossible dreams lately, aren’t you? You are the daughter—the only daughter—of a marquess. You have excellent bloodlines. We will find someone to marry you. Lord Newport will inherit an earldom. Not a large one, but he will do for now.”
He will do for now? What did that mean?
“Will you orchestrate my betrothal like you did Meredith’s?”
Carolina ignored her and motioned to the gown on the bed. “Put this on. I will send Jenny up to do something with your hair.” She flapped her hand toward Sara’s head.
Your hair is beautiful. Ross’s voice filled her mind, giving Sara the confidence she was sorely lacking at the moment. There was at least one person in England who thought her hair was beautiful.
Jenny had her ready in no time. Her hair was twisted into a simple knot at the back of her head that looked quite elegant, to Sara’s way of thinking.
Sara’s mother chose Jenny to be her companion. For the first time in days, the sun was shining, although it was a little late in the day for a ride.
“Where is James?” Sara asked when she and Lord Newport were ready to leave. “He usually accompanies me.”
“I got rid of him.”
“Got rid of him?” Sara looked at her mother blankly. James had been a constant presence in her life for two years. Her father had insisted on it, and while Sara had been unsure at first, she had come to like James. Besides, she needed him. The letter writer had not been found yet.
“He served no purpose other than to assuage your father’s unfounded fears. Your chaperone should be a maid, not a big, burly footman.”
“Mother. You have no idea what you’ve done. I can’t possibly…”
Carolina’s lips thinned and she cut a look toward Lord Newport, who was calmly waiting for Sara. “Not now,” her mother hissed. She literally pushed Sara toward Lord Newport. “You two have a wonderful visit.”
Sara left the house with a concerned backward look at her mother and climbed into the open barouche. Lord Newport sat beside her and Jenny sat opposite.
“I’m so pleased you were able to go riding with me,” Lord Newport said.
Sara smiled at him, even though she was still thinking of James. Where had he gone? How horrible of her mother to dismiss him like that. He’d been a faithful servant for two years, shadowing Sara wherever she went. He deserved far more than a sacking. She hoped her mother at least had paid him handsomely and given him a good letter of recommendation, although Sara doubted it. For Carolina servants were dispensable; she thought nothing of them possibly having families to support.
“It’s a beautiful day to go riding,” Sara said. What an inane thing to say, but nothing else popped into her head. If she were with Ross, they would have debated one thing or another or possibly argued over something in good fun. She never had to search for something to say with Ross. There seemed to be an endless supply of topics to choose from.
The barouche took them through Hyde Park, which was practically deserted. Most people chose to drive in the early morning or early afternoon. Sara was glad there was no one about because she didn’t have to converse with anyone. And she would not run into Ross.
Good Lord, did all of her thoughts have to circle back to Ross? She needed to stop that.
“Will you be attending the Forsythe ball tonight?” Lord Newport asked.
“No. I’m afraid not.”
“How disappointing. I had hoped to secure a dance with you.”
“I don’t actually enjoy balls,” she admitted.
Newport’s face registered true shock, as if he could not fathom someone not enjoying balls. “Say it isn’t so,” he declared in quite the dramatic way. “Meredith loved balls and such.”
“I am not Meredith,” she said tightly.
“Of course not. Forgive me, I didn’t mean to say you were.” He appeared genuine in his remorse, and her anger abated.
“A lot of people are shocked to learn that.”
“So what do you do if you don’t go to balls?” He seemed truly perplexed that there were things one did other than attend balls.
“I read. I tend to my father and his house.”
“Ah.”
He didn’t understand. Not like Ross understood. Oh, for heaven’s sake, Sara. You can’t keep comparing everyone to Ross for the rest of your life. That’s just as bad as people comparing you to Meredith.
The carriage exited Hyde Park and entered Mayfair. Green grass and tall trees gave way to large mansions where some of the wealthiest lived. Sara, however, looked away from Mayfair to her right at St. James. Just one block away was Rossmoyne House. She felt a physical pull toward Ross’s home. Was he there? Had he been thinking of her as she’d been thinking of him?
She could not get out of her mind the look on his face when he’d said goodbye to her. It was a mixture of desolation and steely determination, and she had known with a sinking heart that his goodbye had been final.
She yanked her gaze away from the direction of St. James because it hurt too much. They passed through Mayfair, bypassed Soho, and entered Covent Garden. They were far from Hyde Park, and an uneasy feeling settled in Sara’s stomach. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“I thought it would be fun to stroll through the market at Covent Garden.”
“I don’t think—”
“Don’t be silly. Everyone likes Covent Garden.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like Covent Garden,” she snapped, irritated by his flippant attitude. “I just don’t think this is appropriate. You told my mother we were going riding.”
“And we are.” His smile did nothing to alleviate her unease. “There is nothing wrong with taking a detour.”
There was everything wrong with taking a detour, but Sara could not say why, so she remained quiet. Truly, there was nothing wrong with walking through Covent Garden with Lord Newport. Besides, Jenny would be with them.
Just do it, and then you can go home and prepare to return to Hadley Springs.
The barouche stopped and Lord Newport jumped down, offering his hand to help Sara. She took it and shared a glance with Jenny, who had a disapproving, pinched look on her face. No doubt this would be reported to her mother, but Sara wasn’t certain her mother would entirely disapprove, since her goal was to get Sara out of the house. And married.
Newport offered his arm and Sara took it. They strolled through the vendors and carts, stopping to look at some ribbons and other frippery. It was surprisingly crowded, and Sara found herself enjoying the time out and about. It was social without having to be social.
After a while the crowd thinned and the sun began its descent. Sara looked around for Jenny and could not find her. Poor Jenny, she was old, and Sara felt bad for not thinking of her sooner. She probably had tired a while ago.
“We should turn back,” Sara said, shivering a bit in the cooler air.
“We will in a moment. There was something I wanted to show you.” He looked around, standin
g on his toes to look farther down the quickly emptying street.
“Maybe we should return another day,” Sara said, rubbing her arms.
“No, no. It’s just up there. I see it now.” He grabbed her hand and practically dragged her down the street.
“Lord Newport. This is highly irregular.” She looked behind her and thought of James. He would have stuck with her. He would have been following them right now, and she would have been glad of it because she was very uneasy about all of this. She could see nothing down the street that Newport could possibly show her, and in the meantime they were getting farther and farther away from the barouche.
Suddenly, Newport yanked her between two buildings and down a narrow alley.
“Lord Newport,” she squealed.
“Quiet,” he commanded. He was visibly tense, furtively glancing around and hurrying much too fast to be gentlemanly. Sara was finding it hard to keep up, but his fingers, curled cruelly around her wrist, were like a vise and she couldn’t pull away.
She was so stunned by the abrupt change in him that she snapped her mouth closed. He wound through the alley until they came out behind Covent Garden by Bloomsbury, where the streets were even more deserted. It was the time of day when everyone was home getting ready for the evening meal or preparing for the ball. She thought of the Forsythe ball and had the strange thought that if Lord Newport were going, then he should be at home preparing for it.
Somehow she felt that he was not going to the Forsythe ball tonight.
She dug her heels in and pulled back, causing Newport to stumble to a halt. He cursed and yanked on her arm so hard that something popped in it and she cried out as intense pain radiated upward.
“Lord Newport, you are hurting me.” She tried to pull away again, but it hurt too badly.
Newport cursed and jerked harder, causing her to cry out again. She was losing feeling in her fingers, and that could not be a good thing.
“We must go this way,” he said.
“Why?” she asked. He still held her arm, but a little more loosely than before.
He was looking at her intensely, with light blue eyes that held no depth. Fear gripped Sara. Gritting her teeth, she wrenched her arm free, gasping at the intense pain. She turned on her heel, picked up as much of her skirts in her good hand as she could, and ran. She got no more than three paces before Newport grabbed her injured arm and swung her around. Sara screamed, but Newport was prepared. He pushed something against her face, covering her mouth. She struggled, breathing in something sweet until the world before her swam and the buildings tilted in. Then there was nothing.
Chapter 31
Ross was sitting in his study with a sheaf of papers. He was supposed to be reading them, but he couldn’t recall why.
This was what his life had come to over the past week. He had attempted to work but found his mind wandering to the problem of Sara.
For it truly was a problem.
She’d invaded his life and stolen his good sense and, apparently, his mind.
He needed to do something about that. He needed to forget her, but that was impossible. She was everything he thought about from the moment he awoke in the morning until he fell asleep at night. If he fell asleep at night. More often than not, he lay awake, reliving his moments with Sara, and then he would end up angry because he could not forget that she didn’t want him.
For the first time in his life, Ross had encountered something he could not overcome. His love for Sara.
He put his hands over his face and groaned.
Was this what love was? Was it always this painful?
He’d never felt this way with Meredith.
With the test of time and his feelings for Sara, he knew now that what he’d felt for Meredith was nothing close to what he felt for Sara. He’d liked Meredith, enjoyed being in her company—at least for a time—but what he felt for her didn’t begin to compare to what he felt for Sara.
His love for Sara burned inside of him and ate away at him every moment he wasn’t with her.
He loved her, and she would not have him because her fear would not let her.
If he’d told her of his love, would it have made a difference?
A knock on the door had him raising his head and smoothing his hair down. He had no recollection of when he’d last eaten or bathed. That was not good.
“Enter,” he said wearily. Even his mother had left him alone after a few days of attempting to draw him out.
Hector entered with a pained expression that could mean only one thing—Thomas. Thomas was the bane of Hector’s existence, causing endless disruptions in the household while he was here.
The boy bounded in after Hector, so full of energy that Ross couldn’t help smiling. Immediately after Sara left his house, Ross had sent Thomas to watch out for her. The boy had faithfully reported to him every day for the past week.
“Afternoon, guv.” Thomas stopped in the middle of the study and looked around for the plate of biscuits Ross always had available for him. Over the past week, Ross had seen a great improvement in Thomas. The boy had put on weight and looked healthier. If he pinched a few biscuits for later or to take to his family, Ross turned a blind eye.
“What do you have for me today?” Ross asked.
He had to wait for Thomas to swallow the biscuit he’d shoved in his mouth whole. “She left with a gent.”
“A gent?” For the past week the reports had all been the same. Sara didn’t leave the house. Ross had been comforted by those reports. Not because he thought she was pining away for him—although he hoped that—but because she was safe in her own home. But today she had left. With a gent.
“Who?” Ross demanded.
Thomas shrugged. “Blond hair. Driving a fancy carriage with no top.”
“Was James with her?”
“Naw. He was let go days ago. She had an old lady with her.”
“Jenny?” Jenny was her companion? James was gone? A cold, hard feeling descended over Ross, and he fairly shook with rage. It had to be Lady Grandview’s doing, letting James go. “Where did they go?” he asked.
“Hyde Park.”
“When?”
“Today.”
“When today?”
“Later in the day. Not sure.”
“Have they returned?”
Thomas rolled his eyes. “How should I know? I followed them, then came here.”
Ross stood in indecision. It was probably the first time in his life he didn’t know what to do. Other than to race after Sara and snatch her from the blond gent in the topless carriage, whoever the hell he was.
“Go back,” he said to Thomas. “And let me know when she returns.”
Thomas gave him a perplexed look. “Why isn’t she staying here like she was afore? Then you would know where she was all the time.”
“Believe me,” Ross muttered, “if that were an option, she would be.”
Thomas shrugged, snagged three more biscuits, and walked out.
Ross hesitated for a few moments. He didn’t want to overreact, but his gut told him something was very wrong. He yelled for his valet, who helped him take a quick bath and change his clothes, then he was out the door.
He’d been to Montgomery’s residence only once before. His friend lived in a nice part of town with large townhomes and wide tree-lined streets. The door was answered by a middle-aged woman who appeared to be the housekeeper.
“I’m here to see Sir William.”
She led him to a smallish drawing room.
Montgomery appeared moments later. “There was no need to frighten my housekeeper,” he grumbled.
“My apologies, but it’s important.”
Montgomery shut the door and waited.
“Something is wrong with Sara.”
“What happened?”
“She went riding with a gentleman.”
Montgomery raised a brow. “And?”
“And…something is wrong.”
Montgomery
appeared to wait for more. “She is free to go riding with other people,” he finally said.
“This is something else. He’s blond, and a ‘gent,’ as Thomas called him.”
“And why is this alarming?”
Ross was becoming frustrated because Montgomery was so dense. Normally, he was not this dense. “She didn’t have James with her. James was let go from the household a few days before.”
“I fail to see how this is an emergency.”
“I don’t know,” Ross practically shouted. He never lost control, but he could feel it slipping away now, fear filling in the spaces where his control usually was. “I just feel that something is not right.”
Montgomery held out his hand in appeasement. “Very well. What do you want of me?”
“I…” Hell and damnation, he had no idea. “I need to find her,” he choked out in desperation.
“Have you tried her home?”
“No. I will go there now.” Feeling like a fool, he turned on his heel and left Montgomery’s house. What in the hell was wrong with him that he couldn’t think rationally? More than likely, Sara was at home, flushed from her little ride with her blond gentleman.
Ross arrived at the Grandview townhouse just as the sun gave up its fight with the dark. The bottom-floor windows glowed with light, making him feel better. He was probably overreacting, and he would probably look like a fool for barging in on Sara and her mother, but at the moment he didn’t care. And if Sara was here, then at least he would be able to see her. His excitement at seeing Sara pushed at the fear.
He knocked on the door and waited an interminable amount of time for a maid to answer.
“I’m here to see Lady Sara.”
“The family is not receiving visitors at the moment.”
“To hell with that,” he growled, and pushed past her. He strode down the hallway, opening doors to peek in them as the maid rushed after him, her voice nothing but an annoying buzz in his ear. He found Sara’s mother in the sitting room.
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