Lord and Master (22 page)

Eugene walked to the window and stared out. Leaving Town without his master brought an even bigger dilemma. The code of honor by which he lived demanded he remain at his master’s side. In all the years he was with Lord Montcross, Eugene had never left him.

Eugene leaned his forehead against the glass and closed his eyes. His honor demanded he remain with his master. His deep regard for Leonie commanded him to go to her and bring her back where she belonged until he could make her his own.

Miss Kendall reentered the room. “Eugene, she has taken only the gowns she had when she came to me. Everything I purchased for her has been left behind.”

The manservant turned from the window. “I know where she is, Miss Kendall.”

Daphne gave a glad cry and crossed the room to lay her hand on the white sleeve of his tunic. “Tell me, Eugene. She is safe?”

He nodded, but cautioned, “For the moment. She is with the gypsies we met at the fair.” Eugene’s face was set. His decision was clear. “We must go at once.”

As he had predicted, Daphne did not question his knowledge. Instead she said, “I have all at the ready. But should we not send word to Lord Ravenswood? I believe he would want to know what has happened, perhaps even accompany us.”

“If I may beg a pen and paper, I’ll write a brief message to Lord Ravenswood and ask one of your footmen to carry it. But we shall not wait for a reply.”

Daphne had moved to a desk at the side of the room. At these words, though, she turned back to the manservant. “Eugene, I am not comfortable leaving without giving Lord Ravenswood the facts and allowing him a chance to reply. Besides, he may be able to assist us.”

“I am afraid Lord Ravenswood is not available just now,” Eugene fibbed, knowing his master would not call on Mr. Blenkinsopp for another hour or more. But he could not run the risk of anything interfering with their immediate departure.

Daphne was uncertain. She laid out the pen and paper neatly on the desk and asked, “Where is he? Cannot we send word he is needed urgently?”

Eugene took a deep breath, feeling trapped. In order to get his wise lady back, he must tell Miss Kendall the painful truth. Otherwise she would send for the earl.

“It would be awkward. You see, he has gone to ask Mr. Blenkinsop for his daughter’s hand in marriage.”

Daphne’s face paled. She clutched the back of the desk chair. Eugene hastened to her side, mentally cursing the distress his words were causing her.

“I see,” she whispered. “Certainly the earl must not be disturbed.”

She blinked, then swallowed hard, struggling to keep her composure. The effect of Eugene’s words was shattering. Although she had judged the earl about to offer for Miss Blenkinsop, somehow hearing it confirmed extinguished any spark of hope she had left.

“Ah, Biggs, just in time.” Daphne moved away from the desk to accept the green cloak and a small traveling valise the maid handed her. “Tell James I wish to see him.”

The maid bobbed a curtsy and left the room.

Daphne glanced back at the sofa where Mihos lay, and paused. She put down her cloak and bag, and walked over to the cat. “I believe the time has come for us to part, Mihos.”

The striped cat raised his head and stared into her eyes.

She reached out and scratched the top of his head, an action sure to please. “Remember I told you last night our time together was near an end? Well, it seems I was right. You must go home to Lord Ravenswood now.”

Mihos raised a paw and began to stretch it out in the direction of Daphne’s chin, but before he could do so, she grasped it gently and gave it a quick little kiss.

She rose and saw James standing in the doorway. She gave orders for him to assign another footman the task of safely returning the cat to Lord Ravenswood immediately. James nodded and hastened away.

Whirling around to face Eugene, Daphne lifted her chin, tears sparkling in her eyes. “As soon as your note is written, we shall leave. I shall await you in the coach.” She picked up her cloak and bag, and hurried from the room.

Eugene crossed to the cat. Mihos had risen to a sitting position and stared after Daphne. “You must not worry, little tiger. You have a job to do. It is your duty to guard Bastet while I am gone.”

Mihos sat a little straighter.

Satisfied with this answer, Eugene walked over to the desk. He sat down and tried to compose his thoughts. An inner torment gnawed at him, and he stared down at the blank paper.

All of a sudden, his expression lightened. Perhaps all was not lost. Perhaps there might still be a chance for his master and Miss Kendall. He carefully chose his words and began to write.

Chapter Twelve

About an hour later, Lord Ravenswood stood in the hall of his town house, dressed in a dark blue coat of superfine and buff-colored pantaloons.

He had deliberately delayed paying his call on Mr. Blenkinsopp until the morning was advanced, correctly surmising that Miss Blenkinsop was not an early riser.

However, it was apparent that, at least for this morning, the girl had woken some time ago. While breakfasting, Anthony had received a note from Mrs. Blenkinsop, saying they awaited his promised call with the greatest of anticipation.

Frowning into the hall mirror, his lordship’s mood could best be described as resigned. He would go to the Blenkinsops and have done with the matter once and for all.

If the truth were told, at the moment his thoughts dwelled more on Eugene’s failure to attend him that morning. This unprecedented negligence raised his curiosity, as well as his ire. Mrs. Ware told him that Eugene had come into the kitchen for tea earlier and then left the house by the back door. When questioned, none of the other servants knew of Eugene’s whereabouts.

Anthony decided he would deal with Eugene later. Giving a final adjustment to his cravat, he accepted his hat and stick from Pomfret and moved toward the front portal. The butler opened the door to a day that matched the earl’s mood. The weather was cloudy and dismal.

Just as Anthony prepared to step outside, a familiar growling meow and raised voices came from the hall behind him. He turned back at once.

The source of the altercation was a footman in Miss Kendall’s livery, who struggled with a twitching, jerking, covered basket. The servant had one hand at the bottom of the container, and the other pressed firmly down on the wicker lid. Angry protests emitted from the basket.

The young man looked up at the earl’s appearance and bowed. “My lord, I ’ave your cat and a message for you.”

Anthony handed his hat and stick back to Pomfret before addressing Daphne’s servant. “You may put the basket down.”

The footman appeared greatly relieved as he complied with the request. He placed the basket on the floor and then jumped away as if in fear of attack from the occupant.

Instantly Mihos’s head appeared through the top of the basket, followed by the rest of his body. Hopping out onto the tiled floor, the cat gave a disgusted shake of first one, then the other hind leg. He saw the earl and trotted over to rub against his boots. Anthony bent and scooped the animal into his arms.

“Lor’,” the footman was moved to say. “It’s plain ’e likes you, sir. We weren’t so lucky at Miss Kendall’s. As soon as we gots the basket out, it was like ’e knew ’e was about to be trapped. ’E flew off, runnin’ all over the ’ouse. Took ’amish, the cook, that is, and Mrs. Biggs and me almost an ’our to get ’im in that there basket.”

Anthony’s mouth twisted in a grin at the picture the footman painted. But stay a moment. Why had Miss Kendall sent Mihos to him? “Did you say you have a message for me?”

“Oh, yes, my lord.” The footman fished around in his pocket. “Miss Kendall says it’s time to return the cat to you, but your servant, Eugene by name, sent you this.” He handed the earl a folded square of paper.

Eugene? The manservant was at Miss Kendall’s? Anthony shifted Mihos and the letter to one arm, reached into his coat pocket, and handed some coins to the footman. Pomfret led the young man away.

Alone in the hall, Anthony walked over to a side table and gently deposited Mihos on the shining wood surface. “What is going on, Mihos? Where is Eugene, and what possessed Miss Kendall to return you? Have you done something unpardonable?”

“Grraow,” Mihos denied, his tail flicking.

“Watch that bowl,” Lord Ravenswood told him, struggling to open the missive and mind the cat. “It is very special to me, as it features a likeness of Raven’s Hall.”

The cat rubbed his jaw against the bowl’s rim, and the earl elbowed him away.

Finally, having gotten the paper open, he gazed down at Eugene’s painstakingly printed letter.

Master,

I beg a thousand pardons for leaving you like this. Terrible things have happened to Miss Kendall and Miss Shelby. I fear for their very lives. I shall do my humble best to save them.

Your servant, Eugene

P.S. We are with the gypsies from the fair.

Anthony read the note twice. Shock held him motionless, and apprehension squeezed his heart. “What on earth am I supposed to make of this cryptic message?”

Mihos paid him no attention. He was intent on sniffing the inside of the bowl.

The earl pounded a fist on die table, startling Mihos, and making the precious bowl jump a few inches toward the table’s edge. “The devil! Damn Eugene for not explaining the predicament clearly. Are Miss Kendall and Miss Shelby in real danger?”

Or was this one of Eugene’s machinations? God knew he and Miss Shelby could take fancies into their heads that any person of sense would condemn as ridiculous.

What was he to do now?

His heart told him to speed to Miss Kendall’s aid.

He glanced at the hall clock. The Blenkinsops were waiting for him, his mind argued. He was already dressed for a call, not for riding. Surely he would not be above a half an hour at the Blenkinsops, and then he could ride out to the area around High Jones to locate the gypsy camp and find out what the deuce was going on.

The cat watched the play of expressions across Lord Ravenswood’s features. Then he let out a low growl and stared at him in what Anthony viewed as a challenging manner.

The earl hesitated, for some reason unable to put his rational plan into action. Should he waste valuable time going to the Blenkinsops first? What if Miss Kendall were in real danger?

His glance fell on the picture of his ancestral home portrayed on the Chinese bowl. He had chosen Elfleta Blenkinsop carefully as the best countess for Raven’s Hall. All that mattered was the future of Raven’s Hall. Not the fleeting feelings Miss Kendall evoked in him. The earl frowned. Granted, he must admit his feelings for her had persisted beyond what they ought.

But Raven’s Hall would live on for eternity. His tender regard for Miss Kendall would fade away, would it not?

He turned toward the front door, intent on completing his mission at the Blenkinsops before haring off to High Jones.

A loud crash stopped him. Mihos stood on the wood table, staring at Lord Ravenswood.

Anthony looked down at the shattered remains of the Chinese bowl. He passed a hand across his forehead and moaned.

“Pomfret!” he shouted. The butler appeared immediately. “Have this mess cleared away.”

Pomfret’s face registered horror at the destruction. “Shall I try to have the bowl pieced back together, my lord?”

“No,” the earl said. “’Tis not necessary.”

“Grraow!” Mihos agreed.

Anthony ignored him. “Have the grooms send around my fastest horse as quickly as possible.”

“Yes, my lord,” Pomfret said.

The earl took the stairs two at a time, Mihos scampering after him. Reaching his chambers, Anthony quickly changed into riding clothes, cursing Eugene for not being there to help him.

Once dressed, he moved to his desk and scribbled a hasty note to the Blenkinsops, begging their pardon for his rudeness.

He explained an emergency obliged him to leave Town, and he would call on them upon his return. He folded and sealed the letter, and in his hurry, left it on his desk.

He recalled the letter halfway down the stairs. He paused just long enough to instruct the housemaid polishing the banister to fetch it from his room and see to its delivery.  Then he was out the front door.

Upstairs, Mihos reclined on his lordship’s bed. With no one about, and little for him to do, amber eyes fixed on the last item the cat had seen in motion.

He stretched, and then crept across the bedcovers. With a bound he leaped to the desktop and pounced on the folded scrap of vellum. Velvet paws batted the paper onto the floor, across the carpet, and to the edge of the bed. Apparently tiring of the game, Mihos gave the paper one final swipe, propelling the missive entirely out of sight.

Tail high, the tiger-striped cat then strolled out of the room, mounting the stairs to the servants’ quarters in search of Eugene’s bedchamber.

Not many moments later the housemaid entered his lordship’s room. Over lunch that day she confided to the downstairs maid that she feared their master had gone off his hooks, ordering delivery of nonexistent letters.

* * * *

Rain fell in sheets outside the coach in which Daphne and Eugene traveled. Neither occupant made an attempt at conversation. Eugene was busy blaming himself for Miss Shelby’s departure. Daphne concentrated all her energies on not bursting into tears at the mental image of Lord Ravenswood going down on one knee in front of Elfleta Blenkinsop.

When they reached the village of High Jones, Eugene alighted first. “Please stay in here where it is dry, Miss Kendall. I shall question the villagers until I find which direction the gypsies took.”

“Thank you, Eugene,” Daphne said.

It did not take long to learn that the gypsy troupe had left the village travelling in a southwesterly direction. Eugene returned to the coach, and they rambled along the road pointed out to them for another hour. At last they spotted the gypsies camped over to the side, their ramshackle caravan half-hidden among the trees.

Again Eugene instructed Daphne to remain inside the coach. He was already thoroughly wet, so there was no need for her to ruin her clothes.