The Reluctant Duchess (22 page)

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, standing 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.

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.

She stood quickly, a look of horror on her face. “Your Grace, whatever is this about?”

“Where is Sara?” he demanded, only vaguely aware that he should be calling her Lady Sara, but he was well past that, and he didn't care if her mother knew it.

Something passed across her face, a spasm of fear, quickly gone, but he'd seen, and it turned him cold.

“Where is she?” he said calmly, though he was raging inside.

“I—I don't know. She went out and has not returned.”

“How long ago did she leave?”

Lady Grandview wrung her hands and made a strangled sound. “This afternoon. She should have returned hours ago.”

“Whom did she go with?”

“Lord Newport.”

Ross cursed and turned on his heel, but before he made it to the sitting room door, he turned back. She was standing in the middle of the room, watching him.

“What did you do with James?” he asked.

Her eyes widened and her hand went to her throat. “I beg your pardon?” She tried to sound imperious, but it came out weak, and her gaze flickered away from his.

“What did you do with James? Where is he?”

“I let him go. He wasn't needed.”

He stared at her for so long that her chin began to quiver and tears sprang up in her eyes. Ross bit back his curse. “At least her father loved her enough to protect her.”

She winced and looked away. Ross turned and left the house.

His heart was pounding against his ribs, and terror engulfed him. Lord Newport.

Good God, Lord Newport.

He knew he couldn't do this alone, that he needed Montgomery with him, but he didn't want to take the time to collect Montgomery, so it was with great relief that he exited the Grandview townhome to find his friend waiting for him.

“I've learned to trust your instincts,” Montgomery said in response to Ross's raised brow.

“Newport. She went with Newport and she should have returned hours ago,” Ross said as he pulled himself up on his horse.

“I know where he lives,” Montgomery said, not batting an eye at the name.

Newport. The man who circled the periphery of the fast set, who always wanted to be included but never was.

“His name is Charles Lighthall,” Montgomery said.

Ross pulled his horse up. “I beg your pardon?”

“Lord Newport. His name is Charles Lighthall, the Earl of Newport.”

“Charlie.” Why had Ross never known that?

“Did he have an infatuation with Meredith?” Montgomery asked.

“Not that I was aware of. He was always an odd bird, but we tolerated him.”

Newport didn't live far from the Grandviews' townhouse. They were there quickly, though for Ross it felt like an eternity. He hoped to God Sara was there, but he had a sinking feeling that she would not be.

He pounded on the door, and when it was opened by an elderly butler, he shoved his way through without asking whether the family was in. The butler sputtered but was so decrepit that there was not much he could do in the face of the two men.

“Where is the family?” Ross said over his shoulder.

The butler raised a bony, arthritic finger toward a closed door. Much like Ross had done at the Grandviews', he strode over and opened the door.

A woman shrieked and jumped up from the chair she had been sitting in. Knitting fell from her lap to the floor, the red ball of twine unraveling as it rolled across the room. “What is the meaning of this?” she yelled. “Get out. Get out of my house now, or I will have my servants toss you out.”

She was shaking—from fear or anger, Ross didn't know, nor did he care. He just wanted Sara.

“Lady Newport?” Montgomery asked, stepping between the woman and Ross. Ross clenched his hands at his sides and gritted his teeth when all he wanted to do was run through the house, throwing open doors and yelling Sara's name. However, he knew Montgomery's technique was much better, albeit slower.

“Yes?” Her voice wavered.

“Forgive the intrusion,” Montgomery said smoothly.

Ross attempted to step around him but Montgomery sidestepped him, all the while keeping his attention on Lady Newport. “But we are here to see your son, Lord Newport? Charles?”

Her outrage turned to confusion. “Charles? Whatever do you need with Charles?”

But something changed in her demeanor, a shift of outrage to fear. A flicker in her eyes that told Ross she was now on guard.