“It’s a good thing Mama’s attention is taken up with Honor’s pregnancy,” Charity said. “Otherwise, she’d be suspicious.”
Hope scanned the letter. “Mm. Faith says that the dowager has recently moved to Rose Cross Manor, some ten miles from Tunbridge Wells. She adds that her mother-in-law awaits news of the birth of Honor and Edward’s baby with the same single-mindedness as Mama. And she won’t visit Brandreth Park until the christening.”
“Is there any means by which we could visit her?” Sophie asked. “Perhaps you have a friend in the area?”
“We don’t know anyone who lives there,” Charity said. “We can’t drop in on her uninvited. It isn’t done.” She scratched her arm. “Can we go inside? Something bit me.”
“Why don’t you write to the dowager?” Sophie asked.
Hope shrugged. “How would I compose such a letter? It seems dreadfully rude.”
“We could write to Edward,” Charity said. “Now that he’s a barrister, he spends a good deal of time in Town.”
Hope leaned against the rail. “I doubt we’d get much sense from him. Last time I saw him, he looked distracted. He is probably in a worst state by now.”
“Vaughn?”
Hope waved the letter. “Faith asked him. He doesn’t know the duke.”
They fell into a depressed silence.
Mercy hailed them as she crossed the lawn, with Wolf following leisurely behind her. “We’re invited to Brandreth Park tonight for dinner.”
Hope looked at Charity, and they both spoke at once. “Lavinia!”
“Who’s Lavinia?” Sophie asked.
“Our neighbor’s wife, the Marchioness of Brandreth, who is Edward and Vaughn’s sister-in-law.”
Dinner at Brandreth Park was always a formal affair. A party of fourteen guests gathered in the drawing room. The Brandreths’ invitation had kindly included Sophie. Mama had expressed a concern that there would be thirteen at table, which was not to be wished for. But Lord Stanberry, an unmarried gentleman, with wildly curling dark brown hair and grey eyes, had been invited, and he led Sophie into dinner.
Sophie had commented on the beautiful home in hushed tones when they first arrived. Brandreth Park impressed those not used to such grandeur. Hope had lived next door to the Brandreth estate all her life, and since Faith and Honor married into the family, it had become almost like a second home.
In the formal dining room, the gold wallpaper glowed in the candlelight cast from the huge chandelier. After they were seated at the long rosewood table, liveried footmen poured wine into crystal glasses and the first courses were brought in under silver covers, filling the room with delicious aromas.
As they partook of turtle soup, Sophie shared an amusing anecdote with Lord Stanberry, now seemingly less over-awed by her surroundings. His lordship was unmarried, and Hope wondered if something might come of it. He was quite attentive to both Sophie and Charity, who sat on his left. But as Charity had not yet come out, and was only there because of the family connection, she didn’t count.
After dinner, when the ladies left the men to their port and settled in the drawing room, Hope approached Lavinia with her question.
Lavinia stirred her coffee and raised delicate dark brows. “Chaloner and I have been to Winslow’s magnificent estate on several occasions. The duke has vast holdings in England and abroad. I would have thought you’d be delighted for the chance to marry him.”
“Have you met his sister-in-law, Lady Bevan?”
“She always attends his functions. That’s not surprising, is it?”
“He refused to speak to her at Almacks, and I wondered…”
Lavinia smiled and patted her hand. “It could be a matter of money. I believe she gambles,” Lavinia said. “Winslow has taken over her finances. It’s most generous of him. I’ve never heard a bad word spoken about him. I shall be thrilled for you should you marry him.”
Hope’s shoulders slumped. She missed her two older sisters dreadfully and was not close enough to Lavinia to confide in her.
“Are you looking forward to the birth of Honor’s baby? I am.” Lavinia’s blue eyes turned wistful. “I love babies. Freddie will be off to boarding school before we know it.”
The door opened. “Here are the gentlemen,” Lavinia said. “Shall we invite them to join us in a game of backgammon or whist before they disappear into the billiard room?”
“You seemed to get on well with Lord Stanberry,” Hope said to Sophie when they returned home.
“He was entertaining. I enjoyed the evening.”
“Would you like to see more of him?” Hope asked.
“When I told him I wished to visit the Chalybeate Spring to take the waters—I’ve heard it said it has special properties—he invited us on an outing tomorrow.”
“Then of course we shall go. I’ll send a note of acceptance in the morning. We can promenade along the Walks and visit a coffee house for a drink and the latest gossip. And, in the evening, a dance is held in the assembly hall, which my parents plan to attend,” Hope said, warming to the idea.
Hope climbed into bed beside a slumbering Charity. She thought Sophie’s request to take the waters was strange. Perhaps it was an excuse to see Lord Stanberry again. She did hope so. How nice it would be to have Sophie married and living somewhere in the area. A thought made her pause, and she drew the blankets up over her shoulders. Where would she be living? Would it be Winslow Hall? She had to embrace the possibility. She could not fight Father and become a family outcast. And even if she almost despised Winslow, she supposed she could make a good life for herself—raise good children, become involved in the causes she believed in. She just wished she could banish a certain French duke from her mind.
Lord Stanberry was waiting to escort the ladies when they climbed down from the barouche. They walked along the busy colonnade, crammed with day trippers.
At the spring, his lordship paid the servant in the white apron. Charity declined to indulge, recollecting that Faith had said it tasted horrid, but as Sophie seemed determined, Hope felt she should too. When Sophie stepped away, she took her turn. She left the table, trying to cope with the nasty metallic taste in her mouth, and found Charity and Lord Stanberry chatting, but there was no sign of Sophie.
“Where is Lady Sophie?” she asked Lord Stanberry, who really should have been more alert, being the only male in the party.
“She excused herself,” Charity said. “I suspect the waters had an unpleasant effect.”
They wandered along the busy colonnade but found no sign of Sophie. After an hour passed, they broke up. Lord Stanberry went one way, Hope and Charity another. Hope was growing fearful when Sophie suddenly emerged from the crowd.
“I’m so sorry,” Sophie said. “I had to rush away.”
“Did the waters upset you?”
She smiled ruefully. “Nasty, wasn’t it? Not such a good idea of mine.”
Sophie did look unsettled, and her lips looked puffy. Had she suffered a dreadful reaction?
“We’d best forgo our plan to have refreshments if you don’t feel well.”
Lord Stanberry rejoined them. “If you’d be so kind as to escort us to our carriage, we shall go home,” Hope said. “I don’t believe we’ll return for the entertainment tonight if Lady Sophie is unwell.”
Sophie put a hand on Hope’s arm. “I shall be quite well by this evening. Please, I would love to go.”
“Then I look forward to seeing each of you this evening.” Lord Stanberry bowed and left them to travel home.
“Where did you go, Sophie?” Charity asked as they settled on the squabs.
“I went in search of a convenience,” Sophie said.
“I doubt you’d find one.”
“No, but fortunately, it was unnecessary. I’m sorry I spoiled the day.”
“As long as you have recovered,” Hope said with a smile. “We can’t send you home ill. What will the duke say?”
“He might feel the need to se
ek you out, Hope. To chastise you, of course.” A gleam brightened Sophie’s eyes, and her impish smile suddenly made her look like a naughty child.
Such comments weren’t uncharacteristic of Sophie, it was her sudden change of mood which made Hope uneasy.
That evening, the orchestra was already playing when they arrived. Her mother and father joined a gathering of friends, the ladies on chairs, the men standing in a group.
A cheerful clamor filled the ballroom, the dance floor a swirl of color. Sophie took the chair beside her.
“I saw Lord Stanberry,” Sophie said.
Hope wondered if Sophie was pleased. She gave so little away.
When the next dance was called, Lord Stanberry appeared at Sophie’s side and asked her to dance, and a friend of Hope’s father claimed her for the Scottish reel.
Hope was engaged for the next three dances until the musicians took a break. When she returned, Sophie’s seat was empty, and Hope realized she hadn’t seen her for some time. Searching through the crowd, she came across Lord Stanberry standing with friends.
“Do you know where Lady Sophie might be, my lord?”
He gazed around, surprised. “We shared a dance an hour or so ago. I haven’t seen her since.”
“Please don’t leave your party, sir. She can’t have gone far.” Hope didn’t wish to turn it into a drama when Sophie apparently made a habit of it. She would soon turn up again.
Perhaps she still felt ill. Worried, Hope made a fruitless reconnaissance of the building and the shadowy exterior, but Sophie was nowhere to be seen. That was strange. Where would she go?
An hour later, Hope was forced to alert her parents, for Sophie still hadn’t appeared.
****
The assailant gripped Daniel’s throat so tightly spots clouded his vision. When the boat lurched violently, he slipped back farther over the rail. Dread sliced through his mind with cold clarity. The prospect of flailing in the fathomless sea again lent him strength. Daniel kneed the man hard in the groin. With a string of curses, the Spaniard fell into a crouch.
Before Daniel could tackle him, the boat rose on a giant wave, sending them flying across the sloping deck. For a hushed moment, the ship hovered on a crest then dropped into a green void. With a thunderous roar, the wave broke over the boat deck and swept all before it. Two sailors disappeared overboard in an instant. Daniel clung to the rigging, drenched and gasping. When the boat righted again, and the wash receded, the Spaniard, too, had been lost.
Some hours later, having ridden out the storm, they put into port. Aware of the urgency of his message, Daniel hired a carriage to take him to London. Dressed in dry clothes, his nerves still humming from his close encounter, he climbed into the vehicle with a renewed sense of purpose. He was surprised to feel stronger, better able to store away the memories where they belonged, in a sad corner of his heart. In the past.
He was done with his half-baked attitude to life. Life was too precarious to bury himself under a load of guilt. He’d been blessed with a readymade family in Sophie, and dammit, he’d grown fond of her. If fortune decided to favor him, he could build a new life with those he loved around him, his home filled with the sweet voices of his children. He folded his arms and watched the lush Kentish countryside slip past the carriage window, as his hopes and dreams for the future, tentative as they might be, began to seem entirely possible. He was spurred into action to fight for what he most wanted. A life with Hope, but first he must take care of this urgent government business.
Daniel reached London, eager to place the letter into Canning’s hands at the Foreign Office in Whitehall. Once done, he breathed easier.
“Lady Sophie has gone to Tunbridge Wells, my lord, to visit the Baxendale family,” his butler informed him when he entered his townhouse.
Relieved that Sophie was safe and furthering her friendship with Hope, he took his mail to the library to peruse it. He tore open a letter from the Bow Street Runner he’d hired. The man bemoaned the fact that he hadn’t been advised of the possibility of Lady Sophie slipping away to the country by stage. His brief had been to watch her in London, so, he considered his work done.
Sophie traveled by stage? Daniel swore and leapt from his chair. He sought his butler who dropped his gaze and shifted his feet. “Lady Sophie traveled by stage?”
“We weren’t aware of it, my lord. Not until we found the note she’d left. I trust she has arrived safely?” He peered anxiously at Daniel.
“I intend to find out. I declare she will be the death of me!”
Daniel wouldn’t rest until he knew she was safely ensconced within the Baxendale household.
He ordered a valise packed. Within an hour, he set off, driving his phaeton.
Chapter Sixteen
On reaching Highland Manor, the Baxendale butler showed Daniel into the parlor.
Hope appeared in the doorway, her blue eyes huge in her pale face. “Your Grace.” She hurried to stand before him. “I am so pleased you’ve come.” Her face crumpled. “I have terrible news.”
“Where is that half-sister of mine? Did she reach here safely?” he asked uneasily. Hope looked so desperate that he went cold, and he took her small hands in each of his, drawing her closer.
“Yes indeed, although I did question the wisdom of her traveling by stage.” She didn’t attempt to pull away from him, explaining about Sophie’s disappearance at a dance the previous evening. “My parents have gone to ask at nearby properties if someone has seen her.”
He escorted her to the sofa and sat with her. Disturbed, he fought to keep his voice neutral. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“Sophie seemed to be enjoying herself.” Flushed, her words tumbled out as her big eyes implored him. “Lord Stanberry, a very nice gentleman, partnered her. I felt hopeful that a relationship might develop between them, but then….” She trembled visibly. “She vanished.”
His shoulders tightened. Had it been something to do with Canning? Might Sophie have been taken hostage, to be used as leverage to ruin his mission? He gritted his teeth. “No one saw Sophie leave the ballroom?” Anger curled through him, tightening his gut. The Runner he’d hired had been out of his depth. The man had let Sophie slip through his fingers. He would feel the full brunt of Daniel’s displeasure.
“It was dreadfully crowded, and all manner of people were there,” Hope said. “With whom could she have left? It wasn’t Lord Stanberry. He has joined the search.”
The guests were not strictly vetted. Anyone could enter that ballroom unimpeded. Old fears and uncertainties threatened to blanket his mind. “Sophie is headstrong,” he said, determined not to add to Hope’s fears. “If she wants to do something, it’s very difficult to dissuade her from it. She is not, however, thoughtless. I can’t imagine why she’d go off without at least first telling you of her plan.”
Hope started. “I don’t like to break a confidence, but now I feel I must. There was a Mr. Braithwaite in London of whom Sophie spoke warmly. They shared an interest in Egyptian artifacts. He works at the museum.”
Braithwaite was the attraction that drew Sophie to the museum. Daniel had suspected as much. When she’d mentioned him briefly some time ago, he’d acted quickly to dissuade her from forming tender feelings for anyone unsuitable. He’d been convinced at the time that he’d made her see sense. Who was this Braithwaite? If he was behind this, who knew where his motives lay? Daniel rubbed his neck. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Earlier the same day, Sophie suggested we should visit the Chalybeate Spring in Tunbridge Wells. She disappeared while we were there, also, for more than an hour.” Hope flung her hands out in despair. “Her stomach was upset. Or so she said.”
“Mon dieu. She went to meet someone?”
“It does seem likely.” She gazed at him, eyebrows lifted. “Do you think she’s eloped? Surely she would have found it easier to arrange in London?”
“Well, no, it would not have been,” Daniel said thoughtful
ly. “Sophie knew I had her watched.”
“Oh! You had someone follow her?” Hope jumped to her feet. “Why that seems so…intrusive! Perhaps she felt she had to be secretive.”
Daniel stood and gazed down at her outraged face. “It was for her safety. When she insisted I dismiss Mrs. Crisp, I couldn’t allow Sophie to go about in London unescorted, the way she did in York. Not with me out of the country and knowing how imprudent she can be.” He hated to see doubt in Hope’s eyes. “Do you understand why I had to keep her safe?”
“Well, yes, now I do see. And once she’d come to stay here, she should have been safe. And I failed….” Her voice hitched miserably. “I’m so overset I’ve forgotten my manners.” She gazed distractedly at the door. “You have come a long way and must be in need of something to eat and drink. May I offer you something? Coffee and sandwiches perhaps? Sophie said you don’t care for tea.”
The thought of Sophie at the mercy of some unscrupulous scoundrel made him bite down on a curse. “No, thank you. I’ll take my leave. I doubt your parents will have learned anything more, and I must go after her. Sophie and this man will have been forced to put up at an inn on the toll road last night. There’s a good chance they’ll be heading north, perhaps even as far as Gretna Green in Scotland.”
“I’ll worry until I receive word that she’s all right. I wish I could come with you,” Hope said, her voice trembling.
She looked so distressed. Daniel reached for her and drew her into his arms. She came willingly and leaned against him. “I hope you don’t blame yourself,” he murmured, breathing in her delicate flowery scent. “This business lies entirely at the door of my half-sister.” He wanted to stay there forever, his hands on her slender back, but he released her. “I am sorely tempted to box Sophie’s ears when I catch up with her. But please don’t despair, I will find her. I shall relay any information to you the moment I have it.”
Lady Hope and the Duke of Darkness: The Baxendale Sisters Book 3 Page 12
