“Not sure yet,” Alex said. “We should know in a moment. In the meantime, we should . . .”
He broke off just then as he saw Miss Delaford hurrying across the bit of lawn leading up to the terrace, her dark green coat billowing behind her.
He was up and out of his chair, followed by the other two men in seconds.
“Miss Delaford, what happened?” Vessey asked, indicating the smudge of dirt on her cheek.
“Where are Miss Parks and Lady Katherine?” Alex cut in. He would worry about Miss Delaford once he knew Merry was safe.”
But a quick response from that lady was not to be had. She was breathless, and clearly was overset.
Finally noticing their daughter’s state, Miss Delaford’s parents came rushing to her side, taking over the scene before Alex could even begin to question her further.
“Give her some room, damn it,” said the florid-faced Mr. Nigel Delaford, who waved them away as if they were gulls charging a crust of bread. “Can’t you see she’s in no condition to talk?”
“Come, my dear,” said Mrs. Delaford, a faded beauty who bore a striking resemblance to her auburn-haired daughter. “We must get you into a warm bath at once. You must be chilled to the bone.”
But before they could whisk her away, Alex shouldered his way forward, blocking the path to the French doors that would let them inside.
“Miss Delaford,” he said in a firm voice, ignoring her father’s scowl, “where are Miss Parks and Lady Katherine?”
For the veriest instant he saw a flash of something in her eyes—something ugly, and maybe even triumphant. Then it was gone and her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know,” she said on a sob. “I only meant to show them a bit of mistletoe I’d found on a low branch, but I . . . I must have fainted. And when I woke up, they were gone.”
“Why did you faint?” Mrs. Delaford asked the question before Alex could.
“I don’t know,” Miss Delaford said weakly. “Perhaps I was just hungry?”
She looked so genuinely distraught that Alex felt like a monster for distrusting her. But there was something in that first look when he’d asked about the other ladies—that had chilled him.
Something was very much amiss.
Just then, Quick came hurrying toward them.
Deciding that further questioning of Miss Delaford would be impossible with her parents hovering over her, he let them usher her indoors.
“My lord,” said Quick, keeping his voice low so they wouldn’t be overheard, “I regret to say that neither Lady Katherine nor Miss Parks are in their bedchambers. And there’s something else that’s concerning.”
His heart lurched at the news. He’d been hoping against hope they’d simply been worn out and had retired for the evening.
“What is it, Quick?”
“It’s the child, my lord,” said Quick, looking more stricken than Alex had ever seen him. “Miss Lottie is missing from the nursery, and no one seems to know where she may have gone.”
At that news, Alex went from concerned to frightened. Something untoward had happened. He was sure of it.
“My lord.” The Earl of Needham stepped up then, his wife beside him. “Where is my daughter? Was she not with your party when you returned?”
Alex spent a few minutes assuring the Earl and Countess that everything possible was being done to find both their daughter and Miss Parks. He didn’t mention the fact that Lottie was also missing, given that an infant’s disappearance would likely send some of their guests into hysterics.
Once that was finished, he instructed Quick to gather every able-bodied man and supply them with lit torches so that they could search the grounds. He had an idea of where the mistletoe Miss Delaford mentioned was, and they’d go there first.
He took William aside for a moment. Vessey had set off to explain the situation to the remaining guests.
“Will,” he said, hating that he had to tell him this, “Quick told me that Lottie is missing as well.”
He watched as his cousin’s expression changed from one of curiosity to one of blank disbelief. “Of course she’s not,” he said with a frown. “I only just saw her a little while ago. Before we set out. She was sleeping.”
“Yes,” Alex said. “But sometime after that she was left alone for a bit, and when the nurse returned she was gone. They’ve searched the nursery and all the bedchambers upstairs. She’s nowhere to be found.”
As the truth of what Alex said sunk in, Will’s mouth twisted into a grimace of pain. “Where is she?” He turned, obviously set on going upstairs to see for himself that she wasn’t in her crib. But Alex stepped in front of him.
“She’s not there. And since Merry and Lady Katherine are also missing, it seems possible to think they’re together.” At least, he hoped that was true.
“Why?” Will asked. “Why would Miss Parks and Lady Katherine take her? Is Miss Parks no longer content to see me raise my own daughter?”
Alex shook his head, tried to calm the other man. “Of course she thinks no such thing. I only think that the disappearance of all three at the same time is too coincidental to be unrelated.”
Just then, Vessey appeared carrying two torches in one hand, and one in another. Wordlessly he handed one to each of them, and they moved to where the footmen, grooms, and even some of the houseguests had gathered, all carrying torches to light their way through the dark.
Standing before the assembled group, Alex spoke loudly, and with an assurance he didn’t feel.
“Thank you all for helping us search. We are looking for Miss Merry Parks, she has dark hair and was wearing a crimson-hooded cloak. I believe her gown was also a deep red. Lady Katherine was in a deep blue coat with ermine trim. And Miss Lottie Ponsonby, as you know, is an infant.”
A murmur of disbelief ran through the assembled searchers. They had known about the two adults, but the missing baby was a shock.
“Remember, if you find anything, give a shout,” he said, once the chatter had died down. “Let’s bring them home.”
And turning, he led them into the wood at the edge of the park.
* * *
“She’s hungry,” Merry said as Lottie whimpered and made sucking motions with her tiny mouth. With nothing else to give her, she put her knuckle up to the baby’s mouth, and it soothed her for a few moments at least.
“Why did she do this?” Katherine asked from where she’d sat down on the dirt floor beside Merry and the baby. “Why would Emily Delaford trap us here? Not to mention risk the life of a harmless infant? Is she mad?”
Merry had thought long and hard about what possible motive the young lady could have for taking such reckless actions. But all she could think of was jealousy. And she had a difficult time believing anyone could be jealous enough to do this.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Has she ever said anything that led you to believe she disliked you? Or me, for that matter? Perhaps you were simply included because you had the misfortune to be sitting with me at the time.”
“No,” Katherine said, holding her hands up to the lantern, which they’d placed on the floor between them, like a campfire. “We both knew we were here to compete for Lord Wrotham, of course. We talked about it a bit when we first arrived.”
Merry nodded. “What did you say?”
“Only that I had no intention of marrying Lord Wrotham, so she needn’t consider me to be a threat.” Katherine said it with a slight shrug. “She didn’t seem to care, if you wish to know the truth. I thought she’d be pleased, or relieved. But she only thanked me and said she had far more interesting prospects and that this visit was her mother’s idea.
That was an interesting bit of news, Merry thought. Not only had Miss Delaford not been interested in Alex, but she also had someone else in mind. Who could that be?”
“Did she say who the other prospect was?” Merry asked. “Perhaps he has something to do with this.”
“I don’t know,” Katherine looked genuinely remorseful
. “I wish I did.” She pulled her coat tighter around her. “I do not like small spaces, Miss Parks,” she said, closing her eyes against the sight of the low ceiling.
Sensing that her companion was about to lose her grasp on calm, Merry spoke up before Katherine could. “Why don’t we do something to pass the time? Something that will lift our spirits while we wait?”
“I don’t know that anything outside of imminent rescue could raise my spirits,” Lady Katherine said wryly. “Still, I suppose it’s best that we remain calm.”
“Good,” Merry said with an optimism she didn’t feel. “Let’s sing carols. Not only will the sound draw our rescuers to us, but it will soothe us as well.”
Then, in a clear alto voice, she began the first verse of “I Saw Three Ships.”
Soon, Lady Katherine joined in, and though they were cold and frustrated, they let the spirit of the holiday fill them for however long or little they’d need it.
* * *
The flickering of torchlights lit the trees as Alex and Will trudged through the thick snow. It wasn’t easy going, and more than one of the searchers ended up on the ground—or in the case of one unlucky uncle, in a snowdrift from which he had to be bodily removed.
“How can you be sure Lottie is with them?” Will asked grimly as they neared the outbuildings on the other side of the wood, hidden from view of the main house.
Alex didn’t know, but he hoped. And logic told him the odds of two adult ladies and an infant disappearing for different reasons on the same day were nearly impossible. He didn’t bother with feeding his cousin platitudes. Instead he spoke the bald truth. “It’s a hunch. But an educated one.”
Then, trying to turn back to the task at hand, he pointed toward the outbuildings. “We haven’t searched there. Miss Delaford told us they were in the woods, but the tannery, the laundry, and the icehouse are all quite close.”
They were nearing the stretch of open ground dividing the wood from the cluster of buildings, when a faint noise caught their attention.
They’d long ago become accustomed to the murmur of the other searchers, punctuated by the occasional curse as someone sank ankle-deep into the snow.
But this was different.
“Someone is singing,” Will said with a frown, listening intently as the sound of two voices caught on the wind.
“Over here,” Alex said, as the tones formed a tune he recognized as “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” a carol he knew Merry had always loved.
It was difficult to tell from which direction the sound was coming, and they’d opened the doors of both the blacksmith’s shop and the bakery only to find them empty.
But as they reached the icehouse, its stone walls marking it apart from the other brick buildings, the song became louder.
Not speaking, he and Will removed the bolt holding the door shut, and immediately the singing stopped and was replaced by cries of excitement.
The door swung open to reveal Merry, holding Lottie close to her chest, bundled inside the warmth of her fur-trimmed coat, having sacrificed her own comfort for the good of the child.
The interior of the building was several degrees colder than even the outdoors was—as an icehouse should be. A few more hours here and it would would have been too late to save them.
Lottie, startled by the shouting of the adults, began crying. Nevertheless, Will was stepping forward to take the baby in his own arms before Merry could even begin to soothe her.
Just behind his cousin, Alex pulled Merry into his arms.
“Thank God you found us,” she said against his shoulder, her teeth chattering from cold. “Thank God.”
He had so many questions. But in that moment, Alex cared only that she was alive and safe and chilled to the bone.
“Let’s get them back to the house,” he said to Will, who was hugging Lady Katherine with one arm, while he held Lottie in the other.
Alex noted this development, but ignored it in his concern for getting the shivering women into the house.
“Can you walk?” he asked Merry as he moved her to his side. Then, before she could even begin to respond, he’d lifted her into his arms and was cutting through the woods toward the closest entrance to the house—the kitchen door.
“Alex,” Merry said in protest, her voice wobbly from cold, “I can walk.”
But he shook his head. “Hush, and let me carry you.” He needed to feel her in his arms right now, and despite her protest, he could feel the tremors of cold running through her. If nothing else, his body heat would help her warm up.
She must have heard the unspoken “please” in his words, because after a futile push against his chest, she gave a shaky sigh and rested her head against his chest, letting him proceed.
He didn’t remember any of the journey from the icehouse to the Keep, but by the time they reached the kitchens—which were warm thanks to the large hearth there, Alex was growing weary.
“My lord!” the cook, who was preparing trays of tea for the searchers, started as she saw the viscount himself enter the downstairs carrying his lady. “You found her!”
Everyone in the house had been enlisted to help find the missing ladies, and Mrs. Gleason, who had been with the Keep since Alex was a small boy, beamed at the sight of them.
“Oh, Miss Merry,” cried Effie. “Thank heavens. I’ll go get things ready for your bath.”
Mrs. Vines, who was also standing by, snapped into action. “We’ve had water on the boil. I’ll have it sent right up, my lord.”
“And send for Dr. Gibbs,” Alex told her as he headed for the stairs leading to the upper floors.
“Alex, I don’t need . . .” Merry said weakly.
“Hush,” he said against her hair. “You need to be seen. For my peace of mind, if nothing else.”
“Then have him go to Lottie and Lady Katherine first,” she said in a stronger voice. “Then he may come to me.”
“Stubborn as ever,” Alex said with a smile, then relayed her wishes to Mrs. Vibes before continuing up the stairs. He knew she was likely unharmed, but he hadn’t rekindled their romance only to lose her to a common chill.
By the time they reached her bedchamber, she was drowsing against his shoulder. “We’re here, my dear,” he told her softly as he lay her on the counterpane of the delicately carved rosewood bed.
As Effie hurried forward, he recognized that despite his fierce need to see for himself that she was unharmed, he couldn’t stay while she was undressed and bathed.
“I’ll be back when the doctor arrives,” he said stiffly, feeling suddenly out of place in her bedchamber.
He turned to leave, as Effie lifted her to remove her cloak, but Merry’s voice made him turn. “Alex,” she said softly.
The spark of emotion in her blue eyes nearly had him pulling her to him again, Effie’s sensibilities be damned.
“What is it?”
She smiled, as if realizing how he struggled within himself.
“Thank you.”
Words failed him, so he simply gave a short nod. Then quickly left the room.
* * *
The hot bath, though necessary, was painful as the drowsy nerves of Merry’s limbs began to awaken with the physical equivalent of many, many shouts. Pins and needles, followed by the sensation that her skin was soaking in the warmth of the water, finally concluded with the relief of being, at last, at a comfortable temperature.
“I was worried, Miss Merry,” said Effie, fussing over her mistress as she helped her into the bed she’d just heated with a warming pan. “You’re not given to starts, no matter how rash it may have been for you to visit his lordship’s house in London with little Lottie. But I knew something was amiss just as soon as Mr. Quick sent Jem to ask if you were in your bedchamber.”
“I thank you for the vote of confidence, Effie,” Merry said with a yawn. “I should hope we know each other well enough by now. I can’t help but be grateful that you and Lord Wrotham knew I’d never wander off into a snow
y night without reason.”
“I’m just glad you were there to save the child,” said the maid with a fierce frown. “That Miss Delaford deserves a right hiding for what she did. Even if she was jealous of you and Lady Katherine, it was a piece of meanness to take that sweet girl into the snow on a night like this.”
Merry tended to agree with her maid, but discussion was impossible now that she’d recovered from the painful cold and was safe and warm in her soft bed.
“Have you heard aught of them, Effie?” she asked, fighting to keep her eyes open. “What did the doctor say?”
“He hasn’t come yet, Miss but I heard from the wetnurse that the babe is well. And Lady Katherine is fit as a fiddle.”
With the news that the others were safe, Merry breathed a sigh of relief, and the exhaustion that had dogged her suddenly descended upon her like an avalanche.
Before Effie could even snuff the light, she’d closed her eyes and, finally, succumbed to sleep.
Chapter Ten
Whatever relief Alex had felt on finding Merry, Lady Katherine, and Lottie was replaced—as soon as he shut the door to Merry’s bedchamber behind him—with a rage like he’d not felt in a very long time.
Though the hour was late and his grandmother, Quick had informed him, had decided to monitor the situation from her suite, he strode down the paneled hallway toward her rooms without caring for her comfort.
If she had even a small hand in tonight’s incident, his grandmother would no longer be a part of his life. It was that simple.
His knock, however, was answered by the dowager’s maid who looked as if she was expecting him.
“She’s in the sitting room, my lord,” Sally said as she led him through the antechamber just off the hall and into the small study.
Rather than behind her desk, as he’d expected, he found the dowager pacing before the fire. He’d thought her strategy would be one of strength. The unusual display of anxiety paradoxically gave him some hope.
“They are safe?” she asked, coming to a halt as she saw him moving toward her.
Had no one thought to inform her? He frowned.
“Yes, Merry and little Lottie, as well as Lady Katherine, are unharmed. Though they are cold and exhausted. I’ve sent for the doctor, but he cannot come until the morning.”
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