by Lucy Monroe
"Milord?" a footman asked tentatively from behind his shoulder.
Jared turned his scowl on the footman. "What?"
The servant jumped back and bumped a maid carrying a water pitcher. The water sloshed and the maid gasped, but managed to regain her footing before dumping all the pitchers contents on one of Irisa’s guests.
Used to small mishaps like this, Jared ignored it and fixed the footman with his gaze. "You wanted something?"
"There’s a p-problem, m-milord."
"What kind of problem?" Ashton’s servants sure were a nervous bunch.
"In the nursery."
Jared slammed back his chair and jumped to his feet. "Is anything the matter with Hannah? What’s going on, man? Spit it out."
The footman seemed to have lost the power of speech, his mouth opening and closing several times, with no words coming out.
"Calm down, Jared. You’re scaring the poor man senseless," Thea chastised him in practical tones.
He thought the servant was already pretty senseless, but didn’t say so. No reason to offend his sister, Irisa, on her choice of household staff and she was bound to overhear, even if she was sitting at the other end of the table. Just look at the way she was already glaring at him.
"I’m not trying to scare him. He said something’s wrong in the nursery. I’m just trying to find out what." To hell with it. He turned to leave the dining room. He’d go to the nursery himself. By the time the footman told him what the problem was, he’d be old and gray.
"She’s gone, my lord."
The footman’s words stopped Jared in his tracks and he spun around to face the hapless servant. "What the bloody hell do you mean, gone?"
Suddenly both his sisters were crowding the footman and his brothers by marriage were close behind. "Gone? You mean Hannah’s missing?" Irisa demanded.
"Yes, milady. Gone. No one can find her. The nursery maid took Hannah and Mrs. Drake’s children on a walk in the garden. She says one minute the child was there and the next she was gone."
Jared tasted the metallic flavor of fear. "Where’s the nursery maid now?"
The footman flinched. "In the library with the housekeeper, milord."
At least he managed to say it without stuttering this time.
"We’ll speak to her at once," Thea said.
Jared was already on his way to the library, his family close behind. Knowing Calantha would want to know about Hannah’s disappearance, he barked out the order, "Send for the duchess."
***
The nursery maid threw herself at Thea when they entered the library. "Oh, mistress, I don’t know what’s become of her. One minute she was playing peek-a-boo behind the trees and the next she didn’t come to my call. I thought at first she was teasing me. Despite her quiet ways, she’s got an impish streak, she does, but she was gone. I’m so sorry, mistress."
The girl collapsed in sobbing hysteria against Thea’s chest.
Jared turned to the footman. "The orchard has been searched?"
"Yes, milord."
"How long ago did this happen?" Ashton demanded.
"Less than an hour, milord."
"And you waited until now to tell me?" Jared could feel his rage growing.
"We searched first, but we couldn’t find her."
That, at least, had already been established.
"Search the grounds again and the house. She could have wandered inside." Ashton gave the instructions like shooting bullets from a pistol.
And that is exactly what they did, to no avail. Jared was calling for his horse to expand the search when Calantha arrived riding her mare. Her usual pristine appearance was sadly askew with wisps of hair trailing down her cheeks and back. She wasn’t even wearing a riding habit and a portion of her calf showed where her morning gown had ridden up. She’d obviously come as soon as she heard the news.
"Have you found her?" she demanded as she stopped her horse in front of Jared.
"No."
Calantha flinched as if the word were a blow. "What can I do?"
"We’re going to expand the search on horseback."
"I’ll go."
He nodded and vaulted onto the back of his own mount which had arrived with a stable hand. "She disappeared from the orchard," he said, taking off in that direction.
"How?" Calantha demanded of his back.
"They were playing a game of peek-a-boo behind the trees and she didn’t come to the nursery maid’s call."
They were silent after that, their focus intent on catching any sign of the little girl’s passing.
They’d ridden about fifteen minutes when Calantha shouted. "Jared! Over there!"
He looked where she was pointing and he saw the top of a small brown head peaking behind a bush about fifty feet away.
"Hannah!" he shouted as he kneed his horse into a gallop.
Calantha’s mare was right beside him.
The little head became a small body as Hannah came out of her hiding place in the bush. He pulled his horse to an abrupt stop and jumped down. Hannah threw herself at him and he swept her up in his arms, hugging her so tight that she squealed. He loosened his hold just enough so she could pull back and look into his face.
Her lower lip trembled. "I was scared."
He thought how far she’d wandered from the estate and said, "Me too."
"I knew you’d find me."
Jared kissed the top of her silky head. "Calantha helped."
Hannah’s head came up again and she turned to look at the duchess. "Cali, you look funny with your hair all squiggly like that."
Cali?
Calantha grinned and Jared just about couldn’t breathe. He’d never seen her look so free and happy. "I imagine I do, not like an angel at all, hmmm?"
"You look like my Cali," Hannah responded.
She did look like a Cali, Jared decided. More of her hair had come loose from its usual coil atop her head and her cheeks were pink with pleasure at finding Hannah. She looked delicious and wanton. It was a very good thing that he was holding Hannah, or Cali would find out just how tired Jared was of being avoided. And how hungry he was for her kiss.
The hunger had grown since that night in the garden. Every time he saw her, he wanted to bed her. Hell, he woke up in the middle of the night hard as a pike and wanting the same thing.
He saw the knowledge of his desire and a resultant feminine confusion in her eyes before she turned her gaze to Hannah. "How did you get so far from the house?"
"The man brung me. I didn’t like him. He smelled bad."
"What man?" Jared asked, trying to keep his anger from his voice. He didn’t want to scare Hannah, or make her think he was mad at her.
It occurred to him if he’d been half as careful with Calantha, she wouldn’t be so bent on avoiding him.
"The one playing peek-a-boo in the orchard."
"She was kidnapped," Calantha whispered, her face filled with stark terror. She looked like she was going to fall right off her horse, her skin had gone so pale.
Jared shifted Hannah to one arm and used his free hand to pull Calantha down. "Come here, sweetheart. It’s going to be okay. No one hurt her and no one is going to."
She landed against him with a thud.
"Oh, Jared." She buried her face between his chest and Hannah’s small body and wrapped both arms around him, holding him almost as tight as he had held Hannah when they found her.
They stayed that way for a long time, three people not related by blood, but irrevocably connected to each other.
***
Several hours later, Calantha sat silently on a settee beside Jared in the Ashton library while he and his family discussed Hannah’s misadventure.
"This is so frightening, to think some blackguard could come onto our land and kidnap a child." Lady Ashton laid a protective hand over the small protrusion of her pregnancy.
Lord Ashton’s face took on a lethal cast as he laid a reassuring hand on his wife’s shoulder. "Don’t wor
ry, sweeting. We’ll find whoever tried to nab Hannah."
"Damn right we will," Jared said.
He still vibrated with fury and Calantha felt an urge to comfort him.
She curled her fingers around his forearm and squeezed. "It’s not your fault," she said quietly.
He turned to meet her gaze and she flinched at the blazing anger in his eyes. Even knowing it wasn’t directed at her did not mitigate her reaction completely. But she did not move away and that was a victory in itself.
"I bloody well feel responsible. She’s mine and some bastard thought he could take her."
Calantha wondered what it would be like to have that possessive protectiveness directed at her. Deveril had been possessive, but in a violently jealous way. It never extended to her honest protection. Particularly not from himself.
"Well he didn’t succeed and now we need to determine how best to handle the threat." Mr. Drake’s calm voice belied the savage look in his eyes.
He’d pulled his wife into his lap upon entering the library and sat with his arms protectively around her. As upset as she had been that Hannah had been taken, Calantha knew that Mrs. Drake had awakened to the fear of her own children disappearing. Her husband meant to comfort and from the calmer expression in Mrs. Drake’s eyes, Calantha thought it was working.
"Hannah said the man smelled bad."
"She also said he knew her name when we questioned her later." The muscles in Jared’s arm tensed under Calantha’s hold.
She brushed him soothingly, but her insides were as tight as a well-strung corset. "It’s almost as if he meant to take her, not just any child."
She shuddered at the thought and blinked away unfamiliar tears that seemed all too accustomed of late. The initial love, born of the fact that Hannah was Mary's daughter had grown, so much that the prospect of Jared returning to his estates kept her awake nights. Not that thoughts of the often surly viscount didn’t play a role in her sleeplessness as well.
"That makes no sense. Why would anyone want to kidnap her? She’s just a child." Mrs. Drake’s voice sounded uncertain.
"It’s not as if she’s heir to a great estate or something. For all anyone knows, she’s Jared’s by-blow, the product of liaison with his housekeeper," Lord Ashton added.
Lady Ashton gasped. "Lucas, that’s an awful thing to say. If Hannah were Jared’s child he would have married her mother."
Lord Ashton smiled at his wife. "I’m not saying I think that, sweeting. I’m saying that’s what the rest of the world thinks. There’s no reason for anyone to want to kidnap her specifically."
"We don’t have a lot of evidence to go on," Mr. Drake mused, "All Hannah was able to tell us was that the man had icky teeth, smelled bad and greasy black hair."
"She said his hair was sticky, not greasy," Mrs. Drake inserted.
Her husband shrugged. "I imagine that’s what she meant."
"Are there any gypsies in the district right now?" Jared asked.
"Not that I’m aware of," Lord Ashton replied, "We can inquire in the village tomorrow."
"How did she get away?" Lady Ashton asked, looking at Jared.
It was Calantha who answered. "She said the villain stopped to relieve himself and she ran away and hid."
Mrs. Drake scooted around in her husband’s lap until she faced Calantha straight on. "There’s something I don’t understand in all this."
"There are a lot of things I don’t understand, Thea. What in particular are you thinking of?" Lady Ashton asked.
"How the duchess fits in," Mrs. Drake replied. "Maybe I’m just being a nosy sister, but why did you send for her when Hannah turned up missing, Jared?"
"She cares about Hannah."
Mrs. Drake smiled wryly at her brother. "That’s obvious, but why? How is she connected? I can’t figure it out."
Calantha felt as if an entire play was going on around her and although she was on the stage, she didn’t have any lines. She didn’t want to expose the shame of her husband’s betrayal and cruelty and yet it seemed inevitable.
"They’re going to be married, so of course she’s interested in Jared’s daughter." Lady Ashton sounded very certain and equally satisfied by her assertion.
"We aren’t betrothed," Calantha almost shouted, in her haste to correct the mistaken impression.
Jared said nothing.
"Then why?" Mrs. Drake prodded.
There was nothing for it, Calantha realized. If she didn’t tell the shameful truth, Jared’s sisters were going to believe she and Jared had un connexion. "My husband was Hannah’s father."
There, the words were out.
But the inquisition was not over.
"Mary had an affair with the Duke of Clairborne?" Lady Ashton asked with shocked disbelief.
"No." Calantha replied.
"But then, how..." Lady Ashton’s words trailed off as a look of stunned horror suffused her features.
Calantha shivered from the cold that encased her heart.
"How did she end up your housekeeper, Jared?"
"She insisted on earning her keep. It was the only way I could think to keep an eye out for her."
"You don't understand," Mrs. Drake said.
"Mary was our friend when we were children and Jared took an interest in her welfare. She was our local Vicar's daughter."
"You saved her," Calantha said, her focus entirely on Jared.
He frowned, his scar standing out white against his face. "I offered her a job."
"I always wondered why your housekeeper was so young," Mrs. Drake said.
"After she learned of Mary's pregnancy, my previous housekeeper did not want Mary working under her as a maid."
And Jared had opted to provide Mary a home with a well-paid job than allow the old biddy to have her way, Calantha surmised. He never worried about what others thought. He just did what was right. She sighed. Unlike her.
"Mary made Jared promise to tell me about Hannah when she was dying. He kept his word, but had to make sure I was worthy of meeting her first."
Jared looked surprised and Calantha almost smiled.
Had he not expected her to guess his reasons for seeking her out? With his sense of responsibility and honor, there would be no other option.
"So, that’s why you came to my house party," Lady Ashton exclaimed. She sighed. "I had been so hoping something would come of your interest in the Angel. It’s time you were married, Jared."
Calantha felt her cheeks burn as Lady Ashton’s words reminded her just how unsuitable Jared found her as a potential wife.
"I agree." Jared spoke for the first time in several minutes.
Every eye in the room fixed on him.
"You agree? You mean you’re going to look for a wife?" Lady Ashton demanded while Calantha’s heart shriveled in her breast.
The thought of Jared married to someone else was more painful than she could ever have imagined.
"Yes. And a mother for Hannah."
Suddenly all that attention was focused on her and Calantha valiantly tried to hold back the pain his words elicited. Not only a wife for Jared, but also a mother for the little girl she loved beyond distraction. She could not bear it.
Why was everyone looking at her?
The answer of course was that Jared was looking at her.
She stared into his eyes, her heart beating so fast she felt as if it would come right out of her chest.
"Calantha and I are going to be married."
"Married?" The very word sent chills down her spine. She couldn’t marry again. The risk was too great. What if Jared hurt her? What if he found out about her great weakness and came to hate her? He thought she was a marble statue. It was impossible.
She jumped up from the settee. "I can’t marry. I can’t."
Then she ran from the room, feeling as if all the demons of hell were after her. And they were...her own personal, private demons. Fear and cowardice.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Stunned silence reigned i
n the library after Calantha’s abrupt departure.
Jared felt fury and despair well up inside and he wanted to smash his fist through a wall. She didn’t want to marry him. She’d run from the room like a woman terrified of being pursued by a beast.
"I could shoot her," Thea muttered, her anger reflected in her eyes along with a concern that was a direct blow to Jared’s male ego. He didn’t want his sister’s pity.
Bloody hell, why had he believed Calantha was different?
"I suppose that would put her out of her misery, but it won’t help Jared," Irisa replied.
"Her misery? What about Jared’s? How could she just run away like that?" Thea demanded.
Irisa held Jared’s gaze, her normally warm brown eyes, penetrating and expectant. "I trust that our brother has more sense than to allow Calantha’s obvious fear stop him pressing his suit."
Thea jumped off her husband’s lap, the dark knot of hair tipping precariously from her abrupt movement. "He’s not a beast. She has no right to be afraid of him!"
"Of course he’s not a beast," Irisa replied, her expression much too placid in the face of Thea’s wrath, "Calantha isn’t afraid of him. She’s afraid of marriage."
Jared felt himself tense. "What the hell do you mean?"
"You heard her. She didn’t say she couldn’t marry you, she said she couldn’t get married, period." Irisa’s eyes softened. "It’s plain as pudding that she’s enthralled by you and adores Hannah."
"She’s been avoiding me for almost a week. That’s not the way a woman enthralled acts."
So why the hell had he announced they were getting married? It had just seemed right and maybe he was a little desperate. He didn’t want to give up Hannah. He couldn’t and he wanted to take care of Calantha. He had to admit that he had tried to manipulate her by announcing their upcoming marriage in front of others, believing it would prevent her from saying no.
He’d been wrong.
Thea cupped her chin with one hand, while her other arm crossed her waist and gripped the opposite elbow. "If Irisa’s right and the duchess is afraid of marriage, then of course she would avoid you. You represent a threat to her independence because she cares."
