Page 41 of A Lady's Wager
He turned to look at Etta. “I stand by my determination that Reed has had nothing to do with your niece’s disappearance, but I will send my grooms to begin checking the posting inns along the road to Scotland. Meanwhile, I shall order my traveling carriage for Luton so that I might confirm that he did not lie to me and that you are a prejudicial woman who puts blame on innocent young men simply because they don’t measure up to your pretentious standards.”
He strode past her, leaving her staring at his staff as his words looped and twisted around the lot of them. She swallowed her embarrassment, then turned and hurried after him.
“That was uncalled for,” she said once she’d pushed through the door into the hallway. He didn’t even turn back to her, just kept his long-legged stride moving toward the stairs. She was fairly running to catch up.
“Mr. Firth!” she yelled when she reached the bottom of the stairs and he had not showed the least sign of slowing.
He stopped at nearly the same place on the stairs where he’d been standing when she’d arrived and turned to face her. He said nothing, just lifted his eyebrows and looked at her expectantly, his jaw tight and his patience thin—she could feel it. She missed what she usually felt from him—curiosity and gentle teasing.
She opened her mouth to speak. Closed it. Opened it again and then felt her shoulders fall and her fury turn to fear and indecision. “What am I to do?”
Her words were the softest either of them had said since she’d arrived, and she began blinking back tears, which were thelast thing she wanted. She looked away in an attempt to disguise her reaction, feeling ridiculous and yet paralyzed.
“Go home,” he said.
She felt her heart sink as even more humiliation rose inside her. He was not going to help her. What was she to do?
“Gather your things,” Mr. Firth continued. “I shall be at your door in an hour’s time after we have both made our arrangements and instructed our staff on not sharing these details—even the gossip could be ruinous for all of us.”
She looked up, grateful but slightly confused at what he was offering exactly.
Mr. Firth continued. “Luton is not so far off the route to Gretna Green. If you engage a few of your men to add to my two, they can cover a great many stops before nightfall. We will go to Northampton and then, depending on the outcome, we can plan the next steps.”
If he was so sure Rachel and Reed were not together, why take Etta with him? Had he not just insulted her in front of his staff? And yet what was she to do otherwise? She was certain that Rachel was with Mr. Firth’s son, yet she did not know how to organize a search without alerting all of London to the circumstance. Mr. Firth was helping her, and she made the instantaneous decision to trust him.
MR. FIRTH WAS FIFTEEN MINUTESlate, but Etta had needed every second. Lowry was staying behind to manage event regrets and correspondence, which meant Etta had to be satisfied with traveling clothes that did not require the assistance of another person for her to dress. It had been years since she’d been in public without a costume of one kind or another, but Lowry helped her choose a simple wig that Etta could style herself and a set of clothes she could manage, complete with a small corset rather than the full set Etta usually wore. Etta brought a pot of rouge but none of her other cosmetics or finery—there was no use for them in the places they were going. She felt strangely naked without the hoops and corsets but far more comfortable as she came out of the front door of her home, a simple hat with a single pheasant feather pinned to her hairpiece.
The footman loaded her smallest traveling trunk beneath Mr. Firth’s carriage—a lightweight configuration that looked to be impeccably kept—and handed her inside, where Mr. Firth was already seated. He was wearing the suit coat she’d seen on the chair in his bedchamber, and his hair was tied back.
She settled onto her seat across from him and straightened her skirts about herself. As soon as she finished, Mr. Firthknocked on the ceiling of the carriage and it jolted forward. Etta grabbed hold of the fabric cord hung from the ceiling for such a purpose and then relaxed when the cadence became smoother.
“My grooms arrived on time?” Etta asked after a few turns of the road.
“Yes, my head groom—George—had already organized their course. We’ll all be meeting at the Straw Hen Inn tonight, just before the turnpike.”
“They’ll be stopping at each posting inn along the way?”
Mr. Firth nodded. “If Rachel is found, they will bring her with them. It is not a perfect system but the best we could do on short notice. Is someone standing by at your home should she return?”
“Of course,” Etta said without the defensiveness that had become her base communication with him. She’d penned a quick note to Elizabeth—the only person she dared tell the truth—so that she would help cover for her at the day’s events with word that both Etta and Rachel were not feeling well.
“Very good,” Mr. Firth said.
They both fell silent, staring out opposite windows as the streets of London passed by at a steady pace. The buildings began to thin and the smells of the countryside began to replace the mustiness of the city, which Etta never noticed when she was actually in the city, only when she departed.
“Miss Johnson is the daughter of Nathan Johnson, yes? He is your brother?”
Etta turned away from the window to look at him. “Yes, do you know him?”
“To a point; he would sometimes come to Shrewsbury with his family. He purchased a pup from me when my terrier had a litter some years ago.”
“Oh,” Etta said, knowing nothing about a dog, but then why would she? Nathan did not keep her updated on his chattel. They lapsed back into silence, but that only seemed to heighten her nerves. Etta decided to continue to make conversation in hopes it would distract her from her anxieties. “How many children do you have, Mr. Firth?”
“Four. Simone and Rachel are both married.”
“You have a daughter named Rachel?” Etta asked.
He nodded. “She lives in Shropshire, where her husband practices as an attorney.”
