Page 70 of The Book of Lost Stories
Jarvis looked about him as though he expected help to be at hand, then suddenly leaped to his feet with an agility that belied his years and began to run back the way he had come.
*
Rayven arrived home in a fine temper and strode into the library to find Harry settled there with the newspaper.
Casting down his hat and greatcoat he exclaimed, ‘Well, I have my answer, I presume!’
‘She refused you?’ Harry said sympathetically.
‘No, she went out, even though she must have known my purpose in requesting an interview alone with her, and what is more, even that rascal Jarvis was not on duty.’
‘If she has gone out, then presumably he will be following her,’ Harry pointed out, laying aside his paper. ‘And I havebeen thinking while you were gone, Serle, that perhaps Miss Weston did not know your purpose in calling on her.’
Lord Rayven stared at his friend. ‘Not know? How can she possibly not have guessed?’
‘Well, you made the poor girl a very different kind of offer on your first acquaintance, and since then it does not sound to me as though you have gone out of your way to make her think that you possess any warmer feelings towards her.’
‘No, because I do not have any. She is the most objectionable, top-lofty, independent, stubborn—’ He broke off and took a couple of hasty strides about the room. ‘Warmer feelings? Most of the time I want to … to …’
‘Strangleher, I think you said? Admit it, Serle, you love her!’
‘Against my better judgement I do, but that does not mean that I have lost my senses to the point where I do not realize that she is the least suitable of wives for a man in my position.’
‘At least you can offer marriage to the woman you love, which puts you in a luckier case than I. I do not know what came over me, to single out Mrs Rivers in that fashion last night. I must have been mad to be so careless of her good name.’
‘Miss Weston does not find the prospect of marriage appealing,’ Rayven said glumly. ‘I do not think all my great estates and wealth will tempt her … although I was hoping my cellars might just do the trick.’
‘Your cellars?’ Harry said, as though his friend had run mad. They heard the thundering of the door knocker and a commotion in the hall, then Jarvis burst into the room. He was flushed and breathless and seemed to have lost his hat.
‘My lord … Miss Weston!’
Lord Rayven sprang up, paling. ‘What is it? She isn’t …? Speak up, man!’
‘Carried off, my lord, by her cousin Nat Hartwood,’ Jarvis gasped, leaning on a chair back for support.
Harry handed him a glass and he downed the brandy in one gulp. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said, steadying. ‘My lord, a carriage came and Miss Weston ran out and jumped in. So I followed it, and stole a horse to do so, for there wasn’t a hack to be seen.’
‘Never mind that,’ Rayven snapped. ‘What then?’
‘I followed them out to Kew. They were Hartwood’s horses; I recognized those greys of his. But I had to go on past when they stopped at a gateway into Lord Chase’s property, and creep back. By the time I got there, Miss Hartwood was coming back along the path towards the carriage and her brother was carrying Miss Weston away – senseless.’
‘But not dead?’ Harry asked quickly.
‘No, I am sure she was not. Her head was bleeding, for one thing,’ he added simply, like the old soldier he was, for the dead do not bleed.
‘So, what then?’ demanded Rayven, whose colour had returned along with a look that boded ill for Nat Hartwood when he caught up with him.
‘I did not think I could overpower him by myself, sir,’ Jarvis confessed, ‘sorry though I am, but what with my arm and all …’
‘No one would expect it of you. But go on: where did he take her?’
‘To a sort of little temple building by the river, and through a door at the back of it.’
‘The passageway from the river to the house,’ Rayven said. ‘He has taken her to the cellars of Templeshore House!’
‘But what on earth can he be thinking of?’ Harry exclaimed.
‘Whatever it is, he will regret it,’ Rayven said grimly, taking a pair of pistols from their box and loading them. ‘Ring the bell. Tell them to bring my horse around immediately!’
