Page 73 of The Insufferable Duke
“Ido not understand; how could this have happened?” Anna clung onto Helena’s hand and then embraced her, pulling her in tightly. Helena held her mother as if she were a child.
Her mother, a woman so preoccupied with appearing a fine lady, immovable and as fine as a Grecian statue, was now a shell of herself. She trembled uncontrollably, and tears rolled down her cheeks without restraint.
“Where is my daughter? She must be found,” she said, gasping between her tears.
“We’ll find her, Mother; we will,” Helena replied, numbly. She’d done her own crying, mostly after her argument with Christopher. The heat of that argument had spilled over into pure sadness, and she’d hidden herself in one of the servants’ stairwells and cried her eyes out, listening as in the distance, the wedding party clearly caught wind of what was afoot.
Now, the party was leaving. Only a few stragglers were left behind, leaving excessively slowly. It was plain they were doing what they could to hear more gossip before they departed.
Through the door of the parlor, and over her mother’s shoulder, Helena could see her father making the last of the guests leave. He even took one of the gentlemen by the scruff of his jacket.
“You must leave, please,” Benjamin begged.
“We wish to help, Your Grace,” the gentleman complained with his young wife scurrying at his side.
“You wish to report what you hear to the scandal sheets, but I’ll have none of it,” Benjamin warned. “Now, go.” He pushed the gentleman out of the door, and the man stumbled down the steps with his wife gasping in horror as she followed him. With their parting, Benjamin slammed the door shut and leaned against it, plainly needing it for support.
“Mother,” Helena murmured, releasing Anna. “Take comfort with Aunt Kitty for a minute.” She passed Anna into the waiting hands of Kitty nearby, who had not stopped shaking herself. Though Kitty held Anna warmly, Helena was aware that Kitty seemed to have been struck dumb, and speechless, a rare thing indeed for she was always fond of talking.
Hurriedly, Helena stepped out of the parlor and went to her father. He saw her before she said anything, and he moved toward her, embracing her tightly.
“How has it come to this, I wonder?” he whispered in Helena’s ear.
“I do not know. I wish I did.” She released a shuddering breath, and he stepped back enough to see her face. He smiled sadly at her expression.
“Fighting your tears, Helena?”
“I have to be strong,” she whispered though there seemed to be no strength in her own voice.
“It’s all right to give way to one’s emotions, love. Fear not for that.” He passed a curl of her hair behind her ear as he’d often done over the years. “We’ll find her. Do not fear.”
I wish I could believe that.
The bouquet petals still haunted Helena. The thought that when Julia was forced from that room, that she was dragged away. What was worse, Julia took the bouquet with her as if clinging onto the hope that she would return and be able to walk down the aisle of their family chapel after all.
Murmurs reached their ears from nearby.
Helena turned, looking at an open door on the other side of the entrance hall. Their music room door was open, revealing inside that a few of the Moores sat together. The Dowager Duchess and her sister sat close, hand in hand. Lord Isaac sat forward, resting his chin on his cane with a heavy brow creasing his features.
“What is all this? Why are we here?” he asked in a low tone to his family.
“He has forgotten already,” the Dowager Duchess sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I cannot explain it again, not now.” Her sister leaned forward and took it upon herself to do such a thing.
“Do you believe it?” Benjamin asked Helena, capturing her attention. “That it was one of the Moores?”
“The note was signed ‘M’. What else am I to believe?” Helena asked her father. He didn’t answer her but stayed very still. His reluctance to speak his own mind made her shift her hands to her hips.
He is thinking something… It is something he is not willing to share.
“What is being done?” Helena asked, returning to the matter of trying to find Julia.
“Much.” Benjamin sighed and reached for the nearest chair in the hallway, sitting down heavily. “I have sent Gibbs to the nearest constable, to ask for their assistance. The butler has arranged for the groundskeepers to search the land for any sign of anyone being taken through the forest. I have sent a footman to…”
He trailed off and looked to the back of the house. Helena followed his gaze, having heard the same sounds that had attracted his attention.
Three voices were coming nearer, their loud and bold tones competing to be the one that was most heard.
“This is mad. Pure madness!” Lord Robert declared openly.
