Page 80 of Enslaved to the Seduction of a Lady
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“What’s going on?” Alison asked.
She stepped down from the last stair and into the great entrance hall of the house. Her hand still rested on the ornate newel of the banister as she looked around. The place was in chaos, servants dashing this way and that, and her father stood in the middle, seemingly conducting them with his rage.
His face had turned a deep red and his voice bellowed. It was the noise, in fact, that had drawn Alison out of her rooms at all. Her mother, the Duchess, stood near the bottom of her stairs, chewing her lip in consternation as she watched the whole scene.
“Mother?” Alison asked. “What’s happened?”
“It’s your Father’s antique letter opener. You know, the one that has been in our family for generations.”
“What about it?” Alison asked.
She finally let her hand drop from the newel. The letter opener was made of pure silver, with a mother of pearl handle that was intricately carved with a dragon.
“It’s gone,” the Duchess said, her hand to her chest. The skin on her lips was peeling from where it had been worried, and she had a look of terror in her face. “Your father is absolutely beside himself.”
“What do you mean,gone?”
“Stolen,” she said, “that can be the only explanation.”
“Are you sure he hasn’t just mislaid it?” Alison asked.
Her mother spun around and glared at her.
“You know full well that your father does not use that letter opener. He has another in his study for more practical purposes. No, it was quite deliberately removed from its display cabinet and taken.”
“But who would do such a thing?” Alison asked, still confused by the bluster in the entrance hall.
“That is what your father is trying to find out.”
“He looks like he’ll have a fit of apoplexy, if he is not careful,” Alison said, watching her father closely. It seemed his face was even redder than it was before, and his chest was puffed.
“There’s no telling him to calm down, though,” the Duchess said. “Not until he’s found the blasted thing. Oh Alison, it’s so terrible. Why are we never allowed any peace?”
* * *
The butler strode into the stables and cleared his throat. Everyone fell into silence immediately, all turning to look at Jeffries. For the butler to have visited the stable, there must be something terribly wrong indeed.
“You are all to stay exactly where you are,” he bellowed. “No one is to leave the stables until permitted to do so.”
“What’s wrong?” Joe asked, dropping the tackle he had been cleaning and taking a step towards the front of the stables.
“Something very precious of the Duke’s has gone missing. We are performing a full search of the estate, including all servant lodgings, and no one is to leave their place of work until told otherwise.”
Jeffries turned on his heels and left without another word, leaving the stables to slip into a low murmuring.
“What’s all that about, then?” Joe asked, turning back with wide eyes. “Got a thief among us, ‘ave we?”
“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Sam said with a shrug, continuing to hump the hay. “Not with the number of servants the Duke has. Bound to be a rotter among them.”
“All right now,” Luke said. He stood at the very back of the stables and looked down the long aisle, eyeing each of the servants in turn. “There’s no need for rumor and speculation. And there’s no reason to stop work, either. We can do what we can in here until all this mess is sorted.”
“Right you are,” Joe said, nodding his agreement. He bent down and picked up the tackle, resuming his task.
Luke stood still for a moment, lost in thought. He hadn’t imagined anyone in the household stealing from the Duke, not when he was such a generous employer. As he returned to work, he ran through all the servants he knew personally, and those he knew of, but he couldn’t imagine any of them being the culprit. With a shrug, he forgot all about it. The incident would be over soon enough, and they could all go about their daily business.
It was around half an hour after the butler’s announcement that Luke heard a melee outside the stables. There was shouting and cheering, and he was sure he heard his name mentioned. He cocked his head and listened intently.
