Page 62 of What's a Duke Got to Do With It
Sebastian, for his part, did not think his face could attain a higher degree of heat, so inflamed did it feel with so many women looking at him in loaded curiosity. “I assure you,” he muttered, “and I told Lady Tesh as much before you arrived, I would have done the same for anyone who was being attacked in such a way.”
“Hmm,” was Lady Tesh’s answer once again. Though this time it seemed as if there were an echo, for that very same thoughtful sound was mimicked by the young women surrounding her.
Blessedly their attention was soon diverted, for Miss Athwart, after looking about, frowned and asked, “Just whereisKatrina?”
Why that simple question had him feeling suddenly chilled he didn’t know. Until Lady Tesh spoke, with a frown that mirrored Miss Athwart’s.
“I’m not certain. Though Mr. Bridling is tardy as well. I wonder what is keeping them?”
She looked at the clock above the mantel, and it was only in that moment that Sebastian remembered the hour, and that they were supposed to have gone into dinner—here he followed the dowager’s gaze and started—some quarter hour past. Had Katrina stayed away because she was still recovering from Mr. Gadfeld’s visit? He frowned. No matter the upset of the afternoon, it was not like Katrina to not send word to her employer that she was unwell. And even if that were the case, that was no reason for Bridling to have stayed away.
The chill that had settled over him soaked through his skin to his bones. Without thinking, he stood. “I’ll go check on them, shall I?” Before any of them could reply he was out the door, striding up the stairs.
He didn’t even pause at Bridling’s closed door, instead rushing straight on to Katrina’s. Behind him he vaguely heard the muffled thumping of multiple feet on the plush hallway runner, knew Katrina’s friends were following him, and that it might cause suspicion that he was so familiar with her that he would go to her room himself instead of sending one of the others. But he didn’t care. His sole emotion was fear. Was she crying even now? Had she made herself ill? But when he opened her door, his anxiety not allowing him to wait for her answer to his knock, he felt the utter void of the space and knew it was so much worse than that. For he knew in an instant she was gone.
He stood frozen in the doorway, his gaze wildly scanning the small space, grasping at any bit of proof that she might return: there was a book she had left on her bedside table, Mouse’s bed in the corner, her shawl draped across a chair.
But despite these very physical things that proved she had lived here, her presence had been stripped from the sparse space.
But surely he was being paranoid. Fighting to control his breathing, he looked over his shoulder to her friends. They would not be so panicked. They would say she had gone out to walk Mouse or would recall that she had an appointment somewhere.
But they looked just as fearful as he felt. Miss Athwart was the first to move, pushing past him into the room, heading straight for the bed. It was only as she bent to retrieve something from the coverlet that he saw the letter there, with Lady Tesh’s name carefully penned on the front. The look on Miss Athwart’s face could only be described as agonized as she held it aloft with shaking fingers. On her shoulder, her parrot swayed back and forth in an obvious sign of stress.
Sebastian, however, did not wait for them to open the letter and read its contents. He spun about, hurrying through the tight knot of women and down the hall. And then he was pushing into Bridling’s room—a room that was equally as empty of a presence as Katrina’s—and rushing to the desk in the corner. In his mind he recalled that not-so-long-ago day when he had entered this space and found Bridling hurriedly hiding something he had been penning. He recalled the dreamy look in his eyes, his talk of playing knight in shining armor, his dismissal of his actress though just days before he had been loudly proclaiming to all and sundry how in love he was with her. He had been so certain Bridling had begun to fall for Lady Paulette after his rescue of that woman from the thief on The Promenade. Until the boy had summarily dismissed such an idea as ridiculous.
He had not begun to guess who might have captured the boy’s attentions. Now a horrible idea had come to him. It wasn’t until he pried open the locked drawer in the desk with a penknife and pulled out the sheaf of papers there, all covered in Bridling’s flowery, messy writing, that he knew his fears were not unfounded.
… Tonight I took part in saving Miss Denby from a fate worse than death when Ramsleigh and I came to her rescue in the Assembly Rooms… would have certainly suffered from the embarrassment of such a scene had we not stepped in… Miss Denby is the kindest person I have ever had the good fortune to meet… cannot begin to describe the high regard I hold for her…
Nausea roiled in Sebastian’s stomach as he crumpled the paper in his fist. Damnation, how had he missed this? How had he been so blind? And now Bridling had run off with Katrina.
He had to go after them.
He was out the door before the thought was even done, running to his room, quickly changing out of his evening attire and tossing on whatever was comfortable and could take hard riding. After hastily packing a small bag of essentials he rushed back down to the drawing room. He would take his leave of Lady Tesh and hurry to the stables to saddle a horse, and could overtake them before long. They did not have that much of a head start on him; a matter of hours at the most. With them in a carriage and he on horseback, he would be able to cover much more ground than they could. They would not come close to the Scottish border before he found them, he was certain of it.
That, however, did not stop the desperate beating of his heart as he thought of Katrina, who must have felt she had no other choice after all the matches he had ruined for her, after Gadfeld’s cruel words, which had been a vicious reminder of what she felt she had to do to protect those she cared about. And after their night together, and then his break from her after. His thoughts so overwhelmed him that he did not immediately realize that Lady Tesh and the Oddments had been joined by another in the drawing room. At the sight of the familiar man standing just off to the side of their tight group, however, his blood turned to ice, his boots freezing to the carpet.
“Cartmel,” he hissed.
The baron pursed his lips and raised an eyebrow as he took Sebastian in. “Not sure why you look as if you’ve seen a ghost, Ramsleigh,” he said. “You knew very well I was coming. Or, rather,” he continued, narrowing his eyes and tilting his head as he considered Sebastian, “you look as if you’ve seen a demon.”
If the horns fit.But Sebastian did not have time for the man’s sarcasm. “Forgive me,” he murmured, turning to Lady Tesh, who appeared as wan as he had ever seen her, what appeared to be Katrina’s note in her hand as the Oddments surrounded her like ladies in waiting at court with their queen. “Did she give you any particulars as to where they are going?”
“No,” the dowager said faintly. “Only that she is safe and not to worry.”
Sebastian nodded grimly. It was a safe bet they were headed to Scotland. “I will go and fetch her back,” he swore. “They can’t have gotten far. I will have her back here safe with you before morning.”
As Lady Tesh gazed up at him with full eyes, Cartmel stepped into the fray. “You shall have who back, Ramsleigh?”
Grinding his back teeth together to prevent the escape of the words he wished to say to this man—that it was none of his bloody business and he could go fuck himself—he turned to the baron and said curtly, “Your son has run off with Lady Tesh’s companion, Miss Denby. I am going to locate them and return them to Seacliff. Now, if you will excuse me?”
He turned to go, not waiting for the man to respond. Before he could take two steps, however, Cartmel’s furious voice rang through the room.
“Miss Denby? Miss Katrina Denby?Sheis your companion?” He swore, long and loud, a string of profanity that scorched the air.
“Cartmel,” Sebastian growled. “Mind your tongue; there are ladies present.”
“Oh, we don’t mind such language, I assure you,” Miss Athwart drawled, the first she had spoken since learning of her friend’s disappearance.
