Page 51 of Tempting a Lonely Lord
Bella knew it was real. It had to be. But she nodded her agreement, as did her grandmothers. Gradually, Michael gave his reluctant nod as well.
“I want to try the games, and eat some of the tweats,” he said.
“We’ll make sure you’ll get to do everything you’d like to do…within reason,” Grandmama said, patting the boy’s head.
“I see Madame Vorest has a tent a few yards away. What do you say we start there, Anna?” Grandmère asked.
“I’d like to see her—although it’s going to be hard not to mention the treasure. Maybe we just stop by to say hello,” Grandmama suggested. “Are you interested in coming with us, Bella?”
“I would like that. William, will you be with us?”
“If you don’t mind, Lucas and I will be visiting a few of the tradesmen who are displaying their wares. We also want to speak to the blacksmith,” William said as Lucas and Harriett approached. “Then we’ll join you once more, and perhaps take some refreshment?”
“Yes, that sounds lovely,” Bella said. Turning to Harriett, she asked if she would like to go with them to visit Madame Vorest.
Harriett said she remembered hearing about a Roma fortune teller when she lived at Dudley Manor, but she’d never had the opportunity to meet her and was greatly looking forward to it.
As the four women, Michael, and Lacey entered Madame Vorest’s tent, they found her distraught and pacing, holding a handkerchief to her teary eyes.
“Madame Vorest, what’s wrong?” Grandmère asked.
“I fear something awful has happened,” the fortune teller said, wiping at her eyes. “My little granddaughter has gone missing. Yesterday, Sophia was with her older sister Diana. They were planning on walking to the home of a friend just a stone’s throw away, but when her sister went back into the cottage to retrieve her gloves, she returned, and Sophia was gone. Disappeared. We searched the area all yesterday afternoon and night, and this morning. We have not been able to find her. I had to come here today, but I am afraid I am not much use.”
“Have you searched the grounds of the festival?” Grandmama asked.
“Yes, as I said, we have been searching everywhere. There hasn’t been a sign of her anywhere. Oh… my sweet Sophie. She’s only seven,” the older woman cried. “I’m certain they’ve taken her.”
“Whohas taken her?” the duchess asked.
“Theyhave… The slavers. It’s been happening for years. Dover’s children have been steadily disappearing. There is a great evil in this town.”
“How do you know they are being sold into slavery?” Grandmama asked.
“It is what the sailors that come here tell us—only they cannot tell us who is doing it. And we have never been able to stop it. They don’t steal only Dover’s children. My family… They tell me it happens in other cities and towns… even London. But so many have disappeared from Dover, and we have no idea who is behind it.” She wrung her hands as she paced.
“What does your granddaughter look like?” Bella asked gently.
Madame Vorest sniffled and stared straight ahead, wiping her tears away. “My Sophie… She is my daughter’s youngest child, you see. She is so pretty. She has little blonde ringlets and blue eyes, a blue like the ocean. And yesterday, she was wearing a blue dress, one that I made for her. And here I am, a gypsy. I read the tea leaves, I looked into my crystal ball, I have even tried to read my cards—but to no end. I cannot see anything. Everything is gray and murky. What good are my gifts if I cannot help my own family?”
As Bella’s grandmothers and Harriett consoled the Roma gypsy, Bella whispered to Michael that perhaps he might enjoy going for a walk with Uncle Stephen and Lady Rivers—she saw them through the opening in the tent.
“I think Lacey might like to go for a walk as well,” she said to Michael, who nodded solemnly.
“I’m sorry for the fortune teller,” he whispered. “I hope they find Sophie.”
Bella hugged him. The boy felt everything so deeply that she didn’t want him to be fearful or saddened by this terrible news about missing children being sold into slavery.
Bella whispered to Harriett that she was going to escort Michael and Lacey to Uncle Stephen and Lady Rivers. “When I return,” she suggested, “perhaps we can seek out William and Lucas to tell them about Sophie.”
Harriett agreed. “They know a lot about these terrible smugglers. But I had no idea it had gotten this bad in Dover,” she said.
“I won’t be long,” Bella said. “I see Uncle Stephen and Lady Rivers at the horseshoe toss, down the way,” she said, pulling back the tent flap. Taking firm hold of Michael’s hand and the dog’s leash, she escorted them to her uncle and told them what had happened. Stephen assured her they would watch over Michael and Lacey.
“Thank you, Uncle. I’ll return to Madame Vorest’s tent, where Harriett is waiting with Grandmama and Grandmère. We plan to seek out William and Lucas and tell them about the lost children,” she said.
Stephen nodded. “Yes, I saw them speaking with the blacksmith at the other end of the main thoroughfare.”
Bella thanked her uncle and Lady Rivers again and turned to make her way back to the fortune teller’s tent. Just as she was a few feet away, a hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist, yanking her to a shadowed corner.
