Page 54 of Romancing the Scot
From behind a tree, a man in a long black coat stepped out. She turned as another appeared on the left, and then another on her right. Grace backed away, trying not to show her panic.
“Like a word, mistress,” the first one hissed.
As she saw the other men start for her, she raised her stick like a club, prepared to do battle. She backed away as the three men slowed just out of reach.
Two hands took hold of her by the shoulders, and the bitter taste of death rose into her throat.
Four of them.
Chapter 19
Grace was gone.
The household erupted in a flurry of activity as Jo directed the staff’s search of the house, including their missing guest’s rooms and the libraries that Hugh had already checked himself. No sign of her anywhere. She had been upset—beyond upset—in the nursery, but he couldn’t accept that she’d go off without telling anyone.
Hugh didn’t care what she’d hidden from them. Nothing she said changed the circumstances of how she’d arrived here. He’d found her nearly dead in that crate. No admission on her part lessened the responsibility he felt for her. Nothing from Grace’s past alleviated the sharp pain cutting between his ribs at the possibility that she had walked out of his life forever.
No, he had to find her.
“Ask every maid, footman, gardener, stable hand, everyone,” he ordered the housekeeper and the butler. “She was here this morning. Someone must have seen her.”
He didn’t have a chance to explain to Jo what happened earlier, but she was more than alarmed by Grace’s disappearance. A moment ago, his sister had gone off in search of Anna, hoping the maid might offer them a clue. Truscott was putting together a search party.
“Have my horse brought up to the front,” he ordered a footman. “Quickly, man.”
Fog and mist surrounded Baronsford in every direction, and a continuing drizzle weighed on the gardens outside his study windows. Grace’s tear-stricken face lingered in his mind. Her despairing words echoed. She was so terribly agitated as she ran weeping from Amelia’s suite. He wouldn’t let himself entertain the notion that she might do something foolish. No, he refused to imagine her bringing harm to herself.
The fields and forests stretched out for miles around Baronsford. Perhaps she’d only gone for a walk. In the rain. She wasn’t well enough for that. She and Jo had walked along the paths on the cliffs overlooking the river, but they would be treacherously slippery in this weather. She could fall in a dozen places. Grace also knew the way to the loch . . . and the tower house. She might go that way.
Hugh would go mad if he waited a moment longer. He had to go after her.
As he started for the door of his study, Jo burst in.
“I just spoke to Anna. We might have a clue.”
A flicker of relief rushed through him. “What is it?”
“A letter arrived yesterday from Nithsdale Hall, addressed to her. Anna thought it was strange, and she says Grace looked quite anxious after reading it.”
Mrs. Douglas. The woman’s hard scrutiny of Grace when Lady Nithsdale stopped the carriage. By God, he would drag the earl, his wife,andtheir blasted guest over hot coals if they were responsible for any harm coming to her. He tried to push past his sister but Jo caught his arm.
“You talked to her this morning? What happened?”
Hugh stared into his sister’s worried eyes. She and Grace had become friends. Jo had the right to know. “She remembers her past. She told me the truth. And I suspect the letter said that Mrs. Douglas knew Grace’s true identity.”
“You think she is going to Nithsdale Hall?”
“Or running away because of it.”
“Who is she?”
He stood in the doorway, forcing himself to pause as he glanced back over his shoulder.
“Grace Ware. The daughter of one of Napoleon’s commanders. She thinks that because of her father’s profession, she would be considered an enemy here at Baronsford.Iwould consider her an enemy. But she couldn’t be more wrong.”
Hugh couldn’t wait any longer. He had to find her. He’d start at Nithsdale Hall. Whoever sent that note to Grace, they’d better have answers.
The words he’d said to Jo came back to him. Grace waswrong.She had no reason to run away from him. Finding her in Amelia’s apartments, overwhelmed by the effect of Grace’s words, he’d not said a word to put her mind at ease. She had no way of knowing how he felt.
