Page 63 of A Governess' Unbridled Passion
“Wh … where am …” Miss Alice mumbled, and she sat up, looking shocked. “The children, have you found them?”
“Worry not, Alice. I’m getting all the guests out first, and I need to go and question Betsy,” Phillip explained, helping her to get up from the bed.
“I want to come with you,” she insisted. “I need to search for the children too.”
“You are in a weakened state, Alice. It is the shock; you should go and lay down,” he suggested, but he knew she wouldn’t agree.
“No! We need to question all the guests, too,” she asserted, leaving the bedchamber to make her way back downstairs.
Phillip rushed to stop her, “We cannot go accusing our guests of kidnapping the children, Alice,” he told her, grabbing her arm to stop her from rushing into it.
“Why not?” she snapped, and he could see she wasn’t herself. “It could be any one of them. Everyone knows their father is gone and no longer here to protect them.”
“But I am here to protect them, Alice,” he said, showing patience for her distraught condition. “These are all wealthy people, Alice. They have no reason to go around stealing other people’s children from their beds,” he tried. “We will find the children; this very night.”
“How? We do not even know where to start,” she barked back at him, her face haunted with fear as she grabbed his arms. “We must do something to get them back.”
“First you must calm yourself. Know this, Alice, I do not believe the children will come to any harm,” he said, prying her hands from his arms and leading her down the staircase.
As they descended, the guests were mulling around and getting their coats to go outdoors to their carriages. William had done an excellent job, and the stewards were leading them all outside.
“Come with me,” he instructed Miss Alice.
He led her into the parlour, where the housekeeper was still caring for the nursemaid.
“Oh, Betsy,” Miss Alice called out, rushing up to Nanny. She kneeled on the floor to take hold of Betsy’s hands. “What did you see? You must have seen something.”
Betsy shook her head as she sobbed. “I seen nothing, Miss Alice, I swears. I seen nothing.”
“I am going to send someone for the local constable,” Phillip informed everyone. “Please, Miss Alice, go gentle with Betsy; she, too, is in shock.”
Miss Alice nodded back at him, getting up from the floor to sit by Betsy’s side.
Leaving the women to comfort one another, Phillip left the parlour, closing the door behind him. There was much commotion in the hallway when he returned, with people wanting to know what had happened.
“William, get one of the stewards to ride at speed for the local constable,” he instructed his butler and turned to help with the guests.
“Mr Eli has already done that, Lord Phillip,” William replied. “He went himself.”
Phillip nodded in acknowledgement; his good friend Eli was ever the reliable one.
“My thanks to everyone,” he called out loud for all to hear. “For your patience and understanding. Let me assist you to your carriage, Ladies,” he said to a group of women who he went to join.
Walking outside with them, he could see the drivers were all lighting their lamps on the carriages as everyone rushed to leave. The ball hadn’t been due to finish until well after midnight, so the carriage drivers would not have been ready. Outside was bedlam as people stopped to chat with one another, asking questions and, no doubt, making assumptions.
“Is it true, Your Grace?” a male voice asked the duke. He turned to see the man approaching him, but he couldn’t quite recall who he was. “Have your niece and nephew been kidnapped from their very beds?”
“Everything is in hand, My Lord,” Phillip replied, walking away from the man to help others get to their carriages in the darkness.
“Was it really necessary to end the ball?”he heard a woman’s voice call out as people continued their gossip.
“They are most likely playing some kind of prank on him. He is not their father, and children can behave in wicked ways,”another woman said.
“I do not see why we should be rushed from the house because of some silly children. It is most undignifying,”the first one said again.
Phillip ignored them and turned to return to the house. He could see that, at last, carriages were starting to pull away, taking his guests to their homes. When he arrived back in the house, he was relieved to see it had been emptied of all visitors. The servants had performed well in their tasks, and Phillip was proud of how they all worked together.
From what he’d overheard, many of the guests were complaining, which served to remind him why he hated the English gentry so much. Overall, children were not a high priority to many households, but they were everything to him. They were why he’d returned to England, to ensure their safety, and now they were in danger.
