Page 54 of The Odd Riddle of the Lost Duchess
“I said stop!” Leverton called, while precariously putting himself right in front of the charging horse.
“Are you mad, Leverton!” Noah snapped the reins back and the horse whinnied while cantering back and balancing on his back legs, “Move or you will be trampled!”
“No.” Leverton’s face was pale and Noah could see the man visibly swallow, “The constables want us both to come with them.”
Every part of Noah rebelled with the mere suggestion of accompanying his enemy. His temper flared, “Tell them to hurry up then!”
He sat and waited with growing anxiety while the two constables and Leverton mounted their horses. Finally, they all rode off. Noah swallowed hard as his steed took a strong canter and even though he tried to focus on riding, flashes of Emmeline’s body, mangled and mutilated under a crashed carriage, were running through his mind. It was as though he was seeing his sister again, and without even thinking about it, he sped his mount into a gallop with his heart thumping even faster than the horses’ hooves.
He was in such a rush that he nearly missed the site of the upturned carriage, laying on its side in a deep ditch. Yanking the reins hard and ignoring the incensed whinny of the horse, Noah barely got his mount under control before he launched himself off it and ran to the carriage site.
The Leverton seal was on the side of the carriage and Noah felt his heart fall to his feet. It took almost everything inside him not to touch the carriage and spin it over in a desperate move to find his love but knew if he did, it would make the work of the constables harder. His fists clenched tightly as he waited for the rest to arrive.
“My God!” Leverton swore as he reined his horse in to a stop, jumped off it and ran to the carriage. “No!”
He was just about to reach for the carriage when Noah grabbed and pushed him back, “Stop, you fool, you cannot touch it!”
Leverton’s eyes were jewel chips as they sliced into him, “She is my sister!”
“She is my love!” Noah snarled back, “I want to flip the carriage over and ransack it to pieces, Leverton, but I cannot!”
The two constables approached the Dukes. “A passerby brought it to our attention this morning. We feel it was a robbery.”
Noah’s throat was tight and the words he was going to say felt like he was regurgitating acid, “Did you find…a body?”
“No, Your Grace,” Mr. Stanton replied with a grim look on his face, “But we are hoping to never find one.”
“We will assemble a search party,” Leverton ordered as he went to his horse, “I will head it.”
The words ‘why you’ were on the tip of Noah’s tongue but he bit it. It made sense for Leverton to head the party, as Emmeline was his sister.
“I will join you,” Noah declared. “You will not exclude me from this search, Leverton.”
“I was not about to,” Leverton replied with narrowed eyes, “I need you here to keep an eye on you. I am still unsure if you’re the mastermind of this incident.”
Noah felt like slicing Leverton’s head off his shoulders for that remark. Wasn’t his grief plain? Was his heart not on his sleeve? Wasn’t it clear how much he cared for Emmeline, loved her and wanted her to be his? Noah’s jaw went tight as he squared his shoulders and glared at the Duke.
“I am no savage manipulator, Leverton,” Noah spat.
Leverton’s eyes were still, “We will see about that.”
Sneering at the other Duke, Noah set about to examine the area. He had some hunting experience so he knew what to look for in an ambush. Skirting the carriage, he scanned the ground and found a set of footprints stomped in the mud.
From the size of the footprint, Noah calculated the man to be tall and from the heavy indentation—judged by his questing fingers—was large. He felt Leverton’s eyes on him but didn’t care. If someone had abducted Emmeline, there was a good chance she was still alive. Noah swore to himself to put a lead ball into the perpetrator if he ever found him.
“Someone was here,” Noah declared while standing up and brushing his fingers off. “But to find him, that’s the rub.”
“We will find him.” Leverton declared, “We must find him. Get your people, Newberry, and I will get mine.”
“We will get our men too,” Constable Greer replied while going to his mount. “We will assemble in the next hour.”
Mounting his horse, Noah grimly made his way to this duchy to gather his men. Speeding off, he forced himself to keep positive.
She must live. Emmeline, you must live for me!
* * *
“Noah!” The Duchess of Newberry called as her son brushed past her brusquely, almost sending her to the ground. The Duke paused momentarily to steady his mother.
