Page 78 of The Ambiguous Enigma of the Hunted Lady
“I'm sure I don't know.” Kenneth muttered.
“Oh, come now, I know that you thought yourself to have feelings for her, but she has gone, so, they must not have been returned. You did not think that she would simply stay here forever?”
“No, of course not.” Kenneth gritted his teeth and kept looking down. She was infuriating him.
“Up to no good, she was.” she talked and reached for some of the grapes in the center of the table. Then she bolted upright as if the most important thought had struck her. “I must make sure she did not depart with anything of value! Oh dear! She may have plundered our home in the night!”
“That is enough!” Kenneth jumped to his feet, sending his chair onto it's back behind him. “I will hear no more!”
“Kenneth–” she looked shocked to see him react.
“I will not hear any more of it, Mother!” Kenneth shouted, his temper flaring to fill the hollow space in his chest. “You have done nothing but doubt her character since she arrived! You have never given her any sort of opportunity to gain your favor! Not once did you speak with her while she was enduring her bed rest! You have no right to discredit her. I know full well that she did not leave as a thief, for I love her, truly I do, and I know in my heart that she returns that love.
“She had a reason for doing what she did, but it is not as you make out. So, I will go and find her, and have the truth of it, once and for all, and not one thing you can say will change either my resolve, nor my feelings for Leah. So, carry on about last century, Mother, if that is what pleases you. But I shall be gone to London, for that is the only place she will have gone. Farewell then, and perhaps upon my return you shall think differently concerning a great number of matters!”
Kenneth ended his proclamation and the room fell silent, yet it sizzled with the energy that lingered from his words. The Duchess was visibly shocked and sat in utter silence. Her head cocked a bit to the side, and she stared blankly at the cup of coffee before her.
“Daniel!” Kenneth shouted out for his footman.
“Your Grace?” He poked his head in the room, obviously nervous after having heard the verbal explosion.
“Prepare my horse.”
“Right away, Your Grace.”
Kenneth stormed out of the breakfast room, leaving his mother in silence.
There was a surge of something stirring in Kenneth. It welled up from his angry outburst, and now it drove him up the stairs as he hastily prepared for a journey to London.
Leah must be in danger. I can feel it in my bones. Why else would she leave so hastily? And in such secret? I knew she must have been running from something, perhaps it has finally caught up with her. Either way, I must be sure.
Kenneth recalled the first time he had ever met her, and the fight that he had engaged in. As he threw his old riding coat over his shoulders, he attached a pistol and a pouch with additional shot. He had not used the weapon since the war, and just holding it brought a warm, dangerous sensation to his palm. For a brief moment he could hear the sound of cascading musket shot in the Spanish fields, and then he was returned to the present.
“I am on my way.” he said to the mirror, adjusting his pistol so that it was concealed by his riding coat.
Kenneth ran out the door and took up the reins of his sturdy riding horse. It had been saddled in a hurry, and a groomsman was still tightening the final strap beneath the horse's belly.
“Here you are, Your Grace.” he grunted, standing up and wiping dirt from his palms.
“Come on, old boy.” Kenneth patted his horse's neck. “We've got some ground to cover.” He vaulted into the saddle with ease, letting the breeze fly through his hair. “Ha! Onward! Ha!”
Kenneth surged down the estate road, thundering north toward London. Kenneth pushed his horse harder than he needed to as they went past the mile marker and onto the Pike road.
London – 43 miles
The distance went terribly slowly in Kenneth's mind. He glanced to his side and watched the country around him move agonizingly slow, but he knew he could not ask more of his horse than he was. Already he had passed several carriages and wagons along the road, but his horse was beginning to heave.
He slowed their pace after an hour, which he knew was necessary, but it infuriated him.Why does London seem so close when I don't wish to be there, and so far when I must?
Kenneth had not thought everything through, and so eventually he realized that he should use this time to figure out his course of action.
She must be in some sort of danger, she has practically told me as much. How can I find her?
As he thought of places Leah was likely to hide in the largest city for thousands of miles, Kenneth realized just how wounded he was by her disappearance. It was not that she had gone, for she had told him that she meant to go back to the city. It was how she had been there one moment and gone the next.
So suddenly had they found their feelings for one another, and just as quickly she had gone, and this Kenneth could not understand. For in his mind, nothing should stand between such emotion, and so he could not comprehend what danger she could be in, to force her from that bliss.
He yearned for her, to hold her safe and close. Her eyes swam against the backdrop of his brain, and he felt himself growing hot in the face at his mental image of her.
