Page 6 of An Unbending Lady for the Desperate Earl
“Lady Helena would not be the first young lady to elope with a gentleman she is not engaged to.” Miss McCarthy tucked an unruly strand of hair behind her ear. “If there were not five others in the same situation, it may have seemed the most obvious conclusion. Unless, she sought to use the kidnappings as a means of eloping without suspicion?”
Anger bristled through Christian’s chest. “She was very much looking forward to our union. We have known each other since we were children and have always supposed we would be engaged to one another, one day. Nor is she the type of fickle creature to make her family endure such torment, for the sake of an elopement. If there was another who had captured her heart, she would have told her mother and father, and they would have understood. Even if there were another, and they would not have understood, she adores her family far more than she adores me. She would not be making them suffer, I assure you.”
“I had to be sure,” Miss McCarthy replied. “I meant no offence by it. And I believe you are correct, but I had to inquire, in case.”
“Who are you?” Christian hissed.
“I am a woman of no importance to you, but of great importance to Lady Helena being found safe and well.” Her eyes leveled with Christian’s, and they held a challenge within them. “It is my duty, and my desire, to ensure she is rescued.”
Christian’s head spun with confusion. “Whatare you?”
“As I said, a woman with a duty to discover the villains who did this, and see Lady Helena safely back in your arms, so you may be wed.” Miss McCarthy sped up, moving to the Duchess’ side as they entered the bedchamber of Lady Helena. Naturally, Christian did not dare to follow, for his fiancée’s chamber was sacred ground where he could not step. Instead, he lingered on the threshold as they went inside, his eyes widening in bemusement as the door closed in his face.
Who the devil is she?Her gall, her subterfuge, her manipulation… he did not know whether to be appalled or impressed. But, if she trulycoulddo something to find Lady Helena, then perhaps it was for the best that he kept his mouth firmly shut.
However, one thought remained as he stared at the closed door. Whomever this terrier was, he reasoned she would not stop until she had a culprit in chains. Which begged the sickening question…
Does she think me a suspect?
Chapter 3
Victoria switched directly into investigative mode, though she made a point of not appearing too peculiar to the Duchess. She need not have worried, for the Duchess had fallen silent the moment they came into her daughter’s bedchamber. She stood still, staring about the place as though she did not recognize it, or as if it were a far-off dream that she had almost forgotten.
Using the distraction to her advantage, Victoria walked to the window and peered down. The room lay on the first floor of the house and looked directly over the stretch of greenery that served as a garden. A tall fence bordered the back of the lawn, with a doorway built into the center. Behind it, she knew there sat an alleyway, separating this garden from the ones opposite.
How could someone have spirited Lady Helena away from a first-floor bedchamber, without anyone hearing? If they had used the chamber door, one of the staff would surely have seen them leave, or someone would have stirred at the heavy sound of the villain and his quarry.Victoria presumed the wretch had carried Lady Helena, for she would not have gone willingly. Not unless Lord Galbury was mistaken about Lady Helena’s potential lovers. However, Victoria did not think he was—it was obvious that the young lady adored her mother and would not have put her through this heartache.
She had garnered as much from the way the Duchess spoke of her daughter, with some supporting evidence from Lord Galbury. They had been to the botanical gardens together—the Duchess and her daughter—on the day Lady Helena was snatched. And they dined and conversed together, seemingly as part of a well-worn routine. That suggested a happy family, and Victoria had no reason, as of yet, to think otherwise.
I wish I might speak with the Duke… but perhaps that will not happen today.Encouraging herself to be satisfied with the intelligence she already had at her disposal, Victoria glanced down at the sill. Two dark smudges streaked the white-painted exterior, just below the window. She brushed her fingertips across the smudges, feeling two fresh, ragged grooves beneath.
A ladder… he used a ladder to gain entry, and presumably to remove Lady Helena.After hearing the Duchess describe Lady Helena’s appearance, Victoria realized it was not an impossible notion. The Duchess had a very slender build, and since she had clarified that she and her daughter were very much alike, it stood to reason that Lady Helena had the same delicate figure.
She thought back on the other kidnappings. Every young lady who had been taken had also been of slight build, though she had not realized its importance until now. It was not a factor that many gentlemen would have noticed or dared to comment upon. But Victoria didn’t have the same mentality that they did.
“Have you noticed anything else amiss, Your Grace?” Victoria turned to the Duchess, keeping the presence of the two smudges to herself for now. She did not want to reveal her true employment until she had everything she needed.
“No…” The Duchess sounded despairing, fresh tears springing to her eyes.
“Do not fear, Your Grace. She will be found. I have faith that she will.” Victoria walked to the Duchess, who had come to a pause beside the rumpled sheets of Lady Helena’s bed and put a tentative hand upon the older woman’s forearm. A gesture of friendliness and reassurance.
The Duchess looked at her with imploring eyes. “Do you truly believe so?”
“I do.”Because I am the one looking for her, and I refuse to fail.
Victoria was about to offer further words of comfort, when a speck on the floor caught her eye. Spurred on, she left the Duchess to her private thoughts and knelt beside the bed, to get a closer look at the curious anomaly. A scrap of black fabric hung limply from a nail that had come loose, sticking out of the wooden bedframe. Peering even closer, Victoria noticed a faint trail of rusty brown, smeared on the head of the nail.
Blood…
She ducked under the bed and found a thin blanket of dust beneath. However, in the center of the gloomy floor, there lay a spread of clean ground. As though someone had lain there… waiting for their moment to pounce. She closed her eyes and tried to encourage a scene to play out in her mind. A man hiding beneath the bed, having entered through the window. He would have pulled himself up so he could seize his prey, catching himself on the nail as he did so.
Then what?The bedsheets were twisted, as though Lady Helena had wrung them in fright. And right where Victoria crouched, she found crumbled morsels of… mud, perhaps? From the boots of whomever had done this. Following the trail, she discovered more of the crumbled granules, leading to and from the window.
He must have managed to immobilize her, somehow, and then carried her back down the ladder.She suspected that, if she were to investigate the doorway at the back of the garden, she would find boot prints in the dirt. That was why nobody had heard a whisper of any wrongdoing. The cretin had entered and departed through the window, taking pains to ensure that Lady Helena remained silent.
“Miss McCarthy?” The Duchess shattered Victoria’s reverie.
“Yes, Your Grace?”
