Page 86 of Scandalous Heiress
“What’s the matter?”
“Miss Ada is gone!”
Victor practically jumped out of his seat.“What?”
“Vanished.”
“How?”
“Dunno, milord.Just come!”
Victor’s head swam.How could Ada be gone?And where?At this hour of the night, only one possibility could be true.Someone had abducted her?But how and why?
Ransom?
The coach rounded the street corner and he yanked open the door before the horses came to a full stop.
He pounded on the Seton’s front door.The butler flung it open and led them to the salon where Lily awaited them.The earl of Ware, his wife and daughter Jessica stood near the fire, defeat etched in their expressions.
“I went up to bed.”Lily wrung her hands, dried tears marred her cheeks.“Ada decided to remain on the veranda.She loves the silence of the night air and the fragrance of roses, you know.”
In a robe and slippers, her dark hair down around her shoulders, Lily stared at Victor and Freddie.He doubted she truly saw them.The gaslights in the sconces flickered, putting her harrowed face into sharp and unflattering focus.Her eyes were red from crying and she paced, then paused and resumed it all again.“I should not have left her there.But no one…” Her mouth quivered.“No one’s ever been so bold as to come up and take one of us.”
Victor put a hand to his forehead.“How was she dressed?”
“Still in her gown.”
“A shawl?”
“No.”Lily clamped a hand to her mouth.“The night was warm.”
Not now, it isn’t.
“Victor,” Freddie said in a quiet voice, “we need to notify the police.”
The earl grunted.“The police can be such an interference.”
Victor spun toward him.Many a crime went unreported while an aristocrat tried to ameliorate whatever problem—or crime—had occurred.“But they have the best means to track the culprits.”
Lily groped for a chair and sat.“This nasty business with Carbury, now Ada gone.Julian will die trying to right it.”
“Your Grace, forgive me.”The earl cleared his throat.“I hope my displeasure with calling the police will not deter you from doing that.Your sister is gone.Some fool has obviously absconded with her.They can find her.Much as I hate to admit, they are capable.”
Good that the earl came round.
Victor would employ heaven and earth and the very devil himself to find her.
“Who had the chance to abduct her?”
Victor blinked.Freddie was asking him the very question he asked himself.
The first answer that dawned on him nearly toppled him.He steadied himself, reaching for the support of a chair.Damn cane, he’d left it home tonight because the weather was decent.
“She told me she thought someone was following her.”Lily put a hand to her throat.“I didn’t think much of it, but…but perhaps I should have.”
That shook him to his core—and he went to kneel before Lily.“When?Where?”
“After she returned from your parents’ house party, she had an odd feeling that she couldn’t explain.The first time she experienced the sensation was when she’d gone to the flower mart.Our ladies’ companion, Comtesse de Chaumont, has been ill and so Ada took a maid with her.She said she’d experienced the odd feeling a few times.When you took her riding.”
