Page 36 of Miss Harvey's Horribly Lovable Fiancé
For this disaster, the poor girl would most likely find herself tossed to the street this morning.
The four of them had gained the circular axis at the top of the stairs. All suites were many yards away. Few would hear them. “What did she say? Does she know where her mistress is?”
“No idea, sir,” Lymon said, breathless.
The family butler jogged up the stairs. “My lord Northington! A word!”
Giles peered over the bannister at him as he gained the landing. “What is it?”
The man gasped for breath. “A caller. For you.”
“Who?” Giles asked him then spied the top of the head of the man standing in the lower foyer. “Chesters?”
The man craned his neck to see him. He was weary and wind-blown, his cheeks chafed from the wind. He must have ridden all night. “Aye, my lord!”
“News?” Giles gripped the marble tightly.
“Yes, sir. Agreement, sir!” He held aloft a sheaf of papers and rattled them.
“Marvelous.” But his father’s recognition that he’d had to agree to the settlements was too late to save Giles’s marriage. For that, Giles would hasten his father’s departure to Hell at his first convenience.
To the butler, Giles gave orders for a hot breakfast for his solicitor. “And brandy. A room and a hot bath. I will see him in half an hour. He’s to rest.”
The butler returned to the foyer.
Giles eyed Jarvis and gathered his wits. “Drinking, I understand. It is a house party for all. But Jarvis, you know better than to lose your wits completely. Henry…what can I say? You are too young to drink to blot your mind. And what of the Courtland grooms? What do they say? Did they hear her or see her?”
Jarvis winced. “Miss Harvey is an expert horsewoman, sir. She saddled her own mount.”
“A good one, I imagine,” he said to himself.
“Oui, Monsieur le Marquis,” Henry told him. “Her father’s best stallion.”
Giles cast up his hands. “Of course,” he said and continued on his way to the chaos that greeted him inside Esme’s sitting room.
“Northington.”Lord Courtland paused mid-stride before Esme’s fireplace. He wore his own turquoise banyan belted over a crimson night shirt. Upon his feet he wore matching felt slippers with toes so pointed, he resembled a fairy king. His grey hair stood out in shocks. His eyes were rimmed a fiery red. His hands lax at his sides, he fisted and unfisted them like a bare-knuckle boxer at the fray. “We are undone.”
Giles had no words of comfort for him. Instead he examined the young maid who cowered in the far corner. “What do you know? What did your lady say to you? You saw her last night after the ball?”
The girl had shed a few tears, and her cheeks were lined with the tracks. “I did, milord. I undressed her. The clock neared one. She wanted to go to bed early, she said. She hurried me along and sent me off to the party in the servants’ hall.”
So here was another person who had enjoyed the festivities and now was clueless as to the whereabouts of the bride.My bride. My love.
Giles stared at her. “What did she say to you?”
“Not much, sir. Just that she wished to be rested for today.”
Rested for her ride. “What else?”
“She talked of you, sir.”
He had not the heart to hear it.
“She said you were the most honorable man she’d ever known, save for her father.”
Giles could not breathe.
“She…she wanted to make you proud of her today.”
