Page 82 of The Thief
Chapter Seventeen
One week later, Scarlett walked blissfully down the hall, her mind going back to the wonderful picnic with Alastair. They had not made love again, but they were making a lot of time for one another.
They had tried to make love once in the library, but they had been interrupted by her mother, leaving both frustrated. They decided to continue meeting in the library, but not to try to make love again.
She ran into an open door and fell back, almost onto the floor. A hand on her arm prevented her from falling all the way.
“My Lady, you must be more careful,” Ronald said, helping her stand back up.
“I am so sorry, Ronald,” she said, brushing herself off. “My mind is elsewhere today.”
He smiled and let go of her arm, assured that she was stable now.
“Well, I am sure that whatever you’re thinking about is very important”
She turned her face away in an attempt to hide her blush from him. He cleared his throat and regained her attention.
“I was actually looking for you. We have deemed it safe to search the rooms of the two servants who have disappeared. Lord Alastair wanted to know if you wanted to be present for the searches.”
She nodded with absolute certainty.
“I’d like to look. I want to see if there is anything that could connect them to Catriona’s disappearance.”
He held out his arm to her and she took it, letting him lead her to the servants’ quarters. When they arrived there a few short minutes later, they found Alastair, Ragan, and a few other soldiers searching Liza’s room already.
Alastair looked up when she entered the room and gave her a regretful smile.
“We have found nothing. It seems as if she did a fine job packing all her things.”
She sighed and looked around the room, trying to discern if there was anything out of the ordinary.
“We still need to check his room, so there still might be something we haven’t found yet,” she almost announced, although she was quickly losing hope of finding anything helpful.
She had them straighten up the room before they left it, not wanting to make the staff clean up after them.
They walked down the short hall from the maids’ quarters to the rest of the staff housing. All the groomsmen and houseboys stayed there, including Bard, while Eloise and the maids took the other end of the quarters.
“Which room was his?” she asked, Eloise coming over to show her.
“This one, My Lady,” she said, opening the door of the nearest bedroom to them.
They stepped inside and surveyed the area before checking all the drawers and the small trunk provided for the servants to keep any valuable possessions.
Scarlett carefully went over the room, looking at everything with a suspicious eye.
“My Lord, My Lady, look at this.”
Both Alastair and Scarlett turned to face Ronald, who had pulled what looked to be a letter out of the trunk. He read the name on the envelope and then looked at them.
“I am pretty sure the man we are looking for is not named Edward Holmes. It’s really Rhys Murtaugh.”
He turned the letter around in his hand to show them. Alastair took the letter from him and read the name on the front.
Rhys Murtaugh, MIB.
“MIB?” he looked at them both and asked, “Do you know who MIB is?”
They shook their heads in unison.
