Page 47 of With Good Grace
‘We shall not be long,’ Jake told her, turning in the doorway to treat her to a seductive smile.
Olivia watched him go, both astounded and encouraged by his demonstrative behaviour, even if only Parker was there to witness it. Had he put aside his irrational fears for her safety and decided to put his own desires ahead of affairs of state? Olivia sighed. It would be so much easier if she had fallen in love with a man without such a complicated background. But, there again, such a man would probably bore her witless.
Before Olivia had made much headway with the book she selected, the door opened and Tom bounded into the room with his boat beneath his arm, Molly following in his wake.
‘We are going to the park, Mama, and I shall sail my boat.’
‘Of course you will,’ Olivia replied, pulling Tom onto her lap, kissing her beloved child and running a hand through his soft tangle of curls. ‘But you must promise to be a good boy for Molly and do as she tells you.’
‘Of course I will.’ Tom wriggled from Olivia’s lap and dashed towards the door. ‘Come along, Molly,’ he said. ‘I’ve been waiting for ages.’
Molly shook her head, looking almost amused as she bobbed a curtsey and ran off after her charge.
The house seemed unnaturally quiet and the book Olivia had selected did not hold her interest. She found it increasingly difficult to keep her eyes open and eventually nodded off to sleep. Someone clearing his throat woke her a minute or two later. She blinked sleep from her eyes and looked up at the concerned face of Reed, the senior footman who took charge of the household in Parker’s absence.
‘What is it, Reed?’ she asked, stifling a yawn.
‘Sorry to wake you, ma’am, but the master isn’t back yet so I needed to tell you—’
‘Of course he is not back. Lord Torbay only just left.’
‘No, ma’am. That was over an hour ago.’
Olivia glanced at the clock on the mantel and was surprised to see that she had actually been asleep for almost that long. ‘So it was.’ She felt alarm worming its way through her at the sight of Reed’s stricken face. ‘Tell me,’ she said curtly.
‘It’s Molly and Master Tom, ma’am.’
Olivia jumped to her feet, knocking over a side table in her haste. ‘Something has happened to them?’
Reed cleared his throat, his face ghostly white. ‘I am terribly sorry to tell you this, but they have disappeared without trace.’
Chapter Twelve
‘Sir Hubert must have been desperate to take so little for the Gainsborough,’ Parker said as he and Jake were driven back to Grosvenor Square.
‘The timing of the offer is what interests me,’ Jake replied. ‘We now know that he accepted a cash sum for all three paintings, against the advice of Sotheby’s experts who felt he would get considerably more for them if they were given sufficient time to let collectors know they had come on the market, and then offer them at auction.’
‘Aye, and he collected the draft from Sotheby’s on the day he disappeared. Now thatissignificant. You think he’s left these shores with a pocketful of cash?’
‘Did anything strike you about the name of the man at Sotheby’s who dealt with Sir Hubert?’
‘Alistair Carter, the chief cashier. A.C.’ Parker nodded. ‘That explains who he was meeting but he implied to his wife that the rendezvous was to take place at his club. Obviously, he didn’t want her to know that the paintings had been sold.’
‘Precisely so. Sotheby’s gave him a bank draft and I dare say he cashed it the same day, but I doubt whether he has let England.’ Jake stared out of the carriage window, wondering why they had stopped. Some sort of altercation up ahead had halted them. Jake lowered the window and heard colourful language coming from two coarse individuals whom he could see squaring up to one another. Satisfied that they were not being personally threatened, he put the window up again and left his driver to deal with the matter, his thoughts still on Sir Hubert’s odd behaviour. ‘It is a large sum, especially if he doesn’t use any of it to discharge his debts, but still not enough to keep him in the style he is accustomed to for more than a few years.’
Parker sniffed. ‘Desperate men, and all that. Besides, he could live a lot cheaper abroad; especially without an estate in need of repair, children to support or a position to maintain.’
‘Even so, I think he’s still here. So, the question remains, where is he hiding himself?’
Parker shrugged. ‘Could be anywhere. London is a big place and it’s easy to lose yourself in a city full of people too busy to take any notice of anyone else. We know his friends ain’t harbouring him, because I had people speak with all the names on Lady Margaret’s list. They all claim not to have seen him and I believe them. I got the impression that he owed some of them money and they were tired of being applied to for more when previous loans had not been repaid. Anyway, like you say, he’s very self-aware and wouldn’t want his posh friends to know he was walking away from his responsibilities.’
‘I agree.’ Jake nodded pensively. ‘If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that he’s hiding himself amongst the theatrical lot. He assisted his brother and must know a lot of people in that line of work. Factor in his charm, good looks and temporarily full pockets and…well, I don’t suppose too many people would turn him away; especially the ladies.’
Parker shrugged his massive shoulders. ‘Needle in a haystack then.’
‘Yes, except for the fact that he probably has desperate plans to restore his position, which means getting hold of Lady Marchant’s letters, which means—’
‘Which means he will need to get into Cheyne Walk to look for them.’
