He followed her upstairs. The drawing room was dark, the only light came from the fireplace where the fire was burning brightly. He went over to stoke it, needing to do something.His mind was filled with scenes of horror. Bernadette, abducted. Bernadette, in a ship, sailing for some unknown coast. He turned sharply when he heard footsteps in the hallway.
“My lord? My lady?” A young woman was there. She was dressed in a black uniform, a cloth cap pulled somewhat awkwardly over her dark hair, as if she’d slept and had recently awoken and dressed. She saw him and her eyes widened in surprise.
“What is it?” Lady Rothendale snapped. “Can’t you see we have a guest?”
“My lady...” The woman’s voice trailed off nervously. Nicholas drew a breath to speak to her, but Lord Rothendale burst in from the hallway.
“I’ve sent Mr. Hadley out to inform the Watch. What are you doing here?” he demanded of the woman, who had to be a maid in the household. “Can’t you see this is an emergency?”
Nicholas saw the woman’s face crinkle in distress, clearly unsure whether she should be obedient and go, or brave their anger and stay. He had guessed from the nervous way she entered the room that she had something to say.
“Let me talk to her,” he begged as Lord Rothendale drew in a breath to shout.
“What for?” Lord Rothendale asked, clearly affronted.
“She has something to say,” Nicholas said swiftly.
The woman looked at him gratefully and Nicholas indicated that they should go out into the hallway. She hurried to do as he suggested. No sooner than she was in the hallway, than she beckoned to Nicholas to come closer so he would hear better.
“What is it?”
“Miss Rowland was here,” she said quickly. “I don’t want to tell the master because she asked me not to. But she was here. She came back in distress,” she added, leveling an angry look his way. “And she said she wished to run away.”
“Run away?” He exclaimed, but the woman pointed at the door to the drawing room, wincing in fear, and he nodded, whispering again. “Did she say where she was going?”
“Her aunt,” the woman informed him briskly. “I don’t know where that is,” she added fearfully.
He almost swore. “You don’t know?” he asked, distress tightening around his lungs and making it hard to draw breath.
“No. But I know where she is now,” the woman told him.
He gaped at her.
“You do? Please, please tell me.” He struggled not to cry, relief almost crippling him. He had thought she had been abducted, thrown into a ship somewhere, bound for distant lands where he would not be able to pursue her captors.
“In Mrs. Brookham’s boarding house. Shh,” she added, as he almost sobbed in relief. “Please don’t tell them.”
“I promise,” Nicholas agreed at once, wincing inwardly with the understanding that they were her parents and that they, even though their response seemed self-centered, had to be suffering too. “Thank you.” He paused. “Where is this place?”
“In King’s Street,” the woman told him firmly. “Ask for it by name. I’m certain the Hackney coach drivers know where it is.”
“Thank you,” Nicholas whispered again, taking her hand, his heart thudding with the need to find her. “Thank you. I don’t have the words to thank you enough.”
“I just want her to be safe,” the woman said sternly. “Safe and happy.”
“I promise,” Nicholas said formally. “I promise that I will do my best.”
“Good.”
Nicholas smiled to himself, heart bursting. He thanked the woman again, then hurried upstairs to the drawing room.
“Excuse me,” he told Lord and Lady Rothendale swiftly. “I am going out. I will be back shortly.”
“But where...what?” Lady Rothendale started to demand.
“Let him go,” Lord Rothendale said wearily. Nicholas wondered as he bowed and hurried down the stairs, whether Lord Rothendale had guessed he knew, or whether he had simply decided that nobody could be of any use at all to them.
He found his thoughts racing again as he untied his horse’s reins and mounted up, wincing with the knowledge that the poor creature needed food and water, then all thoughts drifted from his mind as he rode through the darkened, silent streets towards King’s Street. His heart was soaring, his body tense and his gaze focused ahead as he rode. His every sense was bent to the task. He needed to find her, and soon.
