Page 40 of Rogue's Lady

The girl twisted her hands in her apron. “I don’t know, my lord. I couldn’t find her! Her bed linens was pulled up, which weren’t so unusual, for she don’t like her chamber untidy and sometimes does that afore I can get to it, but I’ve looked everywhere in the house and she weren’t anywhere. Then I found this on your desk in the library.”

Advancing to Lynton, she handed him a folded note.

Dread keeping him silent, Will waited while Lynton read it. “It seems,” he said, looking up from the missive, “that my cousin, after thanking me for my kind attentions in her regard, prefers to go her own way in the world.”

“What does that mean?” Will burst out.

“I have no idea, except that she may have rushed off on some ill-judged start, just as she used to do when she was a girl. And you think I ought to give her the funds to live independently!” Lynton cast Will an exasperated glance. “What she needs is a sensible husband to curb her wild ways and teach her how to behave properly!”

Just then another servant rushed into the parlor, housekeeper’s keys jangling at her waist. “Ah, Mrs. Bessborough,” Lynton said, waving Allegra’s note at the woman. “Perhaps you can shed some light on this mystery?”

Waving her hands in distress, the housekeeper said, “Miss Allegra’s old bandbox is gone from the attic, along with a valise and a half-dozen gowns from her wardrobe. I do fear, my lord, that she has left us for good.”

“Left?” Lynton repeated. “Are you sure, Bessie? She cannot have been so improper as to have departed alone, without even a maid to accompany her! How am I to find a respectable gentleman to take her off my hands when she comports herself like the veriest hoyden!”

“Why don’t you worry about that after we find her,” Will suggested through gritted teeth. Turning to the housekeeper, he said, “Mrs.—Bessborough, wasn’t it? Have you any idea where Miss Antinori might have gone?”

“No! Oh, I do fear for her, my lord,” the housekeeper wailed. “She’s got no kin save the Lyntons and none of them high-and-mighty ton maidens was friendly enough for her to have gone to pay them a visit. Unless…”

“What?” Will demanded.

“Well, after the late Lord Lynton died, she did mention looking into a position as a governess. Now, if I can just recall the name of the agency…”

“I think I’ve heard enough,” Lord Lynton interposed. “Damn the girl, running off in so hasty and intemperate a manner. And we were to dine with Lady Cowper tonight! How am I to explain her absence in a way that does not give the most grievous offence? I did my best by her, trying to gain her entrée back into the society her mother abandoned—at some risk to my own position, I might add. Funded it handsomely as well, and this is my thanks? Well, I wash my hands of her! I only hope Lady Cowper will not hold the insult against my dear Evangeline next Season.”

“That certainly would be inconvenient,” Will said.

“Indeed,” Lynton replied, sublimely ignorant of the irony in Will’s tone. “Good day, Tavener. Hobbs, if anything requires my attention, I shall be in the library.”

“You don’t intend to look for her?” Will asked.

About to leave the room, Lynton paused. “Allegra apparently left this house of her own free will. If she would rather ruin herself running off to become a governess than accept the arrangements I tried to make for her protection, there is nothing further to be done. I will not rush about the city like a looby, trying to discover her whereabouts so I may entreat her to return. She’s made her choice and—” he waved the note at Will “—absolved me of all further responsibility. I shall take her at her word.”

The housekeeper uttered a quickly stifled protest while the maid began to weep quietly. “Ass,” Will muttered as Lynton exited, wishing they were still alone so he might leave the mark of his displeasure on that self-absorbed highbred brow. But now he had more pressing concerns.

“Think, Mrs. Bessborough,” he urged, seizing the housekeeper’s arm. “Try to remember the agency’s name, so I may find Miss Antinori before anything happens to her.”

“Oh, Mrs. B!” the maid interjected, raising her tear-stained face. “Might the name be Waters?”

“Waters, yes, that’s it,” the housekeeper cried. “Bless you, Lizzie! That would be Waters and Tremain in Lower Bond Street, my lord.”

“Thank you both! I’ll be off there directly. Pray that I may soon bring her safely home to you.”

“Indeed I shall,” Mrs. Bessborough said. “She’s a good lass, no matter what some folk might say who should know better.”

Striding into the hall, Will found Hobbs already on station. “Find her quickly, my lord,” the butler urged in an undertone as he handed Will his hat and cane.

“I’ll do my best,” Will promised and hurried down the stairs to his waiting mount.

WILL HAD TO ASK directions twice before he found the offices of Waters and Tremain, “Furnishers of Genteel Employment for Ladies and Gentlemen.” He entered a small anteroom to the jingle of a bell that roused a drowsy clerk at a desk opposite the entry.

“Lord Tavener to see Mr. Waters immediately on a matter of greatest urgency,” he said, handing him his card.

“I’ll see if he is available,” the lad said and trotted off.

“He’d better be,” Will muttered, in no frame of mind to be kept waiting.

Thankfully for Mr. Waters, since Will was prepared to storm into his office whether invited or not, the lad returned to usher Will into his employer’s presence.

Will scarcely spared a glance for the spacious office to which the clerk escorted him, focusing instead on the thin man standing behind the desk. “I’m Tavener, sir, and I need your cooperation on a matter of utmost urgency.”

“So my clerk said,” Mr. Waters replied, bowing before he gestured Will to a chair. “With what can I assist you?”

“I have reason to believe a young lady has lately consulted you about employment. Due to a…misunder-standing with her family, she believed it necessary that she hire herself out as a governess. I wish to find her and bring her back home. The young lady’s name is Allegra Antinori.”

The man studied him. “I do not usually reveal the identities or the positions obtained by the individuals who use my service,” he said.

Will took a menacing step closer. “Can I persuade you to make an exception to that policy?”

Not appearing alarmed in the slightest by Will’s implicit threat, Mr. Waters said, a slight smile on his face, “Although I expect you could be very…persuasive, my lord, my recollection is that the young lady’s London relations are named ‘Lynton,’ not ‘Tavener.’ May I ask what your concern is in this matter?”

“I am a…close friend of the family and come on behalf of her guardian, who was…preoccupied with another matter.”

“Of more pressing importance than recovering his ward?” Mr. Waters said.

“Nothing is more important to me,” Will said flatly. “Please, tell me where she is.”

For a long moment Mr. Waters studied him. Finally he said, “To prosper in my profession, one must make quick and accurate judgments about an individual’s character. I believe you have a genuine concern for Miss Antinori.”

“I wish her only the best,” Will said.

The man nodded. “Then if what you conceive to be best for her is her return to Lynton House, I’m afraid I must disappoint you. ’Tis rather unusual to place an employee so quickly, but Miss Antinori had already been in contact with me concerning a position, and it so happened that a nearly ideal opening had just come up. Agreeing it would suit her talents and interests perfectly, last night she accepted a position as secretary to Sir Henry Malvern and governess to his daughter. Sir Henry wished to take his wife and child with him to see the lands he was unable, due to the unfortunate war just ended, to visit during his Grand Tour. They intended to leave this morning for Portsmouth, where he had booked passage to Italy.”

“They left just this morning?” Will asked, focusing on the only part of the man’s recitation that concerned him. “Then there may still be time to intercept her!”

Striding to the desk, he seized Mr. Waters’s hand and gave it a brusque shake. “Thank you, sir.”

“Good luck finding your lady, my lord,” the man called behind him, for Will was already headed out the door.

Portsmouth, Will thought, his mind racing as he descended the stairs two at a time. Recovering his horse from the urchin he’d paid a penny to hold it, he leapt into the saddle. Though every impulse urged him to ride for Portsmouth at once, he knew he would have to delay long enough to make a few preparations.

Reaching Chelsea as swiftly as the crowded streets allowed, he sent Barrows out to pawn his ring and some of his mother’s jewelry. He’d need cash to hire horses after his own was spent, for dinner and accommodations for Allegra at an inn before they started their journey back.

While he waited for Barrows, he packed a saddlebag of cheese, bread and ham, then headed into his chamber. He’d need to put together a razor and a change of clothing to make himself presentable when he escorted her home—before that starched-up prig Lynton reneged completely on the agreement Will had so recently coerced him into.

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