At the commotion Melissa entered. When she too learned Madeline was missing, she quickly said, “Well, perhaps Mr. Hindsworth knows where she went. I saw him greet her at the Kensington gate in Hyde Park. I would never have let her ride off unprotected, but when I saw her with Mr. Hindsworth, I gave her space. It has not been easy for her facing the
ton’s
vicious mirth. You men forget what her childhood was like, and how she was always the subject of gossip.”
Richard turned around so quickly he almost tripped. “Mr. Hindsworth?” He stormed for the door, but Anthony’s hand stopped him. Richard tried to push him out of the way. “Let me go. I’ve got to find her and beg for forgiveness. Melissa’s words ring true, I have not thought enough about Maddy’s feelings in all of this. I haven’t protected her,” he cried.
“We don’t know anything yet.”
“Hindsworth’s been sniffing round her for weeks. Ever since Chesterton accosted her. Who the hell is he anyway? Does anyone even know where he lives?”
Silence, like a death knell, greeted his statement. “Well, I’m not sitting here like an idiot. I’m going to bloody well find out who he is and where he lives. Someone must know something.”
“Where are you going, Richard?” Rheda called.
“To see Lady Horsham. If anyone knows who is who in London, it’s she.”
After he left, Anthony said, “I’m going to question Hornsbled. I can’t sit here and do nothing either, and for all we know Sarah has something to do with this. It’s just too convenient. Sarah needs Madeline out of the way.”
“I’m coming with you. It’s better than sitting on my arse worrying.”
When the men had left the room, Melissa looked at Rheda. “She wouldn’t leave Richard for that Mr. Hindsworth would she?” Melissa asked.
“She’s not in love with Mr. Hindsworth and you know she loves Richard and that’s what I’m worried about.”
Melissa frowned. “I don’t follow.”
Rheda wrung her hands. “She’ll do something foolish, like thinking Richard would be better off without her. She’ll be thinking about the child. If it’s Richard’s…She’ll know it will kill him not to have his child with him.”
Melissa sighed and nodded. “She’ll feel if the child is Richard’s he will want to be with Sarah. For the child’s sake.”
“Exactly. She’s selfless like that. And the reason I’m so worried is that perhaps deep down inside, she believes Richard’s still in love with Sarah.”
“Is he?” Melissa seemed to hold her breath.
Rheda sat down and cradled her head in her hands. “I don’t think so but then I’m not privy to his thoughts.”
Melissa moved to comfort her friend. “Anthony doesn’t believe Richard loves Sarah, and seeing his reaction to Madeline’s disappearance, I don’t think Richard does either. From the minute he learned she’d been taken, Richard no longer cared about finding Charles’s killer. He’s consumed with finding Madeline. If he still loved Sarah, would he be so frantic?”
Rheda swiped tears from her face. “Then we need to find her. I have a bad feeling about all of this. I have no idea, other than Sarah, who would want to abduct her.”
“My money is on Hindsworth. I can’t understand why he persisted in befriending her; seducing her I can understand, because she’s beautiful, but his behavior isn’t that of a practiced rake.”
Rheda agreed. “Let’s hope Lady Horsham can tell Richard more.”
#
Richard barely stopped himself from hammering on Lady Horsham’s door. When it finally opened, his impatience saw him striding towards the drawing room regardless of her butler’s cries. When he got to the door, he took a deep breath, willing his exasperation to stay in check. He knocked gently and entered.
Thankfully, Lady Horsham was alone. She put down her embroidery. “I hope you have a very good reason for so rudely barging in here, young man.”
“I beg your pardon, my lady, but I’m in somewhat of a hurry. Maddy, that is, my wife, is missing.”
“I would have expected more from you, Mr. Craven. To lose one’s wife is more than careless, it smacks of neglect.”
Lady Horsham was angry with him. She was politely pointing out that his behavior over the past week was suspect. He had not been asked to take a seat. “I believe she is in danger and I’m frantic with worry. I beg your pardon if my manners are not what they should be.”
Her stern features softened. “Have a seat and tell me how you’ve come to lose your wife, and why on earth you think I can help.”
Richard sat and told her his story. Everything. All about Sarah, Charles’s death, and the baby. When he finished, he pleaded with her. “I need to know where this Mr. Hindsworth resides. He was the last person seen with her.”
Lady Horsham leaned forward and patted his hand. “I’ll wager you’re pleased I’m such a sticky beak now.”
Richard flushed. Most of the gentlemen called Lady Horsham sticky beak because she stuck her nose into everyone’s business. She ruled the
ton
and she could reduce a grown man to a little boy with a simple tongue-lashing.
She sipped her cup of tea before stating, “When Mr. Hindsworth appeared this season, from virtually nowhere, I must say my curiosity was aroused.” She put her cup down and smiled. “I learned he is from a wealthy Spanish family, and he’s taken the lease on the late Lord Hale’s Mayfair house. Lord Hale’s mother has yet to sell it.”
Richard made to rise, with words of thanks on his lips, but Lady Horsham grabbed his hand, forcing him to retake his seat.
“I did learn all of that, but I observed him at many of the balls. His lack of interest in anything other than your wife, and the fact Hindsworth is not a Spanish name, saw me employ certain resources to dig deeper. I was unable to learn anything about a wealthy Spanish family called Hindsworth. I’d swear on my late husband’s grave that he is not Spanish, even given his dark coloring. Since I can find out nothing further about Mr. Christopher Hindsworth, I would say that that is a fictitious name.”
Richard could barely speak and he was breathing rapidly.
“You have every right to be concerned for Lady Madeline. For some reason, that man has targeted your wife from the moment she married you.”
“Thank you,” he whispered. “Thanks to your sticky beak I have a place to start my search. If you’ll pardon the obscene haste, I will take my leave.”
“Good luck, my boy, and I hope you find your wife safe and well.” However, she was already talking to an empty seat.
#
It was Rufus who broke down the door to Lord Hale’s townhouse in Mayfair. But it was Richard who pushed his way in. A very frightened butler confronted the trio, for Anthony was also with them too.
“Where is Mr. Hindsworth,” Richard demand, only just refraining from throttling the answer from the trembling butler.
“He is not at home.”
Rufus was next. “Where is he?”
“He is not at home.”
“Where has he gone,” Richard barely got the words out between his clenched teeth.
“I was not party to that information, my lord.”
Anthony moved past the man towards the drawing room, pulling Richard with him. “We shall wait for him, then.”
The butler looked at the under footman. “You will be waiting a while, he has left London.”
Richard spun about and approached the butler who was now quaking in his boots; a line of perspiration was sliding down his forehead. “To where?” His question was issued in a voice so filled with threat the butler’s mouth kept opening and closing yet no sound came out. “Speak, man.”
“He’s taken the young lady home.”
Richard closed his eyes and the churning in his stomach lessened. Maddy was still alive and safe. Hindsworth was simply helping her to escape from her husband. She was running home to her mother as Rufus had originally thought.
“To Newmarket?” came Rufus’s voice through Richard’s haze of relief.
Before the butler could answer, Anthony reappeared from the drawing room. “Look at what I have discovered.” He held up a piece of expensive cream notepaper, the exact type Maddy’s note had been written on.
Richard lost it. He grabbed the butler around his neck, squeezing tightly. “Where have they gone?”
“South. I don’t know where exactly but someone in the stables may well know.”
Richard took off at a run through the house towards the stables.
Anthony said, “I’m going to search his rooms. I suggest you look in the study and see what else you can uncover.”
When Anthony went upstairs, he shivered as if someone had walked over his grave. The master suite hadn’t been slept in for quite some time. Instead, it was laid out like a shrine, a shrine to the late Lord Hale. The dead Earl’s clothes were laid out on the bed, his portrait was propped up against the headboard, and a black mask lay on the pillow.
Anthony’s throat constricted as he realized exactly who had taken Madeline. He swore to God that he would get Maddy back for Richard or die trying, because it was his fault she’d been driven into the arms of the enemy. It was Anthony who’d told Richard not to tell Maddy about Sarah’s child. If Maddy had known from the beginning, she would not have been upset enough to run to another man.
He walked downstairs slowly, gathering the courage to face his twin. He prayed he’d get Maddy back safely or he doubted Richard would ever forgive him.
Rufus began by going through the drawers in the desk, not sure what he was looking for. He was barely keeping tears at bay. If anything had happened to Maddy, he didn’t know if he could face it. It wasn’t until he’d married Rheda and come home to Hascombe, that he had realized she’d grown up and he really didn’t know her. Then he’d had to hand her into Richard’s care and look at what had happened now. He tried not to blame his friend, but if Maddy had been hurt or, God forbid, killed, he knew he would blame Richard for the rest of his life. He’d trusted his best friend with her life and Richard had failed him. It wasn’t until he’d rifled through all the drawers that he noticed an unopened envelope on the desk. It was addressed to him. He almost couldn’t bring himself to open it, and as he broke Lord Hale’s seal, a nightmare from his past raced horribly through his mind.
He read the missive and let out an almighty roar, sweeping everything off the top of the desk, before yelling for Anthony and Richard.
Richard came rushing in. “They have gone towards Kent.”
Rufus clenched the note tightly in his fists. “They’ve gone to Deal.”
“How do you know?”
Anthony answered Richard’s question as he entered the study. “Because she’s been taken by Samuel.”
It took Richard’s brain mere seconds to remember where he’d heard the name. “Goddamn it to hell. Christopher Hindsworth is Samuel?”
“He has been hidden in clear view all along; he’s taken Lord Hale’s first name, Christopher, and a last name of the same initial, Hindsworth instead of Hale. He’s been taunting me.” Rufus was shaking with anger. “Now he’s taunted me with this missive. It’s me he wants and Maddy is the bait.”
“I’ll kill him.”
Rufus shook his head. “No, Richard, he’s mine. Once we get to Deal, you are to focus on rescuing Maddy, and I’ll focus on killing Samuel.”
None of the men spoke the words they were all thinking. Maddy may already be dead.
“In half an hour, we leave for Kent. I’ll send one of my men with dispatches immediately so that fresh horses are ready at strategic locations along the way. We should make it there not long after Samuel—he has to be travelling by carriage which will be much slower than riding on horseback.”
Richard’s face crumped at ‘shortly after’. She could be dead in seconds.
“He won’t kill her yet. He’s waiting for me.” Rufus strode out onto the street, jaw taut and hands still clenched.
“But what will he do to her?” Richard’s mind was picturing horrific images.
“You can’t think like that. You’ll go mad. You have to stay focused if you are to help her,” his twin said as he patted him on the back.
Richard blamed himself. If he’d not been so concerned for Sarah, if he’d focused on the one woman he should have been protecting first and foremost, his wife, she would not be missing now. If anything happened to her…at the thought, he stifled a croaking cry. He hadn’t even told her that he loved her. He knew, without a doubt, that he would love her forever. No one could ever replace her in his life.
He couldn’t lose her. Not now that he finally understood what true love was. Love means you’d give your life for the beloved one. You’d sacrifice everything to see them safe and happy. If Samuel wanted revenge for Hale’s death, he’d gladly offer his life if it meant saving Madeline’s.
“I love her. God,” he dropped his head into his hands, tears welling. “I love her and I want her back.”
Anthony hugged him tightly. “We will get her back. I swear to it.”
Dear Mr. Richard Craven,
I hear you have been busy and that is probably why I have not heard from you. My brother mentioned to Mother, on one of his weekly visits down from town, that you have met a young lady and you are now contemplating marriage
I’m happy for you. I’m sure she’s a lovely young woman, and I hear too she’s the daughter of a duke.
I’d love to hear your news first hand.
Your friend,
Lady Madeline
Deal, Kent
Meg picked up the empty picnic basket, a giggle in her chest, and abiding love swimming in her veins. It was rare she got an afternoon to indulge in uninterrupted lovemaking with her beau, Ewan. The day had dawned with a clear blue sky and the ferocious winds that had buffeted them through the night had finally abated.
She’d also received a letter from Rheda this morning. She and her husband, Lord Strathmore, or Lord Hascombe as he now was, would be coming back to Deal to visit with Daniel in a few weeks. She would be honored to attend Meg’s wedding, and to be her maid of honor.