Page 78 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife
The tall, tawny-haired gentleman striding toward her was preoccupied and staring down at the path.If she’d thought – if she’d been capable of thought – she’d have run in the opposite direction or ducked into one of the nearby shops.
But seeing her brother without warning had Athene stopping dead still in the middle of the footpath.She called out before she could stop herself.“Miles!”
Then as he went just as still as she did and turned disbelieving eyes on her, all her years of shame engulfed her.Through the pounding in her head, she heard him say her name.Blinded, she turned away to blunder onto the road and in front of a curricle and pair.
***
Hugo was doing his best to pretend that he didn’t wish his beloved family to Hades when frantic banging began on the front door.He was in the drawing room talking to his sisters before the insistent rapping interrupted the quiet of the early evening.
Concerned, he excused himself and went out into the hall to find his butler Liddell admitting a filthy, panting Wesley.The footman from the York house shot him a wild glance but had the sense not to blurt out why he’d come.
Dread rose like vomit in Hugo’s throat.Wesley would only be here if something had happened to Athene.
Yet again, Hugo cursed her refusal to marry him.If she was his wife, he could just ask what was wrong.Something clearly was wrong.Beneath his exhaustion, Wesley was in a panic.Somehow Hugo had to remain discreet, while he itched to grab the poor fellow and shake the news out of him.
“Come into the library,” he said, as a presentiment of doom threatened to crush him.
“Hugo, what is it?”Maria, his oldest sister, asked behind him.
“Private business,” he snapped, knowing that would only multiply her questions.He should apologize for his tone, but he was too desperate to hear Wesley’s news.
He grabbed the footman by the arm and hauled him away.Once he’d shut the door, he released a jagged breath.“What is it, lad?Has something happened to Miss de Smith?”
Silly question.Why else would Wesley arrive in such a lather?
“She’s disappeared, sir.”
Darkness descended on Hugo’s mind.So thick that he missed the next part of Wesley’s news.
Fuck it all, had she left him?When he saw her last night, he’d known that she was unhappy and he’d hated it.He’d hoped that once he had the family off his hands, he and Athene could sort out a more satisfactory way to go on.
But to leave without a word?
He beat back the clamor of panic and told himself to think.She wouldn’t go without telling him.Hell, if he was right about what she felt for him, she wouldn’t go at all.
But if she hadn’t fled back to London, something had happened to her.
Which was worse.
“I’m sorry, Wesley.Tell me again.”He crossed to the sideboard and poured two glasses of brandy, one to steady his own jangling nerves and one for the footman.“Drink that first.”
The liquor helped to clear Hugo’s head.He signaled for Wesley to sit.The young man was near done in, proof of the urgency of his errand.
“Thank you, Sir Hugo.”Wesley’s color was better after the brandy.“Miss de Smith went out around two this afternoon and hasn’t returned.The household went looking for her when she didn’t come back within the hour.But I – we – thought we should let you know.”
Around two?It was past six now.
“Went out?To see someone?”She’d grown up in Yorkshire.Had she decided to look up an old acquaintance?He doubted it.As far as he knew, she hadn’t contacted anyone from her old life during her time in London.
“I don’t think so.”
“Did she take anything?”
“No.I reckon she didn’t mean to be long.She told Franny that she didn’t need an escort.”
No maid and no luggage.It seemed less likely than ever that she’d scarpered.So what had happened?Every possibility was fraught with disaster.
The brandy created a sickly soup in his gut.Dear God, don’t let her have come to harm.
