Page 66 of Lady of Charade
David was nota man who often fell to a panic. But at this moment, he could hardly do anything but.
He had asked all whom he’d encountered within the vicinity of Sarah’s residence if they had noticed her leave. A young lad said he had seen her enter a hack with a bag in hand, although where she intended to go from there, no one was entirely sure. Time seemed to be slipping away from David, as he had no idea when she would actually be leaving London, nor how she had decided to go about it. Would she be traveling over land, north to Liverpool, or south to one of the ports? Or would she have taken a ship that way? He had to make a decision, and it was one that would be paramount, for a wrong choice could mean he would not only miss her entirely but also lose her forever.
He returned to his carriage, asking the driver to convey him back to Mayfair. It may lose him precious time, but with the correct direction, he might make the appropriate choice. He earnestly requested the driver to rush as fast as he could, and the man was true to his word, for soon enough they had pulled up in front of Lady Alexander’s home.
In all actuality, she didn’t seem surprised to see him. David wasn’t shown into her home, but rather Lady Alexander came to greet him at the front door after the butler announced his arrival.
“Mr. Redmond,” she said, eyeing him up and down critically. “Allow me to make a guess. You are here in an attempt to determine the whereabouts of Miss Jones, is that it?”
“You would be correct, Lady Alexander,” he replied, hoping the woman would be more amenable to him today than she was the last time the two of them had spoken. “She has left her boardinghouse, and it appears she has designs to leave England.”
“Which would be understandable, would it not?” Lady Alexander asked. “What has she left for her here?”
“So you know of her current… situation?” David asked, surprised that Sarah would have confided in the woman.
“I know far more than you might expect, Mr. Redmond,” she said, raising an eyebrow, to which he nodded.
“Though you do not seem inclined to share,” he said, no longer caring whether or not he might be offending her.
Lady Alexander raised herself to her full height, which neared David’s own, though not quite.
“Unlike what you may believe, Mr. Redmond, I have no wish to see Miss Jones hurt in any way. I am an old friend of her family’s, and I did what I thought was right. Whether or not you might agree is another matter, but I feel justified in the decisions I have made. All may not have ended as I would have supposed, but Miss Jones now has all she needs to return to where she is happy.”
“Back to America.”
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “Away from London, at any rate.”
“All I need to know ishowshe is leaving London,” he said a bit desperately. “To which port would she travel? And how?”
“I can tell you that she has enough funds to sail from London,” Lady Alexander said. “Seeing how easily she took to sailing on our voyagetoEngland, I would have to guess she is at London’s port.”
David eyed her critically, wondering if she would steer him incorrectly, but her gaze was more open and honest than it had been before. At this point, he did not have much choice but to trust her.
“Thank you, Lady Alexander,” he said, with the slightest of nods as he nearly tripped in his haste to run down the stairs back to his carriage while still acknowledging the woman, who watched him with something akin to mirth in her gaze. “Thank you very much.”
The carriage conveyed him as far as London Bridge, where he called the driver to halt and then ran out to look over the port. The sight in front of him made him cringe. The docks were full of hundreds of ships of all sizes, people bustling everywhere like ants below him. How in the world he was ever supposed to find Sarah amongst all of the crowds, he had no idea. But he had to try.
David continued on foot as far as he could, craning his neck this way and that, as though he might become lucky and spot her amongst all of the people, ships, and wares around him.
But of course, it could never be so simple as that.
He found a man, a sailor-looking type, and tugged on his sleeve to capture his attention. “Where would the passenger ships be?”
“There aren’t many around here, mate,” the man said, but then pointed down a ways. “Try down that way, over where you can see the docks converging. There are a few smaller ships there. But it’s getting late in the day. If you haven’t booked passage yet, you may be out of luck. Look for a benevolent captain.”
“I’ll do that,” David said as he continued on his way to where the man pointed, running now as he attempted to push his way through the crowds as politely as possible.
David wasn’t sure how many times he collided with someone, was cursed at, or became lost through the bustling port, but finally, he came to where there were, as the man had promised, small ships lined up haphazardly. He wished Clarence or Berkley were here with him. Somehow they would know exactly what to do, who to ask, or how to find Sarah within this mess.
David, however, had no idea. So instead he just approached one ship after another, asking of its destination and whether there was a young woman by the name of Miss Jones aboard. He had asked seven different captains with no luck until the eighth finally had a question for him — “To where do you think she’s headed?”
“South, likely, if she’s sailing. Brighton? Plymouth?”
The man nodded. “There’s one leaving to Plymouth in a couple of hours —The Marjorie, she’s called, after the captain’s lost love. It’s about a half-mile down, but you better hurry.”
David profusely thanked him before taking off at a sprint, spotting the vessel, as it was slightly bigger than the others around it.
Two members of the crew were just beginning to untie the ropes at the docks when David raced up to it.
