Page 25 of Fatal By Design
Greer had left the window sash open at Audrey’s request. Though the staff had been prepared for their arrival, as she should have arrived the day before, her room had been stuffy after being battened up for most of the summer. Genie had thoughtfully sent a messenger to Mrs. Anders, the housekeeper at Fournier House, to alert the staff that their mistress would be delayed for an indeterminate length of time. She’d included no mention of the predicament, and for that, Audrey was grateful. She would address the staff in the morning, to explain the reason for her hasty departure back to Greenbriar.
A breeze, scented with fresh rain and clipped grass, came through the open window. As did a rhythmic noise. Audrey held still, listening as it grew louder. The source was unmistakable: a horse and rig were coming fast up the drive.
She tossed off the thin counterpane and went to peer out the window. The butler at Fournier House, Verly, always instructed the footmen to leave a few lamps burning at the front entrance to the house, and the light soon illuminated a familiar horse, phaeton, and driver.
Audrey dashed to her banyan, draped on the foot of her bed, and threw it on as she left her room. Hugh had left for Low Heath just after supper; to come racing back at this time of night could only mean one thing: grave news.
As she rushed to the foyer, her mind went oddly blank, unable to even deliberate what the news might be. The footmen and Verly had turned in for the night, but Hugh’s arrival had not gone unnoticed. Scuffing footfalls from deeper within the house reached her ears as Audrey opened the front door.
She stepped onto the paving stones just beyond the door, the night air damp and scented with rose and gardenia. The flames in the sconces trembled as Hugh jumped from the phaeton and cut a swift line toward her.
“Is everything well here?” he asked, short on breath, his attention shifting to the outside exterior of the house, then over her shoulder where Verly now approached.
“Here? Yes, everything is fine. But what has happened?” Audrey stepped aside and allowed him in.
“I will have your horse and phaeton seen to, my lord,” Verly said to Hugh before closing the door and locking it. He set his lantern on the credenza to give them light, and then left on his task to wake a footman.
Hugh wore no hat for the butler to take, and on second inspection, Audrey realized he also wore no waistcoat or cravat. In his coat, trousers, and white muslin shirt, he looked as if he’d been shaken awake in his bed by some midnight emergency.
He looked around the large foyer, as if expecting to find someone. “Was Cartwright here?”
“Of course not. I thought he was staying at the Crown and Hare, like you.”
Tension fled Hugh’s shoulders, and he reached to rub the back of his neck. “He was. I saw him when I arrived at the posting inn. He was on his way to his room. I slept for a short while, then awoke. There was some noise, a muffled argument. I couldn’t get back to sleep, and I had questions for Cartwright, so I went to see if he was still awake. I found his door already open. He was gone.”
“Gone?”
“The place was a wreck. It had been turned over.”
Too stunned to speak, Audrey’s mind raced as she took the lantern Verly had left and led Hugh to the drawing room. There, their voices might not be overheard by the few waking servants. Verly and Mrs. Anders had reduced the staff by half, considering Audrey could host no guests or social events for the rest of the summer.
She brightened the lantern after setting it down, and then turned to Hugh. “Someone was searching for the diamond? And they’ve now abducted Lord Cartwright?”
Skepticism was so familiar an expression for him, it had carved its own pleat in his left cheek. “Or Cartwright turned the place over himself. Made it look like an abduction.”
Audrey didn’t believe it. “Why would he do such a thing?”
She had not been in Lord Cartwright’s presence for more than fifteen minutes that afternoon, but to fake his own abduction made little sense, especially when his primary goal was to find Millie.
Though, perhaps he also wanted to find the ring. Causing a scene such as the one at the Hare and Crown could have been done with the intent to confuse and slow Audrey and Hugh or redirect them.
Hugh shook his head. “The diamond is important to someone. In your vision, Millie said she didn’t have it?”
That vision had cycled through Audrey’s mind again and again as she’d mined it for anything she’d missed. But there was no question. “Millie wasn’t lying. She was terrified. In that state, she would have handed it over if she’d had it.”
Hugh paced, raking his hand through his already tousled hair, and mussing it even further. His rumpled appearance sent a bolt of warmth through her. And then, of heartache.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” he said, unaware of her reaction to him. “I thought perhaps Cartwright or whoever went through his room might think to come here next to search.”
She would have considered that too; it would behoove Millie’s abductors to take into account her family and any place she might have stored the ring. However, it was no great secret to anyone who paid attention that Audrey and Millie were not close. Audrey would be the last person Millie would entrust with such a gemstone.
If, as Hugh had questioned earlier, she even still possessed it.
“I will have a room prepared for you,” Audrey said. She was ready to stand her ground and refuse to let him return to Low Heath for the few remaining hours before sunrise.
But he didn’t argue. Not that point anyhow.
“I’ll stay in here if you don’t object. I’d like to be on the ground floor. Just in case.”
