Page 29 of Fatal By Design
She hadn’t asked for details. Had she done so, he would have been honest and told her about Gloria Hanson, the mistress he’d kept for nearly two years. They had been companions, nothing more. No deep feelings had been involved, other than pleasure. That was what made everything with Audrey different. And to his expanding wonder, infinitely more fulfilling.
“Yes. However, never with a woman I am in love with,” he’d said to her in earnest. “This is a different feeling entirely.” And it was. He felt exultant, yet also like he was standing on the edge of a cliff. There could be no turning back now, and nor did he wish to.
She’d valiantly fought a pleased grin.
“You truly haven’t been in love?”
He hadn’t needed to mull over the question for long. When he recalled the women that he’d taken an interest in before, and what he felt for Audrey, there was no comparison.
“Not until you.”
The eager way she’d rewarded him for that confession had kept his blood boiling for nearly the whole ride to Kent.
On second thought, it was a saving grace Greer was with them in the phaeton. Had she not been, Hugh certainly would have given in to the temptation of pulling over and dragging Audrey into a roadside thicket.
But now, as they closed in on Greenbriar and the house party that would be underway, he set all wicked thoughts of her aside and concentrated on the conflict at hand. With any hope, Lady Redding would have turned up during the two days they had been gone. But a gut feeling said it wasn’t to be so.
A greeting party awaited them as they approached the front entrance, a footman likely having spied the phaeton crossing the arched stone bridge over the brook, which had a clear prospect of the home. The new duchess, Genie, and Lady Cassandra were joined by Thornton and a handful of footmen. The servants took the traces and saw to the horses and phaeton after Hugh had helped Audrey and Greer down.
“Any news of Millie?” Audrey asked as soon as Genie released her from an embrace.
The downward turn of Genie’s mouth preceded the shake of her head. “I am afraid not.” She grasped Audrey’s hands. “I take it she was not at Reddingate.”
“Nor at Haverfield or Fournier Downs,” Hugh provided as he caught a shrewd look from Thornton. Sir had certainly spoke to him, telling him of Cartwright and asking what he knew of the man. It appeared he had something to convey.
Lady Cassandra and Genie each took one of Audrey’s arms, bracketing her, and they began toward the front entrance. Hugh and Thornton followed them slowly.
“Sir said Lord Cartwright has something to do with this. ”
“Yes. I take it Cartwright doesn’t precede us?” When Thornton frowned, Hugh released his faint hope of finding the man here.
“No. Why?”
“Between us,” Hugh prefaced, “Cartwright had written letters of endearment to Lady Redding. Several. The last was a request to meet at Haverfield yesterday to announce their intent to marry. Edgerton and Audrey’s mother were ignorant to the whole affair, and of course the viscountess never arrived. Cartwright, however, was there. Audrey and I spoke to him.”
Hugh briefly explained about Lord Montague having Cartwright arrested for taking the rare diamond ring with which he’d proposed to Millie the first time, of Cartwright letting her keep it, and then of how she was to bring it with her to Haverfield.
“Someone knew she had it on her?” Thornton deduced as they neared the entrance, the door held open by a footman. “That is why her carriage was set upon?”
Hugh clenched his back teeth. He’d anticipated that he’d need to find a way around telling his friend of Audrey’s vision, and now hoped what he’d settled on was enough.
“If she had it with her, I fear she would have been found dead alongside her driver. Instead, she was abducted. I believe it is because she didn’t have it.”
“But knew where it was,” Thornton said, catching on without any reservations about Hugh’s theory. “Perhaps her maid was killed as a punishment, because Lady Redding refused to give up the location of the diamond?”
The suggestion was reasonable, and if Hugh didn’t know better, he would have considered it. But what Audrey had seen while holding the maid’s cross pendant effectively wiped out that theory. Celine Woods had betrayed Millie somehow, and it likely had to do with either the ring, or the secret letters from Cartwright. Not that he could say any of this to his friend. However, he did explain how Cartwright was now missing too, and the state of his room.
Doubt crept over Thornton’s face. “Could he have done it himself? Maybe he only wants the diamond back and is involved in Lady Redding’s disappearance somehow.”
Hugh had considered the same. “But why stage such a scene? Why not just leave in the middle of the night to return to wherever he was keeping the viscountess?”
Thornton shrugged. “All I know of the man is what you’ve said: he was arrested for stealing from his own grandfather. Shortly after, he left with the East India Company.”
“From what Cartwright said, Lord Montague is a peevish old man who despised his heir’s decision to wed an Indian woman and produce a mixed-race son,” Hugh said.
“Montague is known as a recluse. Rumor is that after his only two children died, he tucked himself away from society.”
The first drops of rain struck Hugh’s nose and forehead, and he and Thornton made their way into the house just before the clouds unleashed a torrent. In the large, open foyer, the ladies were meeting with several more guests, including Fournier and Lords Kettleridge and Westbrook. As Basil stepped forward to take Hugh’s coat, hat, and driving gloves to be cleaned of road dust, he saw Audrey inspecting Westbrook, her lips pinched, and eyes narrowed.
