Page 39 of Fatal By Design
“Mother must have heard that Lord Westbrook wished to marry her widowed daughter. But he meant me, not Millie.” She shivered. “The man has been nothing but standoffish and belittling since we met. If that is how he sets out to charm a woman, I hate to think how he would treat someone he did not wish to impress.”
Hugh chuckled darkly. “I suppose, as much as I’d liked to have laid him out flat for cornering you in the very place you warned me about, he doesn’t have any connection to Millie’s disappearance after all.”
She deflated a little more knowing that door had closed. And how few more there were left open to them.
Hugh stepped closely, and unlike when Lord Westbrook had done the same, Audrey did not want Hugh to stop. She wanted him to wrap her into his arms and kiss her again. However, he held back.
“You know, he is not the only peer with that plan.”
It took a moment for her to comprehend his meaning, and when she did, she felt slightly ill.
“I hadn’t considered that I’d be of interest to other men within the peerage.” It was naive of her, to be sure, but it simply had not yet crossed her mind. Not with her thoughts so firmly fixed on Hugh. “Well, except for one,” she added with a playful grin.
“Men like Westbrook see only that you are young, gorgeous, and wealthy.” Hugh moved closer with each compliment. His hands took hers and brought them to his lips. It was true; the marquess hadn’t cared one jot about her. He’d been ready to propose to a stranger. Because of her money, of course.
“On the other hand, I see a mule-headed woman who is impatient and reckless,” Hugh continued. Before she could part her lips in protest, he kept on. “And who is determined, clever, and uncommonly gifted.”
She shook her head, knowing he was only teasing. Partially.
“What did you learn at dinner?” he asked, still drifting his lips across her knuckles. “I saw your neighbor chatting your ear off.”
“Mr. Filmore,” she said, deciding to say nothing about Hugh’s neighbor, Lady Veronica. She would only appear petty. “He invested heavily in the silver mine venture with Mr. Henley. He said it was a five-thousand-pound buy-in. The ring Lord Cartwright spoke of cannot be worth so much, don’t you think? However, one cannot purchase shares with anything other than pounds sterling. So really, the ring is useless to anyone wanting to jump into the venture, at least until it can be exchanged at a pawnbrokers.”
Hugh went to the round window and levered it open a few inches, letting in a gust of fresh, rainy air. “Now that we know she was not coming here to meet with Lord Westbrook, it can only make sense that she was coming to meet with you.”
Audrey longed to drop back into the armchair in exhaustion and confusion. “But why? She sent no word ahead. I was all packed up and ready to return to Hertfordshire.”
Her trunks had since been returned to her room here at Greenbriar. Who knew how much longer she would stay now?
“Maybe she did,” Hugh murmured.
“Did what?”
“Send word ahead. Only it was delivered into the wrong hands.”
Audrey perked. “And whoever received it knew to set the trap on the road.”
Hugh ran his fingers through his hair. “We can only speculate.”
Audrey threw up her arms and let out a frustrated groan. “We are no closer to finding out who took Millie and killed her driver and maid than we were a few days ago. She is in danger and here we are struggling to even understand motive.”
Hugh looked like he wanted to reach for her hands again. But he held still at the window. “This silver speculation may not have anything to do with it, but the connection between Montague and Cartwright and the abductor’s demands for the ring lead me to think it is the best lead for us to follow.”
The book of estates on the table came back to her at the mention of Lord Montague. She picked it up and opened to the marked page for Greenbriar. “Did you know that Montague Lodge is in Pyke-on-Wending? That’s just north of Moorsly.”
“Where the maid washed up,” he said as she flipped back to find the page she’d been looking at when Westbrook appeared. She found it again and handed it to Hugh. He read the listing, his brow pulling taut.
“I think we should pay it a visit,” Audrey said.
“I would rather you stay here.”
Though not a surprise, it was still infuriating.
“You cannot go alone. It could be dangerous if this is where Millie has been taken.” The nearness of Lord Montague’s lodge and the direction in which Celine’s body had washed downstream concerned her. It was too much a coincidence to not be a possibility.
“I don’t plan to go alone,” Hugh said. “There are plenty of men at Greenbriar to accompany me. And you will be much safer here.”
“But—”
