Page 54 of Fatal By Design
She had the ring. She’d had it all along. Lady Redding had been traveling to Greenbriar to fetch it because that was where she had hidden it. Not at Greenbriar itself, but within the large nautilus shell Audrey had treasured since her brother had given it to her when she was a young girl. Hugh recalled it; polished to a mother-of-pearl gleam, the shell had intricate woodland etchings. He recalled the reverent way Audrey held it, her fingers tracing her late brother’s artistic endeavors. Cartwright had explained Millie’s reasoning for choosing the nautilus, and it made sense. Audrey would care for the shell, and in turn, the ring.
Once, Millie had seen Audrey unpacking the shell from a compartment inside her writing box at Haverfield. She’d realized then that her sister did not leave the nautilus in one place but took it with her wherever she stayed. As Audrey had been staying at Greenbriar for most of the summer, Millie knew it would be with her.
And now, Henley had discovered it as well.
“What is amiss, Munson?” Fournier asked as he met his butler.
“Your Grace, it appears the dowager duchess and Mr. Robert Henley have left Greenbriar together.”
Hugh’s next step faltered even as his mind charged forward.
Fournier swore under his breath. “Do you know where they have gone?”
“Francis was posted at the door when he heard the gentleman mention something about a turn through the gardens, but they cannot be located,” Munson explained. “And then, Lord Neatham’s young assistant and Her Grace’s driver set off on horseback, shouting to Francis to fetch help.”
A sliver of hope buoyed Hugh’s sinking stomach. Sir and Carrigan had at least gone after them.
Hugh took the footman currently looking like a kicked dog for Francis. “Did the boy say anything else? Fetch help to where?”
“He only said the duchess had been taken, milord, and to send help down the post road toward Hertfordshire.”
Hugh returned to his horse and mounted swiftly. “When was this?”
“No more than half an hour since, milord.”
Hugh cracked the reins and started away as Fournier barked orders to his butler to send for Sir Ridley immediately. Hugh tore down the lane, and the pounding of hooves behind him indicated Thornton and Cartwright had followed. Soon, the duke galloped up alongside him as well.
“Are they going to Fournier Downs?” he shouted over the thunder of their horses.
“They must be,” Hugh replied. And Henley had to have employed a threat against Millie in order to convince Audrey to leave without a fuss.
He’d turned it over in his mind endlessly as they rode from Lord Montague’s lodge: What would Henley’s move be? Sneaking into the house and searching Audrey’s bedchamber would be too risky, especially during the day when servants were coming and going from the guests’ rooms. Henley had given his regrets, but what if he simply arrived late, surprising his hostess and those who had looked forward to hearing about their investments? Then, he might corner Audrey…force her into her bedchamber and coerce her to hand over the shell. If she had, and he’d taken Audrey from Greenbriar to dispose of her elsewhere…
Hugh vibrated with fury and fear. He dug in his heels and urged the tired horse onward. There hadn’t been time to change out their mounts for fresh ones, but at this pace, if Henley had less than a half hour’s head start, they would soon catch up.
Perhaps Audrey had drawn Henley away from Greenbriar purposefully. All her things were still in her room, and in all probability the writing box too, as her journey back to Hertfordshire had been interrupted. She may have lied to him to avoid having to hand the ring over, which would have effectively ended any use she or Millie were to Henley. Thank god Sir had taken Hugh’s instruction to heart, as usual. Before leaving for Pyke-on-Wending, he’d pulled the boy aside and told him not to let the dowager duchess out of his sight. At the time, he’d had Westbrook in mind. After the incident in the library alcove, Hugh would not put it past the churlish man to retaliate in some way. Sir must have seen Henley and Audrey leaving, and then fetched Carrigan’s help.
Sweat dampened his skin, causing his shirt to stick and his jacket to feel like it was on fire. Need and panic coiled through him as he pulled ahead of the others. For several minutes, he was only aware of the road ahead. They passed a farmer and his cart, who stared in alarm as they charged past, but no one else. When at last he saw a black coach stopped on the side of the road ahead, Hugh finally drew breath. His lungs ached as if it was the first he’d drawn in ages.
“That is Henley’s coach,” Cartwright said.
Hugh drew his flintlock from its holster only a moment before seeing a strange lump writhing on the ground near the stopped coach. A man.
Their mounts circled the empty coach, its door open. On a bench seat inside, Hugh spied a tangle of rope. The man peeled himself off the ground and staggered toward a loose horse, skittishly prancing near the abandoned coach.
“Hold!” Fournier commanded.
Thornton rode between the man and the horse. “Where is Henley?”
The man turned to run away, but they promptly encircled him. A gash in his forehead bled profusely, and his eye had swollen shut.
“Speak up, man,” Fournier said.
“Where are the others?” Hugh demanded. The man only gaped. Hugh dismounted and was about to take him by the lapels when a shout sounded through the thick woods beside the road.
“In there,” Hugh said, then for good measure, pummeled the ruffian in the jaw. The man dropped to the road. “Cartwright, tie him up. There’s rope in the carriage. Thornton, Fournier, with me.”
He signaled for quiet as they darted into the trees. When he’d been younger, he’d tracked deer in the forest around Cranleigh with his father. He’d learned to look for disturbances—broken twigs, impressions in the ground, ripped bark. With no more sounds emanating from the woods, he looked for evidence of where Audrey and Henley had gone. Carrigan and Sir too, as the skittish horse was surely the mount the two had ridden from Greenbriar. With so many feet tramping through the woods here, he found plenty of disturbance, and soon, voices reached him. They were inaudible at first, but Audrey’s familiar voice restarted his heart and sharpened his focus.
