Page 28 of Miss Flibbertigibbet and the Barbarian
He left in search of those items, leaving the door ajar.
Adriana sipped more tea and looked at Nicholas over the rim of the cup. After a second, she volunteered, “Dickie’s actually quite a useful person to have along on an adventure.” She set down the cup. “Despite any appearance to the contrary, he’s observant and quick-witted.”
Straight-faced, Nicholas nodded. “Good to know.” It was also good to know that at least these two Sommerville siblings were the sort to have each other’s back.
Dickie returned with paper, pen, and inkpot. He sat and wrote, more or less what Adriana dictated. With parental notification deemed appropriately dealt with, Dickie signed, sealed, and addressed the note, then held it out to the maid who came in to clear the dishes. “Melchett said he’d see to having this delivered.”
The girl bobbed, took the letter, and bore it away.
“Now.” Nicholas eyed the pair of Sommervilles. “We need to formulate a plan for our search, and you two know the area significantly better than I do.”
Adriana frowned. “Plan? Given the thief isn’t anywhere in town, he must have headed the other way.” She arched her brows at Nicholas. “Surely we should take the road to Lincoln and with all speed?”
He’d already realized she was given to making impulsive and somewhat reckless decisions. He met her eyes and calmly asked, “What if the thief did come this way, but as Rory suggested, the blackguard managed to ride straight through Grantham without being seen? We know he didn’t stop in the town, so presumably, he rode out along one of the other roads.” He glanced at Dickie. “Your brother’s observations confirm that the villain didn’t leave town via the London road.” He shifted his gaze between brother and sister. “From memory, that leaves the roads to Nottingham, Newark-on-Trent, and Melton Mowbray, plus the road east to Boston, although that seems less likely.”
Dickie was nodding. “There’s also a handful of lanes that lead off into the surrounding country between the London road and the road to Melton Mowbray. Our thief might have thought to evade any pursuit by taking more minor ways.”
Nicholas nodded. “We’ll need to check those as well.”
A discussion ensued over how best to tackle the search. Having lived in the locality all their lives, both Sommervilles knew various people who lived around the town and also of places that would likely prove fruitful in terms of finding witnesses who might have spotted The Barbarian trotting past.
Given the number of roads to be covered and not, himself, having such insights, Nicholas was forced to agree to them splitting up into three teams. It was decided that Dickie would take Rory with him and seek sightings along the lanes between the London and Melton Mowbray roads and out along the latter road as well. Meanwhile, Young Gillies, Jed, and Mike would work their way through the local inns and stables again, in case they’d missed any information the previous evening, then assuming they found nothing, the three would check the easterly road that ultimately led to Boston, even though it was obvious to all that, had that been the thief’s intended destination, he could have much more easily gone directly that way from the estate.
That left Nicholas to ride out with Adriana to check along the westerly road to Nottingham and also the northwesterly road to Newark-on-Trent.
Addie tamped down her impatience; despite her inclination to rush ahead, she could see the value in executing a comprehensive search. While the sense of time being wasted chafed, she agreed that if any of their teams discovered a definite sighting—a lead—one of the team would return to the Angel and wait to alert the rest of the company while the other member or members would continue tracking the thief and following his trail as fast as was possible.
With that decided, leaving Dickie and Nicholas to organize the grooms and stablemen, Addie went upstairs to explain their plan to Sally, who would be the only one of their party remaining at the inn through the day.
CHAPTER5
After securing her riding hat and swiping up her gloves and quirt, Addie hurried down the stairs and emerged onto the inn’s porch to see Nicholas waiting in the yard, beside her saddled mount.
The sight—and its implications—put a hitch in her stride. She disguised the near stumble as being caused by a crimp in her skirt. After needlessly resettling the train over her arm, she raised her head, went down the steps, and with every appearance of confidence, strode for her horse.
Nicholas straightened as she approached. When she halted beside Nickleby, Nicholas reached for her. “Allow me.”
She steeled herself against the sensation of his hands closing about her waist and tightened her grip on her wits as he effortlessly lifted her to her side-saddle.
She didn’t breathe—couldn’t—until his hands left her. Surreptitiously drawing in a huge breath, she settled in the saddle and, willing her giddy senses to steady, inclined her head regally. “Thank you.”
With a dip of his head, he reached for the reins of his big gray, a hunter the ostlers, accustomed though they were to such beasts, treated with awe and reverence. As she slid her boot into the stirrup, he swung up to the animal’s back.
A quick glance around confirmed that the others had already left. Increasingly irritated by her continuing unhelpful reaction to Nicholas, when he waved her to the inn’s arch, she was more than ready to ride out.
Nicholas allowed Adriana to lead, and she opted to head out of town along the westerly road to Nottingham. Not that they would be riding anywhere near that far, but only until they found sightings sufficient to determine whether the thief had gone that way.
Adriana paused beside two women carrying baskets of fruit into the town. The pair had been on the road since before dawn and hadn’t seen The Barbarian.
She and Nicholas stopped to ask a farmer driving a cart into town, then Nicholas dismounted and strode into a field to speak with a group of workers, but no one had sighted the horse.
Farther along, several other groups of farmworkers likewise hadn’t seen either thief or horse, yet none could definitively state that The Barbarian hadn’t passed that way. Finally, on the outskirts of Saxondale, they came across a group of laborers digging out a culvert. They’d been working at the same spot for the past two days and could confirm beyond question that The Barbarian hadn’t passed them.
“We’re here from dawn to dark,” the man in charge said. “Squire wants this done in a hurry, so we’re here as long as we can see.” He glanced along the road toward Grantham. “Don’t reckon your man could have come along this way.”
Nicholas agreed, and albeit reluctantly, Adriana did, too.
They thanked the laborers and wheeled their horses toward Grantham.
