Page 21 of Choosing Her Earl at Last
“Forgive me, my lady, but I must ask,” the Runner continued.
Emmeline nodded, giving her permission. “What do you wish to know?”
“Did your sister have any enemies?”
Emmeline shook her head. “No. She is beloved by all who meet her.”
The Runner hesitated for a brief moment, indecision warring in his eyes. “Did your sister have any romantic attachments?”
Emmeline’s head snapped up, her face flushing with a surge of anger at what he was truly asking. “My sister was not having secret dalliances if that is what you are insinuating.”
Michael stepped forward, lending her his strength. “We should go and inform your mother and Colin.”
Emmeline nodded, her face once more draining of color. “Mother,” she whispered, her pain-filled eyes meeting Michael’s. “This will destroy her.”
Michael gave her a sympathetic look and offered her his arm. Emmeline took it gratefully, leaning on him as if her very ability to move forward depended upon the stability of his frame.
As they rejoined the other half of their group, they found Colin pacing back and forth in front of Michael’s coach, Theodocia securely sequestered inside. The moment that he laid eyes upon Michael and the Runners, he darted forward.
“Where is she?” he demanded, his hands clenched into fists, his jaw muscles taught with barely concealed fear and anger.
“Go and speak with your mother,” Michael murmured to Emmeline. “I will speak with Colin.”
Emmeline nodded and moved past Colin, climbing into the coach.
Michael took Colin to the side, away from prying eyes. “Rebecca has been taken.”
“Taken? By whom? Who would do such a thing?” Colin demanded, his voice hoarse with emotion.
“We do not yet know, but the Runners have sworn to do all that they are able to find her.” Michael’s heart went out to his cousin. He knew that Colin loved the girl, in spite of Michael’s many warnings not to.
“We have to do something!” Colin demanded, his eyes wide with anxiety. “I cannot stand by and do nothing! We have to find her!”
A cry from the coach behind them told Michael that Emmeline had informed Theodocia of what they had found. Michael clenched his teeth, steadying the storm within himself.
For a brief moment, he had considered that Theodocia might have arranged the entire thing to marry her daughter off to a man of higher rank, much as she had taken Emmeline to Scotland under false pretenses. Now he was not so certain. The agony of the cry emitting from the coach was real, visceral, maternal.
It is not the time to hold to past hurts,he silently surrendered.
“We will do all that we can to find her and bring her home,” he promised his cousin, laying a comforting hand on Colin’sshoulder. “We will find a way to return your Rebecca to you and to her family.”
For the first time since Rebecca’s disappearance, a small glimmer of hope joined the pain in Colin’s eyes. “Where do we begin?”
“With this,” Emmeline’s voice answered from behind them.
Michael and Colin turned to face her, finding her standing with Rebecca’s handkerchief and locket in her hands.
“I believe that Rebecca left these behind on purpose as a message.”
Chapter 9
Emmeline sat in the blue damask drawing room, staring out of the window onto the street below. Sorrow and helplessness filled her being, threatening to drown her with their intensity.
In one hand, she held Rebecca’s locket and handkerchief, in the other, she absently played with the pendant of her own necklace that had been given to her by her father. She wished with all of her heart, mind, and soul that he was still alive and there with her.
He would know what to do about Rebecca’s disappearance. Their father had possessed the ability to find anything that he set his mind to. His skill in solving puzzles had been unmatched.
Theodocia entered the drawing room, her eyes falling on Emmeline’s pendant. “Thinking of your father?” she asked as she crossed the room and took the seat opposite Emmeline. Her red eyes against the pallor of her skin told Emmeline that she had been crying.
