Page 50 of Her Wicked Highwayman
“Gone,” Rafe said quietly. “A year ago in Edinburgh.” He looked into the distance, and her heart ached in sympathy.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned it?—”
Rafe managed a smile. “It’s quite all right. Isla knows her mother is gone and that she loved her very much.”
Isla watched them both with grave, silent eyes as she ate her biscuits. Diana felt wretched for asking such a painful question in front of the child.
“Mrs. Chesterfield, would you mind watching Isla for a few minutes? I need to walk about.” Rafe stood and bowed to Diana, just as Rosalind returned to the table. Then he strode away down one of the garden paths.
“Oh dear. It seems I’ve made a mess of things,” Diana confessed to Rosalind. “He must miss his wife desperately.”
Rosalind blinked. “Wife?” She cradled Malcolm in her arms as she leaned forward to whisper, “He’s never been married.”
“What do you mean?” Diana asked in confusion.
Rosalind shook her head again and looked at the nanny. “Would you mind taking Isla to the fountains and letting her play for a bit?”
“Yes, my lady.” Mrs. Chesterfield clasped Isla’s little hand and led the little girl off into the gardens. Rosalind turned back to Diana.
“Rafe has never been married,” Rosalind began. “Isla is his adopted daughter. She was found in Scotland by Rafe, my older brother Brodie, and his wife, Lydia. Isla’s mother died of an illness. Her body was stolen by some men who sold corpses to doctors. The men would have killed Isla because she’d witnessed their body-snatching, but Lydia rescued her and brought her home. She took to Rafe like a little chick upon first hatching, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. I’m not quite sure who rescued whom, to be honest.”
The nanny and the little girl had disappeared between hedgerows. There was something about Isla that tugged fiercely at Diana’s heart. A girl who had lost her family but had found—or rather,chosen—another. She was a strong child and would grow into a strong woman. The Lennoxes were wonderful people, the perfect family to take care of such a brave girl.
“I believe you are the first woman to ever ruffle Rafe’s feathers like that,” Rosalind said.
Diana blinked. “Pardon?”
“Rafe, my brother-in-law, is a rake—or rather, he’s in the process of reforming himself from being one—but he’s never let a woman affect him before. He always rises to a challenge, and yet at one question from you, he flees into the gardens.”
“Affect him? You mean Iupsethim. I asked about a woman who’d died, the mother of the child who is so clearly dear to him. I feel like I stabbed the man in the heart...” Diana’s face heated with fresh mortification.
“Why don’t you go and speak to him?” Rosalind suggested.
“I couldn’t. He left us to have a moment alone. The last thing he desires is to have me disturb him.”
Rosalind patted Malcolm’s bottom as he made soft sucking sounds with his little mouth. “Nonsense. He needs to speak about Isla’s parents. He needs to be comfortable with her past so that she may be comfortable with it as well. If you help the man, you help the child.”
Diana bit her lip. “You truly think I should go after him?”
“I do. And this little one needs to be fed and put down for a nap. So I shall excuse myself while you seek out Rafe.” Rosalind rose, and a footman opened the door to the house for her.
Diana was halfway to the gardens when she realized how scandalous it was to seek out a man on her own. However... this wasn’t London, and her married hostess had insisted that she seek the gentleman out. Not to mention that the gentleman in question was her hostess’s brother-in-law. Surely it couldn’t be that scandalous... And it wasn’t as though she had a reputation to worry over.
The clouds overhead began to eclipse the sun, and a chill wind rushed through the trees and flowers. She shivered and rubbed her arms. She was thankful she’d worn a long-sleeved gown, but the sudden loss of sunlight was like the unexpected kiss of winter on the summer day. Thunder rumbled, still distant, but walls of sweeping rain could now be seen flowing across the distant golden meadows, turning the grass a dark bronze. She looked back the way she’d come, wondering if she should go back into the house. But no, she still had to apologizeto Rafe, and she was no stranger to a little rain. She would find him, and they would walk back together.
She reached a lovely fountain with a stone statue of Neptune mounted in the center, water spouting from his hands and a large carved fish at his feet. She paused to admire the work of art, but there was no sign of the nanny or the little girl she’d expected to see.
“Help!”
A scream tore through the gardens. Diana spun and ran toward the sound, taking turns around bushes until she found the nanny on the path ahead of her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked as she reached Mrs. Chesterfield.
The older woman was clutching her chest and gasping, her face red and her eyes blurred with tears. “The baby! I lost the baby!”
“The baby? Rosalind just took him inside for a nap.”
“No, not Malcom. Little Isla. She’s gone!”
