Page 31 of A Virgin to Tame the Duke
“Aaron,” he corrected.
“Aaron,” Mrs. Brookes repeated. “How is Lady Constance? I feel certain she must be doing extremely well in London for her first Season. Such a beautiful girl! And so very charming.”
Charlotte didn’t dare look at Aaron. There was no hint of guile in her voice or expression, and Charlotte was certain she wasn’t attempting to mislead them by asking after Constance. Constance wasn’t here.
Aaron smiled with his usual grace though Charlotte noticed he tensed beside her. “She’s taken the world by storm,” he said. “I practically had to field away her suitors.”
Mrs. Brookes chuckled. “I can imagine that.”
“You must come to Hexham Place for dinner next week,” Aaron said, taking Mrs. Brooke’s hand. “I shall arrange a gathering for all our old friends in the area, and you must come.”
“Oh, I—” Mrs. Brookes’ gaze slid to Charlotte. “I hardly see why I should be invited to such a gathering.”
“We should be very pleased for you to come,” Charlotte said warmly. She had never had such a friendship with her old nurse, but it would have been nice if she had.
And through this, she was not seeing the proud Duke she had come to know. He sat in the cramped parlor in her tiny cottage and conversed as though he was in a palace. This was true breeding. Not false pride but charm and grace. Strange that she had once thought him so very disagreeable.
“Well, if you insist,” Mrs. Brookes said. “I should be delighted.”
“I’m afraid we must go,” Aaron said, standing, “but when I see you next, I should love to hear more about your niece, Miss Gray.”
“Sophia!” Mrs. Brookes’ expression lit like a flaring match. “What a delight it shall be to tell you about her.”
“She is extremely accomplished,” Aaron told Charlotte as they made their way back to the front door, “and she does Mrs. Brookes great credit.”
“Oh, to be sure, it’s very kind of you to say so,” Mrs. Brookes said.
“Then I, too, would love to meet her,” Charlotte said. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Brookes.”
“The pleasure is all my mine, my dear. I’m glad to see you are both so very happy.”
“So very happy,” Charlotte repeated, and they made their goodbyes, hurrying from Mrs. Brookes’ cottage to the sole inn in the center of town. It was an old-fashioned building but warm and comfortable inside, and it enjoyed a lot of patronage as one of the few places to stay and change horses along this section of the Great North Road.
“It’s a rather sparsely populated area,” Aaron explained as they entered the building. Even in the rain, the courtyard was filled with horses and carriages and ostlers running about. “If Constance is not here, I have hope someone here might have seen her.”
“She disappeared two weeks ago,” Charlotte said. “Do you think someone will remember from that long ago?”
“Someone might remember the Duke’s sister in an unfamiliar carriage, yes,” he said grimly. Their presence attracted an innkeeper almost immediately. He was a rather worn man in middling old age and with very little hair on the top of his head. He had an open, friendly face, however, and Charlotte found herself instantly liking him.
“How may I be of assistance, Your Grace?” the innkeeper asked, wiping his hands on his apron. “Come in for a spot of breakfast?” Charlotte glanced around at the tables filled with patrons eating with tired faces and a mug of ale beside them.
“Not today,” Aaron said though the use oftodaysurprised Charlotte; she hadn’t thought an establishment such as this would be the sort Aaron would willingly eat at. “My matter is a little more delicate.”
The innkeeper understood immediately and bowed them ahead of him. “This way, Your Grace.” He took them to an empty room and shut the door behind them. “What can I do you for?”
“This is to go no further,” Aaron said, laying his hand on a chair. “In fact, I would rather it didn’t have to go this far at all, but let us say I am left with no choice.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Your Grace.”
“The fact is my sister, Lady Constance, is missing. I’ve done what I can to keep it from the papers, but the long and short of it is that she went missing on her wedding day, and I have been unable to locate her.”
“Ah,” the innkeeper said, drawing out the word in a long breath. “I understand, Your Grace.”
“If you have seen any sight of her, I beg you would tell me now so I may find her and put to right any wrongs that may have occurred.”
The innkeeper looked once again at the closed door and stepped away from it, further into the room. Charlotte watched with interest as he dropped his voice. “As it happens, Your Grace, I have seen her, but I thought nothing of it at the time. About two weeks ago, or thereabouts, a carriage containing Lady Constance pulled up in our yard, and, of course, I went out to see her. She declined coming in for refreshments and said she was continuing to the house which I did think was odd considering you were not with her. But she said you knew of the whole and would be following shortly.”
“I see,” Aaron said curtly. “And was there any indication of where she went?”
