A Bound Of Honour Part 27

confusion and uncertainty of the night were gone.

Stripping back the drapery, Juliane jumped from the bed. First she must learn what Adrian had done; then she must decide upon a course of action.

Peeking into the hall, she saw the guards still standing at the children's door. Clicking the door shut, she

asked herself why they would be there-to what purpose? Was last night a nightmare?

Glancing down at her left hand, Juliane dismissed that idea. The wedding band was proof enough of the night's events.

Not able to face Bess's chatter, she did not call for her maid but dressed as quickly as she could. Her first step must be to try and find some clue as to how the children had been taken. The first place to examine would be their rooms.

Pausing at the nursery door Juliane asked the guards, "Why are you still here?"

"Lord Tretain's orders" was their only reply.

The room remained as she remembered it, the beds apart, but nothing else disturbed. Searching, Juliane found only a few sets of clothing gone and oddly enough several of Andre's toy soldiers missing from the shelf where he kept them.

Perhaps Alva had thought to take them so he could have something familiar with him, she reasoned. It was strange they had taken Alva with them, but a hopeful sign as well. They could not mean to harm the children if they took pains to provide someone to help care for them.

Having learned all she could from the rooms, Juliane went in search of Lord Adrian. With some surprise, she found him in the small salon visiting casually with Comte de Cavilon.

"My lord ... Adrian," she hastily corrected herself, "I would have thought..."

"What would you have thought, my dear?"

"What is being done to find the children?" she demanded. "Why are you here?"

"You believe me responsible for their disappearance. If that is true, it would be rather silly for me to be rushing about supposedly trying to find them," Lord Adrian answered sarcastically.

Taken aback by this totally unexpected reply, Lady Juliane gasped. She stared in wonder, then fled the room, running until she was safely in her room. Slamming the door shut, she leaned against it, her heart torn by his words and look.

He had all but confirmed her worst fears, and in front of Cavilon as well. There was nothing left but for her to take matters into her own hands regardless of the consequences.

Bess entered and was told to fetch the smallest valise she could find. Returning, she handed it to Lady Juliane who tossed it onto the bed. Helping her ladyship into the starkest riding habit she could find, Bess found herself dismissed.

Juliane then stuffed the valise with items deemed necessary. Strapping it shut, she took a long, slow look about her and sighed heavily. If only circ.u.mstances could have been different.

Going to her jewellery case, Lady Juliane slipped off the two rings Lord Adrian had given her and replaced them with her mother's wedding band.

Lord Adrian's rings she held tightly for a long moment. Bidding farewell to all the hopes she had cherished, both knowingly and unknowingly, Lady Juliane walked firmly through the connecting pa.s.sageway into Adrian's room.

It did not take long to locate the tray in which his cufflinks and cravat pins were placed. She could trust Mallatt to give the rings to him if he happened to find them first. Two tears dropped unbidden onto the tray as she placed the rings there. Biting her lip, Juliane quickly searched the bureau beneath and found what she needed.

Racing back to her room, she quickly reopened the valise and put the pistol within. Then, grabbing her cloak and taking up the valise, she hurried through the back corridors to the stables.

Although surprised to see Lady Juliane at such an early hour, cloak and valise in hand, the grooms dared not refuse her authoritative orders. Quickly, they readied the spirited mare she selected.

"The mare is ready, your ladyship, but please, wait only a moment until I am ready. You are not familiar with our countryside and should not be out alone," pleaded the groom, certain the master's wrath would fall on him if he allowed Lady Juliane to go out unescorted a second time.

"I will not go far. I have need of fresh air. Give me a leg up," she ordered, ignoring his protest. "Let go of her head." Settled in the saddle, she urged the mare out at a spanking pace. No one could stop her now.

Only when she reined the mare to a halt on a knoll past the woods did Lady Juliane realize how foolish she had been. She wanted to rush back to the house. But with Adrian's pistol she was safe enough-she knew how to use one, and she knew the lay of the land better than anyone supposed. In her idle hours the library had yielded many interesting facts about the Tretain estate.

Studying a map she had copied, Juliane chose a direction. The map was old, but precisely detailed.

Some of the huts and farms drawn on it were certain to be abandoned by now. It was her intent to search them, for she was certain one of them had to be where they held the children.

By noon Juliane had covered but a tiny portion of the countryside. All of the huts she had found had been occupied. She grimaced-the hostility and suspicion of the inhabitants was the last thing she had expected. On reflection, she should have known better. A lady of Quality did not gallivant over the rural countryside asking questions and travel unattended without raising suspicions.

As dusk began to fall, Juliane shuddered. Her cloak warded off this early chill but what of the night? The mare also was showing signs of displeasure, wanting its ration of grain and warm stall.

Veering around a clump of trees that had taken on an eerie form, her mount stumbled. Lady Juliane managed to keep her seat but the valise tumbled to the ground.

"Drat!" she expostulated. To retrieve it meant dismounting, no problem in itself, but remounting was another matter. Deciding that a solution would present itself, she slipped to the ground. The valise recovered, she tied it securely to the saddle and led the mare forward.

Darkness swooped down as dusk abandoned her. Juliane was hard put to keep up her courage. The previously silent landscape came suddenly alive with sounds of eerie and menacing import. Croaks, hoots, tweaks took on spectral airs. Even the snapping twigs beneath her feet and the thump of the mare's hooves startled.

Moving forward listening to every sound, time dragged by slowly. Lady Juliane had no concept of how long she had been walking when a large, dark shape loomed before her.

Halting, she studied it, trying to determine exactly what it was. With caution, she approached. Itappeared to be a hut of sorts-perhaps an old barn or stable. Shelter for the night at least, shethought. If only it proved uninhabited.

Certain that her thudding heart could be heard by anyone and everything, she slowly approached the hut. Stopping short at what she thought were footsteps, Juliane listened intently. Hearing nothing further, she a.s.sured herself all was well. A few more steps brought her to the door. She knocked timidly, then more firmly. The door creaked slowly open. "Is anyone here?" Juliane asked shakily. By magic, a light appeared and a voice spoke. "Oui, madame. How kind of you to join us." Turning to flee, she fell into the arms of a second man who had appeared behind her. In a wild glance she saw that a third man had hold of the mare.

"With your presence, Lady Perrill, our group is complete," said a refined, masculine voice. "Will you not step inside and be comfortable?"

CHAPTER 21.

"Were you not a bit rigoureux on her, Adrian? She has not had an easy time of it," Comte de Cavilon noted softly to his friend.

"And what have I had? d.a.m.nation." Rising, the earl strode to the fire. "I did not mean that," he said slowly to no one. "Something seems to come over me when I am near her."

"Love is often like that, mon ami," answered the comte quietly. "You are fortunate to have found someone who loves you as you love her. Do not throw it away on a misunderstanding."

Lord Adrian pivoted to face him, his face as black as the comte had ever seen it. "You do not understand."

"I comprehend more than you can know. We alone suffer when we let pride and obstinacy stops us

from doing what we really want to do, or from saying what we should." He paused.

"Or from unsaying that which never should have been said." Cavilon laid a hand on Adrian's back. "I have been where you are now," he said sadly, "and I failed. By all I know true, Juliane loves you.

"Have you told her that you love her-or have you, as usual, left her to guess that you do? I leave you to

think on it."

The struggle was brief. Love overcame pride. But Adrian's decision to search for Juliane was thwarted before it could be put into action.

Re-entering the room excitedly as Adrian was about to leave, Cavilon said, "A messenger has just arrived with word from one of our men. He believes he may have located the kidnappers. We are to meet him at the Oaks this evening."

"Good. Action is what we need." Adrian rubbed his hands in antic.i.p.ation.

"My lord," interrupted Holdt. "There are two, er, gentlemen asking to see you."

"Did they give their names or mention their business?"

Adrian.

To Cavilon he said, "I will be back. We will lay our plans as soon as I finish with them. Wait for me."

As Lord Adrian entered his study, the squire and his companion stood, ill at ease.

"I understand you wish to see me," Adrian said as he stood before them.

"Ah, yes," squirmed the squire.

"What is it?"

"If you will let me speak, m'lord?" The second man stepped forward.

"As you will."

"There was an unpleasant incident some weeks back involving the deaths of a postilion and an abigail."

He paused.

Lord Adrian said nothing. He took a seat behind his desk.

"The squire, here," he jerked his head toward the uncomfortable-looking man, he says he talked with your man at..." He paused once more, removed a small book from inside his coat and thumbed through the pages. "He talked with your man, Mallatt, at a farmer's cottage-Jove Foster's. Is this true?"

"Yes."

"Mr. Foster said you, your wife, two children, and valet stumbled into their farmyard during a heavy snowstorm. You were injured?" He looked at Lord Adrian who nodded, then continued.

"The day before you departed, there was an attempt to abduct the boy-Andre?"

Again Lord Adrian nodded, not certain of the direction this questioning.

"This is all true?" the man asked, evidently unsatisfied by Adrian's nod.

The earl rose and slowly walked around his desk. "Squire, perhaps you could explain all these questions."

"We don't, ah, we don't want to cause you no trouble, your lordship-but I am magistrate."