The Viscount And The Virgin Part 18

'This morning. At the inn,' she confessed. Stephen had been in sis tent that they break fast before setting out. And although the last thing she had felt like doing was eating a mouthful, so anxious was she that word of her whereabouts might already have got back to Shevington Court, and someone would come to haul her back in disgrace, she had remembered how effectively Pansy's remedy for nausea had worked the day before. That plate of toast had kept her stomach calm all the way to London.

'You are wet through,' he said. 'What has happened to you? Why are you not with this other so-called brother of yours?'

'Well,' she sighed, 'he did not think it would be at all proper to have a married woman staying in his lodgings. Especially one who looked like she had been dragged through a hedge back wards.' She pushed a hank of wet hair off her face, and took a hefty swig of her brandy as her mind went back over that painful scene.

'I do not begin to understand what you thought you might accomplish by coming here,' Nick had said icily.

When she had began to stammer that it was be cause of the letter he had sent, he had pokered up, and stated, 'Germanicus is dead. There is nothing you can do about it. And if you think I am going to let a woman looking like that-' he had scathingly eyed her dishevelled appearance '-into my rooms then you are very much mistaken. I have prospects now, you know, Imogen. And I am not going to put my future at risk by letting you drag me into whatever scandal you are brewing. Now, I suggest you take yourself off back to your marital home, where you belong, and stop behaving like some kind of tragedy queen. I I shall call on shall call on you you there, at a more conventional hour.' there, at a more conventional hour.'

'You will do no such thing!' she had shouted at him, furious with herself for persistently refusing to admit how exactly like Hugh his middle son was. Totally self-centred and cold-hearted. All Hugh had cared about was books. And all Nick cared about was his career.

And she would rather die than go crawling to Monty's house in Hanover Square! She had immediately discounted any thoughts of returning to her aunt and uncle, too. Though her aunt might be sympathetic to her plight, her uncle was bound to be furious with her for coming up to London on an impulse, and alone.

'I shall go and stay with my true true brother,' she had spat at Nick. Well, he had been upset that she had not intended to in the first place, hadn't he? brother,' she had spat at Nick. Well, he had been upset that she had not intended to in the first place, hadn't he?

'Yes, that's right, the one who is half Gypsy. But let me tell you this,' she had said, jabbing Nick in his bony chest with her forefinger. 'He is twice the man you are. Ten times!'

Nick's thin lips had twisted into a sneer. 'The way you look I am sure you will fit right in with his camp on Hampstead Heath, or wherever they happen to be.'

'He,' she had boasted, 'has a very large house on Blooms bury Square, as it happens.' And with her nose in the air, she had turned and clattered down the dingy communal stair case of the cheap lodging house where Nick had rooms.

It was not until she had got into the street that she remembered she had no purse. She would have done anything rather than go back into Nick's rooms and beg for the means to procure a cab. Besides, it was not that far. The coach Stephen had hired had not taken a quarter of an hour to take her to Nick's lodgings.

And so, in high dudgeon, she had set out to walk to Blooms bury Square.

But those dratted indoor shoes! Ruefully, she rubbed at her wet and blistered feet. She had been limping before she had reached the first corner.

Stephen's gaze followed her movements. When he saw the state of her feet, he drew in a breath.

'I have to go out soon. It cannot be avoided. But Aktash will see to all your needs,' he said, crossing to the bell pull and tugging on it. 'You shall have shelter for the night. You stayed with me all night. You did your best to look after me. Now I do the same for you. And we are even,' he said fiercely. 'In the morning, we will discuss what your next move should be.'

Midge almost burst into tears again. She was safe, for now. But, oh, the problems she was going to have to face in the morning! Why, oh, why could she never think before charging off on one of her wild exploits? No wonder Monty was sick and tired of her. She was sick and tired of herself.

'What do you mean, she has disappeared?'

Monty glowered at his father, completely at a loss to understand how Midge could have vanished from a house that was teeming with so many servants.

'Somebody must have some idea where she is!'

Pansy, who had been summoned the moment Monty arrived at Shevington Court, wrung her hands. 'It wasn't till this morning, when I saw her bed had not been slept in, I got worried. Well, you know her routine. I only go up to her room now if she summons me special, excepting to take her break fast up and help her dress for the day.'

Cobbett cleared his throat. 'I believe I was the last person to see her, my lord,' he admitted guiltily. 'When I took up her post.'

Monty drew in a deep breath, stifling the urge to hit the poor fellow. It was not his fault that n.o.body had organized any kind of search party. Ever since Pansy had reported her missing, everyone seemed to have begun blaming everyone else. It was a wonder anybody had actually had the presence of mind to send for him at all.

'I had not yet instructed the staff to organize a watch on her movements,' admitted the earl. 'She was too quick for me. It is the way with women like that. You made a serious error of judgement, thinking you could tame Framlingham's daughter.'

'What?' Monty whirled round to stare at him. 'What are you insinuating?'

'Am I not making myself clear enough for you?' He sneered. 'I had already caught her trying to sneak down to the stables, the minute you had gone. I put a stop to that, you may be sure. Told her I knew what she was about!'

Monty shook his head impatiently. 'Midge gave me her word she would not go riding-'

'Not four-legged beasts, perhaps. But there are other attractions to be found in the stables for women like her.'

It was all Monty could do not to fly at the dirty-minded old man, casting aspersions on Midge's character, with servants present, too! Clenching his fists, he growled, 'Do you mean to tell me you accused her of plotting to seduce one of the grooms? Is that it? I would not have thought even you could stoop so low.'

The earl collapsed into his chair, his face growing pale. 'You should have been here to keep her under control,' he said querulously. 'I should not have to deal with such a termagant.'

'Gave you back as good as she got, did she?' said Monty with satisfaction. 'Good for her!'

'I should have known you would somehow ruin my plans for the next generation of Claremonts,' muttered the earl peevishly. 'Bringing a creature like that to Shevington. I am supposed to have complete peace and quiet!'

'Well, don't worry!' snapped Monty, turning on his heel. 'Once I find her, you may be sure neither of us will be returning to this benighted place!'

Muttering under his breath, Monty took the stairs to their suite two at a time. He did not know what he expected to find when he got there. It was just that that was where he pictured her. And the last place anyone had seen her.

When he strode into their sitting room, the first thing he saw was the vase, which she had taken such pains to save, lying smashed to pieces in the fire place. So many pieces-it must have been hurled to the ground with some force!

Midge had been furious. And who could blame her? His father was the outside of enough.

And far more unstable than even he had suspected. The earl had been so pleased Midge was pregnant. Monty would have thought that would have been enough to protect her from falling foul of one of his father's irrational out bursts.

Apparently not, he thought bitterly, nudging at some of the larger pieces of pottery with the toe of his boot.

Then some thing else caught his eye. A single sheet of writing paper. He picked it up, scanned it swiftly and screwed his eyes shut against the clipped, formal language in forming her of her stepbrother's death.

My G.o.d! He sank to the sofa, his head in his hands. Just when she had needed him most, he had not been here. He had gone running off to London, in a stupid attempt to preserve his own pride.

But what good was his d.a.m.ned dignity if he had lost her?

He could picture how it must have been. The scene with his father, and then getting news like that. She must have been beside herself to have hurled the vase into the fire place with such force. And then what? Knowing Midge, she had probably gone charging off without giving a thought to where she was going. Unless there was some particular spot on the estate she had grown fond of. Where she might go to find some kind of solace.

But then, why had she not returned at night fall?

His stomach clenched as he pictured her stumbling down the main stairs, weeping...running out into the woods she loved so much...falling...lying injured and so badly hurt she was unable to rise. And he cursed himself for not spending more time with her. For working so hard to prove himself worthy of the position he would one day fill. For putting his father's demands before her needs. Now the only people who might know where she might have gone were the twins, with whom she had spent the majority of her time.

The twins! His father was sending them away, any day now, but they had not gone yet.

Shooting to his feet, he charged along the corridor and up the stairs to the set of rooms in the attics they in habited.

They looked up from where they were kneeling on the floor packing their trunks, when he burst in upon them.

'Do you know where she might have gone?' he blurted.

They both looked at the screwed-up piece of paper he was still clutching in his hand.

'Doesn't it say in her note?' said Jem, at the exact same moment Tobe said, 'Just like our mother.'

'What?' Monty looked from one to the other, in complete bewilderment.

'We're sorry, Vern,' said Jem, getting up and wiping his nose on the sleeve of his jacket.

'She betrayed us, too.'

'Getting us banished from Shevington, coz there's only room for one baby in the nursery!'

'And then running off with her fancy man!' said Tobe indignantly. 'If she was gonna do that to you, there was no need to get us sent to school!'

'She has not run off with a fancy man!' Monty protested. 'She must have met with an accident. She is out there some where.' He waved his arm towards the window that over looked their beloved woods. 'Does she have a favourite place? Some where she would go if she was upset?'

The twins looked at each other and he could see some message pa.s.s between them, before Jem looked him straight in the eye and declared, with touching sympathy, 'Vern, we told told you, she's gone to the Silent Woman to meet her fancy man!' you, she's gone to the Silent Woman to meet her fancy man!'

'Hanging around here for days, he was.'

'And she pre tended she didn't want to see him.'

'But as soon as you left, she went straight off after him like a shot!'

A new fear gripped Monty as he recalled the dreamy expression on her face, the night he had a.s.saulted her on Lady Carteret's terrace. Her insistence it had been produced by thinking about some other man. How, a few days ago, she had thrust a letter into the flames and lied about its contents. And how her face had closed up when he had for bid den her to go to London with him.

He strode towards the window, running the fingers of one hand through his hair, whilst crumpling the letter from her step brother in the other.

He was constantly running up against the spectre of that Other Man!

But surely, Midge would not just run out on him? She was too honest, too direct to behave in such a sneaky way. And now that she was expecting, too...h.e.l.l, she knew how much this child meant to everyone at Shevington!

No, he could not believe she would be so deliberately cruel. She did not have a cruel bone in her body.

And what was more, he could not believe she could have made love with him with such wild abandon, if any other man was of the least importance to her. She was not the wanton his father painted her! Why, when he thought how embarra.s.sed she became whenever he at tempted to take their love making to a new level...

He rounded on the twins, his eyes narrowing. For some reason, they were lying to him.

'Tell me what has really happened,' he growled, seizing each of them by one ear. 'Or so help me I will make you rue the day you were born!'

'Ow, stop it!'

'Let go!'

'Not until you tell me the truth!'

'We have! We have! She's gone to the Silent Woman!'

'She must have,' whined Tobe. 'We took the message from the man on the black horse, and then we saw her running off in the direction of the village!'

'Man on the black horse?' he said, abruptly letting them go. 'There really was a man asking to see her? What,' he asked, dreading their answer, 'exactly does he look like?'

'Like a Gypsy,' said Jem without hesitation.

'Yes, he's got an earring and a dagger in his boot and everything!'

A chill tied his guts into a knot as he saw, finally, why she had not come back.

He had not been able to believe Midge could be un faithful. But he could believe that, in her naivete, she had gone running off to meet Stephen after the dreadful day she'd had! For she had no idea how dangerous the man was.

Because he had never warned her.

He had thought he was shielding her from distress by not telling her how the fiend had abducted Marcus Carlow's wife. He had not wanted her upset by learning how the devil had plotted to ruin Stanegate's sister Honoria, either.

But when he thought of the silken noose Stephen had sent her, as a warning of his intentions, his stomach turned over.

Dear G.o.d, if any harm came to her...

With a face like thunder, he thrust the twins aside and made straight for the stables. She had already been in his clutches for over a day. But he would find her.

And heaven help that Gypsy b.a.s.t.a.r.d when he did!

Chapter Twelve

Midge did not wake the next day until nearly noon. And then only because a thin, sallow-faced maid came bustling into her room with a break fast tray.

She also brought water for washing, and a complete set of clean clothing. When Midge tried to thank her, she just shrugged, and said, 'Master's orders,' in a dismissive tone.

Once Midge had settled her stomach with a plate of toast and washed and dressed, the girl led her down stairs to a room she de scribed as a library, although it did not contain many books, and handed her over to Akshat.

'Stephen Sahib regrets he has to attend to some business today. He will return about seven this evening. If you are still here when he returns, he will dine at home. In the meantime, my instructions are to provide you with whatever you require,' he said, and bowed respectfully.

The trouble was, she had not been able to think of anything she did need. She was already feeling overwhelmed by the extent of Stephen's hospitality.

'Th-thank you,' she eventually managed to stammer. 'If I think of anything...'

The Indian man servant had indicated the latest issue of the Times Times spread out on a table under the window. 'Perhaps you would care to read. But if there is anything else-' he made a graceful gesture towards the bell pull by the fire place '-you have only to ring.' spread out on a table under the window. 'Perhaps you would care to read. But if there is anything else-' he made a graceful gesture towards the bell pull by the fire place '-you have only to ring.'

Midge had meekly walked over to the table and looked down, but her eyes only flicked over the closely packed columns of news print without registering a single word.

She was reeling from the thinly veiled message Stephen had delivered via Akshat. Stephen would put off whatever he had planned to do this evening if she was still there when he got home. But he more than half expected her to shake the dust from her feet the moment she woke up.