Dangerous in Diamonds - Madeline Hunter [76]
“I do not use that word euphemistically, Summerhays. There is really business between us, of a nature I am not at liberty to describe.”
Summerhays grinned. “I am sure there is.”
“Stop smirking like a lewd old man and send up for her, if you do not mind.”
Summerhays fingered the card. “I would, and I would even leave you alone with her to discuss this business in privacy, only the lady is not here. She left the house two days ago.”
Castleford made sure he did not react in any visible way, but a scathing anger flared in his head again. If she had left this house, she had left London. She knew that he would be coming for her after he procured those damned letters, and she had run away.
The coward. The bitch.
This was not to be borne. To allow this would mean admitting she had played him for the worst fool in a long game, with nothing more than his humiliation as the goal.
Summerhays watched him. Castleford sprawled, crossed his arms, and pretended to swallow a yawn. “Left, did she? That is good to know. I will have to write to her at Cumberworth instead, and settle the matter by mail.”
“I do not think she is in Cumberworth. She took one of our carriages, and one of our coachmen, and neither has returned yet.”
Fury gave up some ground to a surge of profound curiosity. “That is odd.”
“Yes, isn’t it?”
“Do the servants know where she went?”
“They only report that she took a valise but not all of her things, and that she told the coachman that they would first go west, then north.”
North? She had once said that Captain Joyes’s regiment had been in the north when she married him. Only there had never been a Captain Joyes.
“I don’t suppose Lady Sebastian can guess where she went?”
Summerhays set the card down on the table near him. “She assumes that Mrs. Joyes went to The Rarest Blooms first, then perhaps to visit her husband’s family, whom she recalls perhaps living in the north. It had been some time since Mrs. Joyes was home. If she intended a journey of any length, she would want to make sure all was in order at The Rarest Blooms first. Other than that, Audrianna has no idea. This uncharacteristic behavior on the part of Mrs. Joyes has distressed her, however. I fear that she will worry.”
West first, then north. It was possible that Daphne had not left The Rarest Blooms yet. He could write to Edwards, he supposed, and find out, and also ask where she had gone after if she had already left.
He stood. “I will leave so you can settle your household back in here. Give my warmest regards to your wife, Summerhays, and to your brother, when he arrives.
Dark had enshrouded the property when Castleford rode up the lane of The Rarest Blooms. Light glowed behind the windowpanes of the first floor, however.
He tied his horse and used the door knocker. It seemed as if the house’s stones held their breath at the sound he made. After a protracted pause, the door opened a crack. Spectacles peered out. Castleford peered back.
What in hell—
“Sir!”
“Open the damned door, Edwards.”
It flew wide. “Your Grace, this is so unexpected.”
“It certainly is. What do you have there? A pistol? Hell, point it elsewhere, you fool.”
Edwards remembered the gun in his hand and let his arm fall so it aimed at the floor.
“What are you doing here, sir?”
“What are you doing here?”
“Protecting the women, sir. The way you commanded me.”
“Do you stay on guard all night? You took my words most literally. No wonder your last letter did not complain of bedbugs.”
He pushed past Edwards and strode into the house. He paced to the back sitting room and peered through the panes to the greenhouse to see if anyone was in there. Especially anyone with very fair hair, maybe wearing extremely expensive diamonds.
Curiosity and anger had battled all the way down here. As he approached, anger had won out again.
A small noise to his right made him pivot. The sound had been a woman’s step on the floorboards, he was sure.
“Come out now. There will be no running away any longer,” he said. “I’ll be damned before I allow this farce to continue one more