Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [111]
Tabitha applied another glob of soap to her already spotless hands. “It helps us know if he left before or after the rain stopped last night.”
Fanny was now open-mouthed. “How can you think of all that at a time like this? We just know Raleigh hasn’t been seen since we went to bed last night.”
“I’m trained to think like this.”
“But you’re not trained to rub the skin off your hands.” Dominick appeared, set the bowl of soap out of Tabitha’s reach, and lifted the pitcher of clear water. “Hold your hands out.”
“You’re just as bad as she is,” Fanny wailed. “Who cares about soap? My brother is missing.”
“Yes, Miss Trower, I heard.” Dominick’s mouth set in a thin line. His jaw looked hard. He didn’t give Fanny a sympathetic comment such as expressing sorrow or regret.
Not like her Dominick at all.
Uneasiness added its weight to Tabitha’s fear. If he didn’t react with horror to Raleigh’s disappearance, perhaps he knew something already. Or had learned something.
“Dominick?” she started to ask.
“Did you look for footprints outside the house?” Dominick asked.
“You don’t care, do you?” Fanny glared at him. “You’re one of those—those—Englishmen we all hate for good reason.”
“And you think you won’t be welcome in England,” Dominick murmured to Tabitha. “She couldn’t flirt with me enough a few days ago.”
“Fanny,” Tabitha said in as calm a tone as she could manage, “that was uncalled-for and unkind. Dominick had nothing to do with Raleigh’s disappearance.”
“How do you know?” Fanny, tears still streaming down her face, clenched her fists at her sides. “He’s the enemy, isn’t he? But you prefer him to my brother. If you hadn’t, if you’d married Raleigh, he’d still be here.”
“Only if he’d stayed to marry her,” Dominick shot back. “Now, do please apologize to Miss Eckles and let us see what we can do to help find your brother.”
“I don’t want your help.” Fanny spun on her heel and raced to the gate.
“Then why did she go running about looking for you?” Deborah asked as she emerged from the house.
“She’s overwrought.” Dominick shoved his hands into his coat pockets. Paper crackled, and his mouth and jaw took on their earlier grimness. “Letty, can you do without Tabitha from now on today?”
“And you too, I presume?” Letty called from the hearth. “If the girls get back in here and help stir instead of gawking like a couple of mooncalves.”
“Go,” Dominick ordered.
“Humph.” Dinah tossed her head. “You’re not our master.”
“Do you want me to tell him you’re shirking your duties and making Letty work harder?”
“You wouldn’t,” Deborah protested.
“We’d tell him you’ve been kissing Miss Tabitha.” Dinah gave him a sly look.
Dominick tugged the bow securing her mobcap to her head. “Go right ahead. I dare you.”
“You—you oaf.” Hands clutching her slipping cap, Dinah raced into the kitchen.
“Your admirers disappear with the speed of our male citizens,” Tabitha said.
“You don’t look amused.” Dominick took her hand, then released it. “Get rid of that apron, do please.”
“Oh, the apron.” Tabitha yanked it over her head and tossed it toward the washstand. “And I’m not amused. The hostility of too many people around here toward your being English is . . . frightening. During the revolution, people did things to loyalists. I’m afraid for your safety.”
“I’m not precisely coolheaded about it myself.” He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm. “Earlier, if Letty hadn’t pointed out that I was locked up in my bedchamber all night, I think they would have hanged me from the nearest tree several times over.”
“Then maybe you should stay here and let me help search.”
“I can’t.” His free hand slipped into his pocket again. “I can’t sit about like womenfolk and wait for something to happen to anyone else.”
“Is it going to?”
“I have reason to believe so.”
She caught her breath. “You found something.”
He nodded, and his face worked. “Not here.” He opened the gate and ushered her through.
They couldn’t talk in the alley or the street or the square. Too many people milled about or rushed with apparent purpose in different