the bloody carriage disappeared into thin air.” Lord Nesfield lifted his lorgnette to peer at her. “Didn’t she tell you anything else? Write you about any man she had met?”
“If you’ll recall, Lord Nesfield,” Emily said stiffly, “you forbade her to write to me. And Sophie is always careful to honor your wishes.”
Lady Dundee’s muffled laugh provoked Lord Nesfield’s anger. “Well, she wasn’t so bloody careful when she ran off with that bounder!”
Emily glared at him. This wasn’t her fault, after all. “But surely she was willing to tell you who it was once the elopement failed.”
“No, damn it all!” His grizzled cheeks puffed out in indignation as he punctuated each word with a tap of his cane. “She won’t say anything!”
“Calm down, Randolph. Your dramatics won’t help the situation.” Lady Dundee smiled thinly at Emily. “It seems my niece has suddenly grown a spine. She refuses to reveal her true love’s name. No one can break her silence, not even me. All she’ll say is that they’re in love, and she’ll marry him no matter what we do or say.”
“I would have brought the insolent girl here tosee if you might get the truth out of her,” Lord Nesfield grumbled to Emily, “but I feared that the blackguard would come here as well. At least he will not think to look for her in Scotland.”
“What about Sophie’s maid? Couldn’t she tell you anything?”
“She, too, ran off on the night of the attempted elopement.” Lord Nesfield sat down on the other end of the settee. “If I find her, I will string her up by her sassy tongue, I will. Never did like that maid. She was a bad influence on my Sophie.”
Emily bit back a smile. She’d yet to see a single person whom Lord Nesfield regarded as a good influence. Sophie’d had six different maids in the last five years, and this one had stayed on longer than most, given Lord Nesfield’s mercurial temper.
Lady Dundee reached forward to pour herself more tea. “About all we can determine is that Sophie met the man in London. How else could she have been put in the company of such a blackguard?”
“How else indeed,” Lord Nesfield growled. “And we know he is a fortune hunter, to be sure. If he were respectable, he would have asked me for her hand.”
With difficulty, Emily stifled a retort. Lord Nesfield’s reputation might have cowed even a respectable man. Then again, elopements seldom occurred between people of equal wealth and station. Perhaps Lord Nesfield’s concern was justified.
“He’s probably a titled man without a fortune, or some second son eager to snatch an heiress,” Lady Dundee said. “Such men would have enough family influence to keep their attempt secret from Bow Street Runners.”
Clearly, neither of them thought it was simply a man in love, someone who knew he’d never havea chance with Sophie otherwise. Given Sophie’s lack of experience, they could be right.
Lady Dundee leaned back in her chair, settling her violet satin skirts about her like an unfurling sail. “Now you see why we’re in a bind, Miss Fairchild. My niece is eager to return to her secret suitor. If we don’t discover him soon, I fear he’ll make a second attempt. And he just might succeed. We can’t keep the girl hidden in Scotland forever. People will talk. Her other suitors—and Randolph says there have been several—will want to know where she is. We must tell them something. But first we must unmask the scoundrel who started this.”
“Then I can deal with him—offer him money to be rid of him or threaten to discredit him,” Lord Nesfield put in. “But I cannot put an end to the scheme until I know who is behind it.”
Emily sighed. “I see what you mean. I only wish I could help you more. But as I said before, Sophie never spoke of being in love with any young man.”
“Ah, but you can help us,” Lady Dundee said. “We’re relying entirely on you.” Two pairs of eyes suddenly fixed on her,
Dorothy Calimeris, Sondi Bruner