“And what did she tell him?” Hunter said, unable to leave it alone.
“I think she made her feelings clear, Sir when she turned from him and ran away,” Rose said in a curiously comical turn of phrase which reminded him so very much of her beautiful sister.
“I see.”
“But surely if you know this, Lord Addison, you know that she refused him without question,” Rose said and sounded a little confused.
“In truth, Emmeline did not tell me of the proposal. Rather Kent Fitzgerald himself did at an evening of cards at Croston Hall laid on by Giles Calloway. When I look at it now, I realize that he was likely trying to put me off in some way, to have me think twice about making a similar proposal myself.”
“I would not doubt it. I have come to realize that Kent Fitzgerald is a most devious character. He has engineered many a coincidence, an opportunity to be in my sister’s company, that has made me feel most unsettled. I truly believe that he has greatly used Mr Calloway and their tentative acquaintance to achieve such a thing. It is most calculated, Sir, and it is a thing which gives me the greatest concern of all for her safety now,” Rose said, and Hunter realized that she was finally about to give him her theory.
“Then you think that your sister’s disappearance has something to do with your cousin? You think that she has gone away with Kent Fitzgerald?” Hunter said, his mouth dry and his fists surreptitiously clenched.
“I do not think that she has gone away with him. But I think he has her, has taken her with him against her will.”
“Dear Lord, why did you not say so?” Constance Fitzgerald said desperately.
“Because I wanted Lord Addison to be here when I did. There would have been no use in me telling it to you Mama, in burdening you so, without a man’s help on hand. If he has taken her, Mama, there is nothing that you or I can do about it, do you not see?” Rose said and hurried across the room to take her mother’s hands in her own. “Forgive me, Mama, but I only did what I thought was best.”
Hunter could see such similarity between Rose and her sister now that it almost broke his heart. She was showing the same sense and bravery that Emmeline had shown on the night of her humiliation at Ashton House. It was clear to him that Charles and Constance Fitzgerald had raised two very fine young ladies.
“Are you quite sure that your sister would not have gone with him willingly? Are you quite sure that the idea of saving her family home, her childhood home, was not too great to resist?” Hunter said, feeling that they had all now reached an understanding whereby they could speak their minds a little more freely than etiquette might ordinarily allow for.
“If she had gone with him freely, Lord Addison, my sister would have taken her clothes. As it is, she has taken nothing, not even a shawl. That is what first worried me when I had thought that she had simply gone for a walk, the idea that she had not even a shawl around her shoulders. Wherever she is, she is in the gown that she was wearing in this drawing room yesterday, with no other warm clothing at all. Emmeline is too sensible a woman to have left the house without taking anything, anything at all.”
“And what of your servants? Did none of them see or hear anything?”
“None of them had seen anybody come to the house, and none of them saw my sister leave at all. The first they had heard of her disappearance was when my mother and I questioned them thoroughly as to my sister’s whereabouts.”
“So, there is nothing to suggest a struggle?”
“No, there is nothing to suggest a struggle. But one of the maids felt sure she heard carriage wheels upon the driveway. Thinking that it was my mother and I returned from our trip into town, the maid hastened to the front of the house to see if she could help us with our parcels of fabric. But when she arrived, there was no sign of any carriage.” Rose paused for a moment to compose herself. “But I do believe that she heard a carriage, Sir. But it was the sound of a carriage leaving, not arriving. Our driveway is short, and it is perfectly feasible that there would have been no sign of the carriage at all by the time the maid had reached the front of the house. It would have been gone, already some distance away and behind the cover of the trees which line the roadway.”
“I must admit that everything you say begins to add up, Miss Fitzgerald. I think it very likely that your sister left this house in the carriage. But I must ask you, once and for all, are you absolutely certain that your sister has no fond feeling for Mr Fitzgerald whatsoever?”
“For heaven’s sake, Lord Addison, my sister has fond feelings for no other man but you,” Rose said in complete exasperation.
“But I …” Hunter said and found himself unable to complete the sentence.
“I understand that you might not want to hear this, given the conditions of your proposal to my sister, but she loves you. I know this because she told me so in secret and begged that I would say nothing lest you hear of it.”
“But why would she not tell me?”
“Because she feared that you would choose not to marry her in the end. She knows that you do not wish for love yourself and had decided to keep her own love for you tucked away in her heart.” Rose was becoming distressed. “In truth, I would not break my sister’s confidence so, but you must understand that I tell you this so that you might realize that my sister would never leave this house willingly with any man but you. Whatever comes of it, whatever you now choose to do, whether you break your engagement or not, hardly matters to me anymore. All I care about is my sister, and I would beg that you believe me that she has been taken from this house against her will. Please help us, Lord Addison, I beg you.”
Hunter rose to his feet and strode across the room to take the weeping young woman in his arms. He held her tightly, doing what he could to reassure her. At that moment, as he held her sister, he felt ever closer to Emmeline. He felt as if he had become a part of that family, finally, and they had become a part of his. He would find her, whatever the cost, and he would marry her. But it would not be a marriage of convenience, not anymore. It would be a marriage of the utmost love.
“Mrs Fitzgerald, please write down for me the address of Kent Fitzgerald in the Midlands,” Hunter said decisively, and Rose let out a great sigh of relief.
Chapter 26