“It would depend on the pace you set. Five minutes perhaps. Less than ten. As I said, scarcely enough time to snatch the maid.”
Kendra thought of the abduction cases she’d been involved in. A mother takes her eyes off her child for a minute in a crowded mall, and the child is gone. A teenager leaves a neighbor’s house to walk down the street and disappears. Minutes. Seconds.
She shook her head. “You’d be surprised how little time it takes to change a person’s life forever.”
Like Harris’s servant, Dalton’s butler was dumbfounded to open the door to the Duke of Aldridge.
“I need to speak with Mr. Dalton,” said the Duke. “Immediately!”
“He . . . he is not at home, Your Grace.”
Aldridge lifted his brows, every inch the aristocrat. “To me, Farstaff?”
The butler looked like he was going to faint. “No, sir! I meant, Mr. Dalton is actually not at home. He left for Barking to attend the estate auction at the Avery farm.”
“We are aware of Mr. Dalton’s journey to Barking. However, I am surprised he has not returned. When do you expect him?”
“I am not privy to Mr. Dalton’s plans for the evening. He may stay the night if he is too fatigued to travel home.”
“Does he do that often?” Kendra asked.
Farstaff had recovered his poise, and now gave her that slightly suspicious, slightly standoffish look she often got from the upstairs servants at Aldridge Castle. “Sometimes,” he said.
“What the hell does that mean?” she snapped angrily, taking a step toward him. The Duke grabbed her arm, even as the butler took a step back, offended.
“Miss Donovan—”
“We don’t have time for this. He needs to answer the goddamn question!”
Aldridge shifted his eyes to the butler. “Well?”
“Mr. Dalton is attempting to transform Halstead Hall into a stud farm. He often travels overnight or several days on business in that quest, sir.”
“Did he travel alone?” Kendra struggled to get her voice under control.
“Yes, miss.”
“Is that unusual?”
“No, miss.”
She stared hard at the butler. “A young girl has vanished from Aldridge Castle. She may be in danger. Could you tell Mr. Dalton that we need to speak to him as soon as he returns?”
“Yes, miss.”
Kendra didn’t like that Dalton wasn’t home. It was too damn convenient. But there was nothing she could do about it.
As they turned to leave, somewhere in the manor, a clock began chiming eight o’clock. Sweat dampened her palms, and her heart pounded. Rose had been missing for nine hours.
Tick, tock.
They went to Tinley Park, where the butler told them Morland hadn’t returned from London.
“Why did he go to London?” Kendra demanded, wanting to see if he’d repeat the story that Sam had told them, or if he would come up with something else.
The butler looked uncomfortable. “I-I’m afraid that I cannot say, miss.”
Aldridge said, “I would not want you to gossip about your betters, Adams, but I must insist that you tell Miss Donovan and me the truth.”
“I . . .” The servant cleared his throat. “Lady Anne is ill, sir. She had an . . . episode earlier this morning. Mr. Morland went to London to fetch a mad-doctor.”
“Did he take a coach?” Kendra asked. A coach would mean a coachman, and therefore an alibi.
“No, miss. ’Tis faster to go on horseback.”
“When did he leave?”
“Ten, I believe.”
“That’s ten hours ago.” Two hours to London, two hours back. Four hours travel time, which would leave six in London, she calculated. “Isn’t it odd that he hasn’t returned?”
“I can’t say, miss.”
Aldridge asked, “Is Lady Anne better?”
“Much better, thank you, sir. Mrs. Marks calmed Her Ladyship. Unfortunately, Mr. Morland had already departed.”
“What set her off?” Kendra asked.
The butler frowned. “I do not know, miss. Mr. Morland was visiting his mother, and she became agitated. Mr. Morland was upset by the incident. He left for London shortly thereafter.”
There was nothing to do except ask the butler to give Morland a message to come to the castle when he returned. In the carriage, Kendra pressed a hand to her stomach, which was knotted in anxiety.
“I know this is difficult for you, Miss Donovan,” the Duke said. “But all is not lost. We must have faith that the girl is still alive. We must pray for that.”
Kendra bit her lip and said nothing. She remembered the rape and butchery that Lydia had endured before she died. I want Rose to be alive. She just wasn’t sure that was the kindest thing to pray for.
50
As they approached Aldridge Castle, Kendra saw what seemed like one hundred specks of light, flickering like fireflies in the darkness along the sloping hills and in the woods.
“They are still searching,” the Duke observed quietly. “There is still hope, Miss Donovan.”