Page 37 of Duke with a Deception
He kept his face an expressionless mask. “If that is what you prefer to think, I shan’t try to dissuade you.”
“Everett, how can you have a row with King at a time like this?” Verity demanded, frowning at her brother.
Riverdale bowed in his sister’s direction. “Apologies. It wasn’t my intention to make a row. I was merely stating a fact.”
“If my husband is not welcome in your home, then I am not either,” Verity insisted, rising from her chair.
Her staunch defense of King filled him with warmth. He moved to her side. “Don’t fret over your brother’s lack of manners. It is a long-standing flaw.”
The quelling look his wife gave him suggested she didn’t appreciate his attempt at levity. He was reasonably sure he would give every last ha’penny he owned to see her smile again, so he would behave.
“I must insist that the two of you be civil to each other,” Verity chastised, her tone pointed. “We have something far more important than your mutual enmity to attend to.”
“Of course, angel,” he agreed, for she was right. “I’ve instructed some of my men to fan out across the city and make inquiries at various establishments, particularly those with a certain reputation.”
“A certain reputation,” Riverdale repeated. “Just what are you suggesting?”
“As I warned Verity, there is a chance that the girl was taken from the street for evil purposes,” he explained. “The manner in which young Emma has so hastily and thoroughly disappeared begs the question whether she was capable of doing so herself. A young child with nary a penny to her name wandering about London would not likely be capable of traveling far.”
“Bloody hell,” Riverdale muttered, running a hand through his hair. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
His duchess, Sybil, gasped, having abandoned the cooling tray of tea to join them. “You think someone has taken her?”
Like Verity, Sybil possessed a good heart. He found her boldness and honesty refreshing. They had become fast friends, though that relationship felt somewhat distant following his and Verity’s betrothal.
“I think it is possible,” he allowed, addressing the duchess. “Perhaps even strongly likely.”
“Can you not see how distressing such a suggestion is to the ladies?” Riverdale hissed.
“It’s not my intention to cause further upset. I am merely attempting to do everything I can to find the child.” He clenched his jaw, losing his infamous grip on his calm as his own irritation bubbled to the surface. “Would you prefer for me to avoid worrying them and instead allow some villain to abscond with the girl?”
Riverdale scowled. “Don’t be an arse. You know well that isn’t what I’m saying. What I’m suggesting is that you have no proof that a miscreant took her. You’re creating more misery where none is required.”
“It would seem that is a skill at which I excel,” he snapped. “Perhaps you have an idea of where to search for the child, Riverdale. After all, you took such excellent care of her that she disappeared from your home without anyone taking notice for hours.”
Sybil paled at his words, and King knew a slight pang of regret at his bluntness, but he instantly banished it.
“If I had any notion she would run away, I would have taken greater care,” Sybil said, sadness tinging her voice. “I thought she was contented here, even if she was distressed that Verity was leaving on a honeymoon.”
Something occurred to him for the first time. All these hours of searching for the girl, and he had believed she was simply naughty or wayward. An impish young child who had grown bored with being tucked away in a nursery all day with a nursemaid. He hadn’t thought about the true reason for her running away.
“Do you mean to say that the child ran away because she was distressed that Verity was leaving on a honeymoon?” he asked.
“None of this is Verity’s fault,” Sybil hastened to say. “But Verity is the one person Emma feels closest to, and she was quite tearful over Verity’s plans to leave. Her nurse said she was disconsolate yesterday. She refused to even eat the cake she was given for her dessert, and Emma never declines sweets.”
“The poor darling,” Verity murmured. “I had no notion she was so upset. I had explained to her that I would return in a week and then she could come and live with King and me. I thought she seemed hopeful and eager. I never imagined she would do something so reckless as a result.”
“So, if the child ran away because she was upset that Verity was leaving, then perhaps it stands to reason that she was attempting to find Verity,” he suggested. “Or even going to a place she found comforting or familiar.”
“Wherever she was going, it doesn’t sound as if she intended to return,” Verity mused. “Especially if she took the locket from her mother with her…” Her words trailed away, her countenance suddenly shifting. “Wait. Perhaps that is the solution.”
“What is the solution?” he asked gently, fearing she was being naïvely hopeful and that she was doomed to further disappointment.
“The locket is from her mother,” Verity said. “And it was of such great import to Emma that she went rushing back to fetch it when the fire started at the Children’s Foundling Hospital. I had begun to suspect that Emma saw me as a sort of maternal figure in the absence of her own mama. If she was so upset about my impending departure that she ran away, then perhaps she ran to the place where she lived with her mother.”
King was impressed by her reasoning. He had to admit that it seemed plausible.
“Do you have any idea where the girl lived before coming to the orphanage?” he asked.
