Page 34 of Duke with a Deception
“Are you well?” Everett asked, his gaze roaming over her as if he were searching for injury on her person.
“Of course I am well,” she reassured him, rather annoyed. “Kingham has been keeping me locked in the attic sinceyesterday, depriving me of food and water, but he allowed me to escape now that you’ve paid us a call.”
Her brother scowled. “You can save that sharp tongue for someone deserving, sister. Your husband, perhaps.”
“King isn’t the one who has acted as if my husband is mistreating me.”
“I am your brother. It is my duty to protect you.”
“It is King’s duty to protect me now,” she chided softly. “He is my husband.”
Part of her heart ached at the way Everett still refused to accept that she and King were in love and that she was now married. She could understand why it was difficult for him. King was his friend, and his reputation as a rakehell was well-known. Everett had always been fiercely protective of her. They had only ever had each other, aside fromMaman. But it was different now. Everett was happily married to Sybil, and Verity was equally happily married to King.
Everett’s jaw was rigid, a muscle ticking there from the way he had clenched it. “He had damned well better do that duty well, or he will answer to me.”
“He has done admirably thus far,” she defended her husband. “Now, have you only come to further deride King, or was there a better reason?”
Everett shook his head and then raked a hand through his hair. “Blast. I suppose I am being a bear. Forgive me. This is still all quite new. But there is a good reason I’ve been cooling my heels waiting for you for the better part of an hour. The child has run away.”
The child?
Run away?
There could be only one child he was speaking of.
Verity’s stomach clenched. “Emma?”
“Yes.” Everett’s look had gone mournful. “I’m sorry, Verity. I didn’t want to come to you with the news. I was hoping we would find her, but we haven’t managed to just yet.”
All the happiness bubbling within her went suddenly flat. Emma had run away. But she was such a small child, so young, so innocent. It seemed impossible that such a thing could have occurred.
She shook her head. “When did it happen? And how?”
“We aren’t certain as to the particulars of when or how. All we do know is that Emma was last seen in the evening when she was put to bed by her nurse for the night. This morning, she wasn’t in her bed. She took her belongings with her—a dress, a pair of shoes, and a locket.”
A locket.
Verity recalled the locket quite well. It was one of the few memories she did have of the day of the fire. Little Emma had returned to her sleeping quarters to fetch the locket that had belonged to her dead mother. She had been so desperate to retrieve it that she had nearly trapped herself in the burning building. Verity had followed her there. She recalled holding her own necklace, explaining to Emma how precious it was to her. But from there, Verity’s memories were faded and dim.
“The locket was important to Emma,” she said slowly, her mind whirling with the possibilities of what might have happened and where she might be found. “If she took it with her, that means she didn’t intend to return.”
But where would she have gone? And why?
“That is what I feared when the nursemaid reported that all the child’s belongings were gone,” Everett said grimly.
“Are you certain she isn’t simply hiding somewhere?” Verity asked, a new hope rising. “I know she was sad that I was going away on my honeymoon, and children can be very sly and clever. Is it possible she is somewhere in the town house and you simplycannot find her? I can’t countenance Emma just leaving like that.”
“We have searched extensively,” Everett said. “She’s not hiding in the kitchens, the stables, or anywhere else we can conceive she might have tucked herself away.”
Her heart plummeted. “You’re certain?”
“We’re certain, Verity.” His expression turned mournful. “I’m so sorry. If we’d had any notion she intended to leave like this, we would have made certain it was impossible for her to do so.”
“You couldn’t have known.” She shook her head again, a new determination coming over her. “I’m going to go looking for her.”
“Riverdale, I hope you have a good reason for intruding upon my matrimonial bliss and causing my wife to look so distressed,” King said as he crossed the threshold of the drawing room.
Her attention was instantly drawn to her husband. He was impeccably dressed as always and freshly shaven, not a hair out of place, not a hint of lint on his coat sleeve or a wrinkle to be found. It was a stark contrast to the husband she had left in the bathroom, his jaw stubbled with dark whiskers, his hair wet, wearing nary a stitch on his muscled body. He had resembled a pirate, she had thought quite dreamily, and now he was once more the polished, elegant duke.
