Page 82 of The Forsaken

“Andromena?” More blank stares. Good God, what was wrong with them? “The youngest Miss Smith?”

Culross’s brows shot up. He looked at his wife.

“We do not have time for this.” The Duke of Hartwell ordered Mr. Smith, Andromena’s older brother, and Captain Arran McQuoid around like servants. “Show him out.”

The hell they would.

Hartwell’s wife saved her husband and his two trick monkeys from the beating of all beatings.

“Stop it, my love,” she said.

“Lord Kerr?”

Half-crazed, he looked at Andromena’s elder sister, Lady Linnie Tremaine.

The terror in her eyes sucked the air from him.

“Do you know any information about my sister—?” she begged.

Captain Tremaine settled a hand at his wife’s thickening waist. “How would he, Linnie?”

Lady Tremaine ignored him. “I asked you a question, Lord Kerr.”

Pain stabbed at his heart.

Her resolve was so much Andromena’s; pain scissored at his chest.

From his place by the hearth, next to the Duchess of Hartwell, the Duke of Hartwell made the mistake of inserting his unwanted opinion. “We agreed family only.”

Kerr ground his teeth. This is what they’d squabble over?

“What did you fools do?” he hissed. I did this. “You lost her? Again.”

I am to blame.

Not that Kerr deserved it, but Culross spoke to Kerr’s right to be present.

“Lord and Lady Abington have entrusted Kerr with complete access to their residence: their family, their staff, their children, their grandchildren. Will you question their judgment and his honor? We have enough to worry about?”

Kerr clamped his fingers onto Culross’s arm, digging in hard. He needed confirmation. “She’s gone?” His voice shook.

Culross nodded.

Kerr let go of his friend’s arm and lost his fragile anchor. A fresh rush of dread twisted inside him.

Lady Linnie Tremaine lifted her tear-filled gaze. “Several of the children were unable to sleep. They were sitting at the window seat and caught Andromena leaving through the back gate.”

“We aren’t saying anything to Aunt Leslie, as she will worry too much,” someone explained.

A loud humming filled his ears.

Hang, Aunt Leslie—Andromena’s mother.

Kerr couldn’t make sense of what was being said or what was happening. Not completely. The chit could be anywhere. The ducal townhouse and properties were decades deep.

He scraped an unsteady hand through his hair.

Think, man. Think.