“I’ll get the carriage ready,” James said.
“There’s no time!” Rosalie cried. “If Violet isn’t at either place, then we can’t waste a second in finding her before my father does. Lord Ketterdon will take me on his horse.”
She nodded at Nathan, who looked taken aback.
“But it is most improper. If someone sees?—”
“I don’t give a fig about propriety right now! You’ll take me, and if she’s not there, we will meet His Grace at Carfield House.”
Neither gentleman was able to argue with her.
Rosalie ran to fetch her cloak, and then the three of them set off for Carfield House at such a quick pace that if James hadn’t been so worried about his wife, he would have been concerned for Miss Rosalie being on a horse, galloping through the streets of Mayfair.
It was early evening when they arrived at Carfield House. James jumped off his horse the moment he pulled it to a halt, then ran up the drive. He had just begun banging on the door when the butler answered it, looking startled.
“Where is Lord Carfield?” James asked at once. “I must speak with him. And the Duchess of Attorton, is she here?”
“Your Grace?” Niles Crampton, the new Viscount Carfield, had come out of his study at the loud banging and was now striding across the hall towards him. “What are you doing here?”
“Is Violet here?” James asked, not bothering with the formalities.
“Violet?” Niles frowned. “No, of course not. I assume she is at Bolden House.”
“She isn’t,” James said shortly. “That’s why I’m looking for her here. You’re sure she didn’t arrive without you knowing it?”
“Her Grace has not been here since her wedding,” the butler interjected, bowing quickly.
Dread was carving out the inside of James’s stomach. Violet wasn’t here. There was still a possibility that she had gone to her mother’s house, but he had a bad feeling that it wasn’t going to be that simple.
A few minutes later, Nathan and Rosalie arrived with Lady Carfield. James had only to take one look at his mother-in-law’s face to know that Violet had not been with her.
“What is going on, Your Grace?” Lady Carfield asked at once. “Where is my daughter? Why did she disappear?”
James wasn’t sure he could speak. The contents of his stomach were roiling so hard that he feared he was going to be sick. He looked at Nathan, and he knew that his cousin understood at once.
Very quickly, Nathan filled Lady Carfield in on everything that had happened. By the end of his explanation, her face became deathly pale.
“She has been taken by Jebediah,” she said when Nathan had finished speaking. “There is no other explanation. He has been lying in wait all these weeks, planning to strike against one orall of us. I knew that it would be one of his daughters that he targeted. Oh, my poor Violet… I should have protected her better.” Tears began to stream down her face.
There was a hushed silence as everyone absorbed her words.
I knew it.I knew it all along. I was just afraid to admit it to myself.
All of a sudden, Rosalie turned to him, her expression thunderous.
“This is all your fault!” she yelled, and James felt the force of her anger like a slap in the face. “How could you have allowed her to annul your marriage? How could you have pushed her to the point where she would want to leave you? Your foolishness and arrogance have put my sister’s life in danger, and if anything happens to her, I will never forgive you!”
James could barely make eye contact with his sister-in-law. His heart was pounding painfully in his chest, and he couldn’t take a full breath.
“You’re right, Miss Rosalie,” he whispered as a crushing sense of guilt settled over him. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t pushed her away, if I hadn’t insisted that we live separate lives, then she might not have left, and she wouldn’t be at risk of being harmed by your father.”
“You don’t know that she left of her own free will,” Nathan pointed out quietly. “Lady Carfield may be right—Violet could have been coerced by her father. Perhaps he forced her to ask for the annulment to gain control over her once more.”
Something that felt very similar to hope welled in James’s chest. “Do you mean… do you think there’s a possibility that she doesn’t want to annul our marriage?”
“It’s a possibility, yes,” Nathan said. “It was very sudden, after all. And would Violet really have known where to find a solicitor and get paperwork drawn up?”
“Violet spoke to me of an annulment as well,” Lady Carfield admitted, “but I encouraged her not to go through with it. I told her that you should try to work things out, that you were a good man who adored her. I don’t believe she would have decided so quickly to annul the marriage. It sounds to me as if her hand was forced.”
