Ihave never met a man who is so single-minded in inflicting pain on one woman,he thought as he watched Langdon’s riveted attention.The gentlemen Leo and I confront usually leave off after our attacks,butthis man is becoming even more adamant, even after the altercation at White’s.
It scared him a little although he could hardly admit that to himself—not that Langdon scared him but that a man could be so relentlessly cruel. That was frightening. It reminded him of Lord Reinbacher.
“If you want to protect her from Langdon, go ask her to dance,” Leo said. “That way, Langdon cannot bother her.”
“No,” Winston said. If Langdon was made of the same ilk as Lord Reinbacher, then he had to be watched tonight. “He is planning something, and I must know what it is. We stay here until one of them leaves.”
Leo sighed. “I am never attending a ball with you again.”
Vanessa tried to take part in her mother’s conversation with the matrons of theton,but the moment she opened her mouth, she found herself tongue-tied and embarrassed like she usually did in public.
A few of the matrons asked her some polite questions about the engagement, but it was clear they were more interested in speaking with her mother, who was eager to give them all the details of the upcoming wedding.
Vanessa was bored and restless. She wished that the Duke had come to the dance. It would have been nice to dance with him and get to know him better.Will I see him at all before the wedding?she wondered.
The banns would be read this Sunday at church. Then three more weeks would go by before the wedding. Three weeks… that was all she had to get to know this man.
But that would not be tonight.
“Mama,” she said quietly, during a lull in the conversation, “I would like to go home.”
Her mother glanced at her in irritation. “Your father and I are not ready to go yet,” she replied. “Perhaps you might go yourself?”
“Alone?” Vanessa asked, her heart hammering.With Lord Langdon still around?
“It’s just to the carriage,” Lady Forthwell said with a forced smile. “The footman and driver will be there.”
“But…”
“Do not worry dear,” her mother said, and Vanessa knew that she wanted her gone, even if she was trying to pretend otherwise in front of the other ladies.
Sighing, Vanessa curtsied to the other ladies and departed, making her way across the crowded dance floor. She was eager to escape the unease she felt in the ballroom.
Once she was outside, she ordered the carriage, then waited until it had pulled up in front of the Darkworths’ mansion. She was so caught up in her unease that she didn’t even remember getting into the carriage. Her body was simply going through the motions.
For a while, she just stared out the window as the carriage trundled along, her mind lost in thoughts of her future husband and what life would be like married to him. But after about ten minutes had gone by, she suddenly sat up, a strange feeling of dread suddenly filling her stomach.
It should not take ten minutes to get home across Mayfair to Forthwell Manor. And was it just her imagination, or was the carriage speeding along at far too quick a rate?
She glanced out the window again, and her stomach lurched. How had she not noticed that the houses outside no longer looked like the grand townhouses that made up Mayfair? These were smaller and shabbier.
We are no longer in Mayfair! We are not going back to Forthwell Manor!
Which begged the question: where exactly were they going, and who was driving the carriage?
Vanessa banged on the roof of the carriage with all her might. “Stop this carriage!” she shouted. “Stop this carriage at once!”
But the carriage did not stop. If anything, it seemed to go even faster, and she heard the driver urge the horses forward. Fear seized her. Her body felt cold, and her stomach was churning.
“This is not the right way to my home!” she shouted again, but there was no response. Vanessa seized the door handle and pushed. She didn’t know what she would do if it came open—jump? Out of a speeding carriage? She would probably break a leg, and then her kidnapper would surely catch up, but she had to try.
However, the carriage door did not open. It was locked. The footman must have locked it after he put her inside.
Vanessa’s heart was in her throat. She thought she was going to be sick.Stay calm. You have to figure out who is driving the carriage.
She stuck her head out the window and craned her neck as she tried to take in the front of the carriage. It was dark and difficult to see, but as the carriage passed underneath a gas streetlamp—one of the new ones that had just been put in—she recognized—with horror but not exactly surprise—the tall, spindly shape of Lord Langdon.
She slumped back in her seat, her mouth dry and her heart pounding. Lord Langdon had kidnapped her, and from the direction and haste of the carriage, he was taking her out of London.
