Again, Jack inclined his head, and they walked together around the edges of the ballroom to the door.He could not even see Tabitha now.
The public rooms were in darkness, since all the facilities necessary for the party were catered for in the ballroom annexe.However, the library appeared to be an exception.Although the door was closed, a band of light shone beneath it.Carily opened the door and bowed him inside.
Jack walked in and pulled up in surprise.The room was far from private.
Uncle Hazlett was there, with Dr.Wheatsheaf.So was Lily and, most worrying of all, Ralph Lisle.They were all standing and looking awkward, apart from Lily, who had drawn herself up to her full height and was glaring at her cousin.When Jack walked in, she transferred the glare to him.
“How could you?”she said brokenly.“How could you treat Tabbie so?”
Jack blinked in astonishment.Behind him, someone else came in—the Hawthorns, wreathed in smiles.
“What a unique and romantic way to celebrate a wedding,” Lady Hawthorn exclaimed.“And no wonder Tabitha was so reticent about your grace!I had it all wrong in my head.”
Carily closed the door, turned the key, and pocketed it.
Jack turned slowly and faced his uncle.“What is going on?”he asked evenly.“What wedding?”
Uncle Hazlett smiled a little sadly.“Yours, my boy.”
“Tell him it is nonsense, your grace!”Lily said furiously.
“Arrant nonsense,” Jack said, taking in the bewildered faces of his host and hostess.He turned to Lily, offering his arm.“Perhaps I might escort you back to the ballroom and Lady Sark.”
“Lady Sark is not there,” Ralph said at once.“She is...indisposed.”
Jack took a step nearer him, his arm dropping back to his side.“Where is she?”
“She will come to no harm.Providing you do as we require.Sign the papers and marry my pretty cousin.Where is the hardship in that?”
Jack’s blood ran cold.A muscle jerked in his throat.“What have you done to her?”
“Wait a minute,” Sir Peter said, frowning suddenly.“I don’t like the sound of this at all!Are you trying tocompelLily to marry his grace?”
“I positively insist upon it,” Ralph said, almost casually.He was examining the nails of his right hand.“She is not safe with That Woman.His grace is not safe with That Woman!The only solution, as Lord Hazlett and I see it, is for Lily and his grace to marry each other immediately for their own safety, negating That Woman’s foul machinations.”
Sir Peter and Lady Hawthorn both opened their mouths to object, but Jack was before them, contempt dripping from his every pore.
“If you are referring to Lady Sark, you are a viler creature than even I imagined.Andyou—” He swung on his uncle, catching and holding his gaze.“I could never have imagined you would stoop so low.As for you...”He looked Dr.Wheatsheaf up and down.“Where are the strict Christian principles you have always preached to me?How many clear commandments have you broken this evening?”
Neither his uncle not Wheatsheaf would meet his gaze.
Hazlett said hoarsely, “It is for the best, Isbourne.You must be safe.”
“I?” Jack said, rare rage suddenly swelling up from his toes to consume him.“I alone, of all the people in the world, must be safe?Lady Sark does not count?Lady Lily does not count?Your kind hosts do not count that you break all the laws of hospitality to deceive them?Oh, no, this stops here!And if you have harmed one hair of Lady Sark’s head, I will prosecute the lot of you with the full force of the law!”
His sudden anger, which he doubted even his uncle had seen before, seemed to overawe them all.He had even swung on Carily, his hand held out, palm upward for the key, when Ralph spoke again—unworried, faintly amused.
“And if Lady Sark survives your betrayal of her, how will her reputation survive such prosecution?Especially after her long disappearance tonight.How will Lady Lily’s?”
Jack spun to face him, and Ralph actually backed away.
“You wouldn’t,” Lady Hawthorn whispered, staring at Ralph in horror.
“I would,” Ralph said self-righteously.“I would do anything to save my cousin.”
Dear God, he was almost convincing.And Jack did not doubt he would do his worst.But the immediate, physical fear for Tabitha overrode everything.He had to get to her now, find her, wherever she was.
He strode across the room and hurled himself at Carily, slamming him into the door.“The key, you commoner!Right now.Or I swear to God, I’ll batter my way through with your head.”
