“Did Philip come down for breakfast?” Lily asked, pointedly ignoring whatever dramatics her sister was concocting.
Marigold touched her shoulder from behind, making Lily jump. “You d-don’t know where he is?” The words were taut, stretched over the pulsing and ominous worry that remained unspoken.
“I don’t.” Trepidation stalked up her spine. “What’s happened?”
Archie came up behind her, his lips flattened. “I couldn’t find it anywhere, not without your parents knowing something is wrong.”
“Find what?” Lily’s frustration boiled over. “What in the devil is going on?”
James shifted on his feet. “Your mother has a backache and asked Salisbury to bring her the laudanum.” He swallowed hard, his attention darting to Timothy before returning to Lily. “But he can’t find it anywhere.”
The trepidation in her chest solidified, a lead weight that wrapped around her heart and tumbled to the pit of her stomach. “It’s missing?”
And so is Philip.
No one said the second part, but clearly Timothy and James were thinking it. Violet wore a mask of indifference, but it evaporated when Callum came into the room, his cheeks pink and snow dusting his shoulders and hair.
“There’s a horse missing,” he said. “No tracks I could see, not with the storm.”
Violet hurried to his side, clasped his hand, and directed her attention to Lily. “Did he say anything to you before he left?”
She shook her head, only intensifying the rushing in her ears. “He—I was asleep, and he…” Her breath failed her as her lungs began to seize. “Are you accusing him of stealing the laudanum?”
“No, Lily,” Marigold put in, but she was far from convincing.
“But it’s suspicious,” Archie said. “Concerning, at the least.”
Frustration burst through her dread. “My husband is not responsible for this. I’m sure of it.”
Archie’s expression softened, as though he were addressing one of her nephews. “A dependence like Philip’s never goes away entirely. We can’t rule out the possibility that he took it, especially since he’s not here.”
Lily shook her head again. “He hasn’t been to Boar’s Hill in years. How would he know where we keep the laudanum?”
“It was in the pantry with the burn salve.” Timothy couldn’t quite meet her eye. “I saw you there the other night. He must have seen it when he was—”
Lily thrust a finger in Timothy’s face, cutting him off. “You’re wrong. You’re all making assumptions about him, but I know he didn’t take it. He hasn’t left.”
“Then where is he?” Callum asked.
Where is he?The question she’d asked so often during the past eight years, a question she thought she’d never ask again. “Maybe he went into town.”
“It’s Christmas morning,” Violet said. “Nothing is open.”
James glanced at the window, where little was visible in the blowing snow. “And the storm…”
“If he went into the storm, something is wrong.” Lily’s hands trembled, and she clenched them into fists as panic rose. “He knows it’s not safe to ride in conditions like this.”
Archie cleared his throat. “If he’s taken the laudanum, he may not be in his right mind—”
“He didn’t take the bloody laudanum!”
“Lily!” With the commotion, no one had noticed her mother and father in the doorway, the viscount’s arm around his wife’s waist to hold her steady. A deep furrow creased his brow. “Why are you shouting about laudanum?”
Violet spoke first. “Philip is missing.”
Her mother clapped a hand over her mouth, and her father stood taller. “We’ll organize a search party—”
“Not with this storm,” Callum said.
