“Heading home?” Philip’s brow furrowed. “Did he inform anyone of this?”
Did Selina go with him?
He shook off the thought. It made no sense for her to run away with her ex-fiancé, whom she claimed was more or less a stranger to her.
The reply of the congregation seemed to suggest it was as much a surprise to them as it was to Philip.
“I saw him,” a quiet voice admitted from behind.
Philip turned to find Mary now standing in the terrace doorway, her face still ashen, her eyes ringed with red as if she had been crying. Gone was the defiance and fury of earlier.
“I saw him riding in the same direction that Lady Selina went earlier this evening,” she added, her gaze dropping to the floor. “I didn’t mean to cause such trouble, Your Grace. I just… I just wanted you to myself. And when the Marquess came to me and offered to help me, I?—”
Philip grabbed her roughly by the arm. “You orchestrated this? What has he done to her?”
“I don’t know,” she wheezed. “He wanted her alone. I assumed it was to talk to her, to persuade her to reconsider. I meant it when I said I had grown to like Lady Selina. I thought… I thought shemightbe convinced and that she would return to the manor to tell you the wedding would not be going ahead, but now… I swear, I don’t know what he has done to her. I was sure she would return.”
An infernal fury burned in Philip’s veins, so hot that Mary flinched at his touch as if his hand scorched her.
He should have known that no gentleman could be so cavalier about losing a bride, particularly one as remarkable as Selina. He should have known that the niceties and pleasantries were false, but he had been out of society for so long that he had not seen the deception.
“You will stay here until she is found,” he growled. “And you had better hope he has not harmed a single hair on her head, or I will have to remember what we did to traitors during war.”
Mary’s lower lip trembled, and as Philip released her, she crumpled to her knees, her head in her hands, and wailed loudly. For herself and her stupidity, no doubt.
“I need my horse!” Philip barked at the stablemaster.
Lord Ramsbury already had a considerable head start, but he would not get away with taking what belonged to Philip.
I am coming for you, you bastard. If you have so much as touched my bride, I will show you how a soldier deals with the enemy.
