“Julian.” Clara rose and went to stand beside him. “Let him speak. Go on, Richmond.”
“I only meant to say, Your Grace, that there is a great deal of confusion below stairs. They do not understand why it was thought necessary to watch the child so closely, and now with all of this, they wonder even more what is happening in this house.”
“You tell them nothing,” Julian said. “Tell them only that I will be questioning them today and that they are to answer truthfully. That is all.”
Richmond bowed and went.
“I do think it would serve better if you did not speak to them quite so harshly,” Clara said.
“I know it.” He raised his hands. “I am vexed beyond anything I have felt in my life. How does this happen? How does a man simply walk into our home and take the child?” He sat down heavily, and she sat beside him. Marianne stood in the far corner, looking out of the window.
Clara took his hand. He wrapped his fingers around hers and held on, and for a moment, they simply sat there, drawing whatever strength they could from one another.
“We will find him,” Marianne said quietly. “Somehow, we will find him.”
“We have not been able to find my cousin,” Julian said with more bitterness than Clara had ever heard from him.
“Not yet. But we know who she was with now. Your man…”
“Received the message only this morning,” Julian said. “He would not even have had time to act on it. I did not think Devereau would strike so quickly. How foolish of me. How very foolish.”
“You could not have known,” Clara said. “None of us knew what this man was capable of. Everyone believed our story. Why should they not have?”
“Because he already knew,” Julian said. “He must have put it together. Whether or not he was following Arabella here, the moment he heard we had a child of the correct age, the correct circumstances, he would have known David was not truly ours despite our story. Remember—the people who believed our story do not know about Arabella or her child at all.”
Clara knew it was true, but she did not want him carrying the weight of it as though the whole catastrophe was his alone.
“You have done everything in your power, from the very first day, to keep him safe and to find her. We must believe it will turn out right.”
“You are so strong,” he said. “I admire you.”
“I am shaking like a leaf inside. I want to curl up in a corner and cry, truly. That is what I want to do. But we cannot. We must stay strong. We must?—”
“Excuse me,” Richmond said, returning to the doorway.
Julian raised his head at once. “Have you found her?”
“Not yet, Your Grace. But we have visitors. Your friends are here and their wives.”
He nodded, and Clara followed him into the hallway where the Langleys had gathered. At once she was surrounded by Helena, Evelyn, and Marianne, the three she felt closest to. Charlotte and Frances stood back a little, watching with sympathy plain on their faces.
Julian was instantly surrounded by his five friends, voices breaking out all at once—words of comfort, threats of exactly what they intended to do to the scoundrel who had taken the baby, all of it tangled together until none of it was distinguishable.
“Let us go into the drawing room,” Clara called, fearing that such a display in front of the servants, however well-intentioned, would only stoke more talk. They moved together into the room, and every seat was filled within moments.
“Tell us exactly what happened,” Nathaniel said. “Your man came and said David had been taken, and that Devereau…”
Julian looked around the room. “Does everyone here know the whole story?”
Nathaniel nodded. “Between Gideon, Helena, Evelyn, and me, everyone has been told what we are dealing with regarding Devereau and the child. Do not fret. We will find him.”
“And perhaps along with him, we will find his mother,” Charlotte added.
“Right.” Gideon clapped his hands together. “Stanhope has already been informed and is watching for Devereau. We need a record of all the family’s holdings, and we’ll search each one.”
“And every business,” Lucian added. “I think we ought to split up. Marianne and I could go together, Helena with?—”
“Some of us should visit the gentlemen’s clubs,” Rhys suggested. “We cannot take the ladies there.”
