“Won’t you get tired?” she asked.
“I’ll use both crutches, and the physician told me I need to move.” He hopped to the other crutch and employed both of them. “My foot won’t touch the floor.”
“You may want to search the corridor and the stairs while we search the ground floor,” Jane said.
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
As Rowan and Jane headed to the next room, she found Harris in the corridor.
“Do you need anything, my lady?” he asked.
“I lost my cat. Have you seen him?”
Harris looked alarmed. “A cat? Roaming freely? I thought he would stay in the carrier.”
“I couldn’t leave him there for long. The plan has always been to let him out once here, but he vanished.”
Harris dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief. “I’ll go downstairs and ask the servants to help.”
“I’ll go upstairs.” As she went up the austere dark stairs, a black tail flickered through her field of vision. “Kettle!”
She followed the tail. The scoundrel sped up and rounded a corner as if to say, ‘serves you right.’
“Come here, Kettle. I’m sorry I kept you in the carrier.” She chased him down a corridor until he disappeared into a room.
“Kettle. You naughty—” She came to a grinding halt as she bumped against a hard wall of muscles.
“Effie,” Tristan said at the same time as she said, “Ouch!”
He took her elbows to steady her. “What’s happening?”
Kettle slipped through their legs like an eel and vanished again in the blink of an eye.
“Is that your cat?” Tristan gazed around.
“Kettle! Come here.” She clenched a fist. “I don’t know why I bother calling him. He never comes. One could spend hours trying to find the perfect name for a cat. All wasted.”
He smiled. “Good morning, by the way.”
She smiled back. “My apologies for the intrusion. I thought my pets would cheer Rowan up. The situation was perfectly under control a moment ago.”
“I think he’s gone to the library. Come.”
“Perfect,” she said, faking a calm she didn’t feel.
Her feeble optimism took a vicious blow when she entered the library. The room had a high ceiling, tall shelves, and dark nooks as far as the eye could see. Searching for Kettle would be like searching for the proverbial needle.
“It’ll take ages to find him.” She slouched her shoulders.
“Where’s your optimism? At least he won’t escape from here.” Tristan closed the door behind them. “Kettle, come here.”
She glanced at him. “Never underestimate what a cat can do. Cats are superior creatures, I tell you.”
“It’s worth a try.”
They walked down the aisle between two shelves offering dozens of great places for a cat to hide, climb, and observe without being seen.
“The bruise is almost gone.” He searched a half-empty shelf. “I’m glad.”
