Page 37 of The Cornish Bride

“Go on,” Sam said in encouragement, keeping his voice gentle even though inside he wanted to get hold of Ellen and shake the information out of her. “Tell us where she’s gone, and you won’t be in trouble.”

An angry snort from Kit indicated his disapproval of this promise.

“Sh-she did make me promise not to tell no one,” Ellen managed to stutter. “She’s my mistress. I had to do as she did say. I couldn’t say her nay.” Her large brown eyes looked an appeal at Sam.

“That last is true,” Sam said. “How could Ellen have denied Ysella what she asked? It’s not the girl’s fault.”

“On the contrary,” Kit snapped, ignoring Sam’s appeal for clemency and glaring at Ellen. “I am your master and my wife is your mistress. It is to us that you answer. Tell me everything you know. Now.”

“Sh-she’ve gone to M-miss F-fairfield’s,” Ellen managed to stutter.

Kit shook his head like a bull about to charge. “On foot? And did you see her pack her bag?”

Ellen, no doubt taking courage from Sam’s words, nodded. “She did pack one. She told me not to tell no one. I wasn’t to help her out of her gown, acos she were goin’ out later to meet her friend for some… ‘jape’ she called it. If I done wrong, m’lord, I didn’t mean to. I’m that sorry.” She clasped her hands together in supplication, no doubt terrified of being dismissed from her position without a reference.

Kit put his head in his hands with a groan, so Sam nodded to Ellen. It wasn’t her fault, no matter how much Kit might want to blame her. She’d been Ysella’s easily swayed pawn. “You may go, but regard this as a lesson. If a young lady ever again asks you to keep a secret, you bring it to the man in charge of her straightaway, because she is up to no good.”

Ellen bolted.

“Do you think she’s really gone to Caroline Fairfield’s?” Sam asked, afraid of the answer. Every part of him screamed out that she couldn’t have. That she’d done something foolish and used Caroline as an excuse to inveigle Ellen to help her.

Kit shrugged. “I suppose it’s possible, but on foot? In the middle of the night? Why? She hasn’t seen Caro for several months. Not since before she left for London. What with Morvoren being so ill, and us not accepting callers, Caro hasn’t been over.” His voice rose in hope. “I suppose it might be possible that Ysella has hatched a plan to go and see her—but in the middle of the night? Clandestinely? I don’t think so. Caro wouldn’t be party to that sort of thing. She’s far too sensible.”

Sam bit his lip. “What do you want to do?”

“We both know where she’s gone. Get her back before it’s too late,” Kit said. “Before she compromises herself.”

Sam stayed silent. Surely if Ysella had run off with Captain Featherstone, she was already compromised.

Kit shook his head. “I suppose I’ll have to send James over on Lochinvar to see if she’s at Caro’s. Before we go off precipitously after her, I need to be sure she didn’t tell Ellen the truth, unlikely as that is. We’d look a pair of chumps if she were truly at Caro’s enjoying herself.”

Sam nodded. But he doubted very much that James would find Ysella at the Fairfields’ house.

*

He was right.James was back within half an hour with the news that Miss Fairfield had not heard from Ysella for over two months bar a short and very badly spelled letter sent from London to tell her about her presentation at the royal court.

“We were right. She’s gone off with Featherstone,” Kit said, throwing down the note Caroline had sent him. “That’s what she’s done, the strumpet. She’ll be ruined. After everything I said to her, which she pretended to agree with, she’s defied me. She gulled me and, like an idiot, I fell for it.”

He strode across to the fireplace in the library, which was where they’d repaired to in order to await James’s return.

Sam’s stomach twisted in pain. That cad had Ysella in his power to do with as he wished. The thought brought a cold sweat out on his forehead and down his back. He put a hand up to loosen his collar. “Are you going after them?”

Kit nodded. “I refuse to let him get away with this. All he’s after is her money. I know it, else why would he have inveigled her into running away with him?” He looked up and grinned, looking more than ever like his departed father. “What he doesn’t know is that unless I agree to her marriage, the money’s tied up until she’s thirty. She doesn’t know it, either. Even when she gets to twenty-one and her majority, I have the final say. And I’m never releasing her money to that cad.”

A tiny nub of hope rose in Sam’s broken heart. Perhaps if Captain Featherstone could be apprised of this fact, he might decide marrying Ysella wasn’t the cure-all he imagined for his prospects. But, the downside of this was that Ysella would still be ruined and find it impossible to return to London society and make a respectable match.

“I’ll order our horses saddled,” Sam said. “I’m coming with you.”

*

Before they couldset out, the dowager had to be informed. Not something Sam relished doing. He and Kit encountered her in the breakfast room, nibbling some toast and drinking a cup of hot chocolate. Dash and Duster sat patiently by her feet, waiting for tidbits and eyeing her out of sorrowful spaniel eyes.

Lady Ormonde looked up as they entered, both dressed for the rainy day in their greatcoats and hats. Setting her coffee cup down, she dabbed her lips with a napkin. “Goodness, are you both off outside in this weather?”

Sam hung back. Let Kit break the news. He was having enough trouble keeping his own emotions under control and didn’t want to have to cope with the dowager’s inevitable reaction.

Kit didn’t beat about the bush. “Ysella has eloped with Featherstone.”