Page 4 of Courting the Wrong Duke

Gabriel noticed this time. “You are thinking of Eastmere.”

William drew on his gloves. “We were meant to attend the Tattersall sale in four days.”

“The chestnut?”

“The bay stallion. He has pursued the animal for months.”

Gabriel’s levity faded. “Do you think he will appear?”

“I do not know.”

The words sat uneasily in William’s mouth.

Edmund Carlisle was not a careless man. He did not vanish from appointments, abandon obligations, or allow his family to face public speculation without explanation.

Yet the speculation had spread with astonishing speed.

At first, the earl had merely been delayed. Then he had gone away unexpectedly. By the fifth day, someone claimed he had been seen near Dover. By the seventh, there was a woman involved.

By the tenth, society had decided he had abandoned his wife and daughter entirely.

The authorities had been notified, though their questions had apparently produced nothing. A titled gentleman possessed the right to travel without accounting for himself, and the absence of blood, violence, or a body had made official concern slow to sharpen.

“Perhaps he did leave,” Gabriel said carefully.

William glanced at him.

“I do not say I believe it,” Gabriel added. “Only that men have done stranger things.”

“Edmund would not.”

“You sound very certain.”

“I have known him most of my life.”

“So has his wife, I imagine.”

William pushed open the doors before a servant could reach them.

Cool afternoon air greeted him, carrying the fresh scent of recent rain. Heavy clouds still hung over Pall Mall, muting what little sunlight managed to break through. The paving stones glistened with moisture, and carriage wheels left dark tracks across the wet street.

He descended the steps with Gabriel beside him.

The carriage had not yet drawn fully forward. William stood beneath the portico while the footman hurried to open the door.

A figure approached from the opposite end of the street.

At first, William paid little attention. The stranger moved quickly, head lowered beneath the hood of a dark red cloak. A woman, judging by the smaller frame and the flash of a skirt beneath the hem.

She should not have been there.

William straightened as she drew nearer.

Another woman followed several paces behind, accompanied by a liveried footman whose expression suggested he had argued unsuccessfully against the entire expedition.

The cloaked figure mounted the first step.

Then the second.