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“Well, yes...”
“Then what makes you think it might be hers?”
“Rafe. Geoffrey thinks it’s hers.”
“I do, Uncle Rafe!” Geoffrey’s excited voice came through the phone. “I just know it has to be!”
“Did you hear that?” Brooke asked.
He got the message. Geoffrey believed they were on to something. Brooke refused to dash his hopes. “Yes,” he said resignedly. “I heard.”
“We’re almost twenty minutes on this trail, but we’re going to continue.”
He asked which trail it was and she described it, the second path after the boat jetty, the one that crossed the road to the walled garden. “I know the one,” he said. “It continues on past a couple of abandoned farmers’ cottages, in and out of stands of elm and ash trees. Eventually, it curves back and comes out at the lake again.”
“Then we’ll just go on, follow it all the way around and back to the lake.”
“And we’ll call right away when we find her!” Geoffrey shouted.
Rafe smiled in spite of everything then, and felt the scar on his cheek pulling, reminding him again of all the things he hadn’t said, all the truths too dangerous to share. “All right, then. Keep me in the loop.”
Brooke made a low sound in her throat. “Geoffrey will make absolutely certain that I do.”
Again, Rafe put his phone away and rode on, moving back toward the house and circling around to the south front, heading for the lake. He was going to join forces with Brooke and Geoffrey. Why not? He’d been searching since half past nine and he’d gotten exactly nowhere. They might as well all be together and fail to find her as to wander around separately praying for a clue.
Plus, he had to admit that Geoffrey’s enthusiasm was inspiring. He decided not to think about what would happen when Geoffrey finally became discouraged, too.
Rafe’s phone rang as he reached the lake trail, at a point just beyond the old woodland garden, which Gen and Eloise were planning to start whipping into shape next year. His heart slamming into overdrive, he pulled the phone from his pocket.
But it was only Eloise. “The sergeant is asking for you. Princess Adrienne and Prince Evan have landed at East Midlands. They should arrive here within the hour. And I called Brooke. She told me to call you.”
“Put the sergeant off. I know you. You can handle him.”
“Do you really think you’re going to find her?”
“Geoffrey does. And we’re not giving up as long as he’s hard on the case.”
Eloise gave in. She promised she would take care of the sergeant for him.
Rafe shoved the phone in his back pocket and rode on toward the boat jetty. He was past it and almost to the trail Brooke and Geoffrey had taken when his phone rang again.
That time it was Brooke.
His hand was shaking as he put it to his ear.
“Rafe!” Brooke’s voice shook as hard as his hand. “Rafe, are you there?”
“Yes. What—?”
And then he heard Geoffrey shout, “Uncle Rafe, we found her! We found Aunt Genny and she’s stuck in the well!”
Chapter Thirteen
Genny stared up through the darkness, toward the light beyond the broken boards, and at Geoffrey’s dear, perfect little face. “Is he coming? Tell me he’s coming.”
“Don’t worry, Aunt Genny. Mum told him to get a ladder first, but he said to call Great-Granny and tell her we found you and Great-Granny would get the ladder to us.”
Brooke’s face appeared opposite Geoffrey’s. “Rafe’s coming. Turns out he’d decided to join up with us, so he was already on his way.”
Genny’s heart filled with pure love for her—for Brooke, of all people. Tears of relief and happiness were rolling down her face. And then one of the boards up there creaked. “You two, be careful! Get away from the edge! You’ll end up down here with me.”
Both dear faces disappeared. Genny clapped her hand over her mouth to keep from calling them back. Just the sight of them meant so much. It made her injured ankle stop aching, made her forget the stinging scrapes on her hands, her arms and her knees.
It made the absolute loneliness of being down in the darkness for hour upon hour fade almost to nothing. It made the fear that had chewed on her soul, fraying it to a bloody scrap, vanish as if it had never been. She’d even forgotten for a moment how thirsty she was. Fear that it might somehow be contaminated had kept her from drinking the water she stood in. So far anyway...
And then both beloved faces appeared again.
Genny sniffed and swiped the tears away. “I said, get back!”
“It’s safe,” argued Brooke. “We’re on solid ground.”
