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Alec wasn’t sure he could face that.
Rafe glanced back. “Come on, then. Before the vicar returns and I have to flirt with him some more. I’m running out of ways to explain your ridiculous behavior.”
The hallway outside Lottie’s bedroom was deserted, but voices could be heard in the downstairs parlor. Alec crept over to Lottie’s bedroom while Rafe kept watch at the main staircase. He tested the knob. Locked. One point for Lottienotwanting to marry the dashing secretary. Alec signaled to Rafe then pressed his ear to the door. “Lottie,” he whispered while knocking softly. “Are you in there?” There was the faint sound of mattress springs creaking as she rose from the bed and shuffled closer.
“Who’s there?” she asked in a muffled voice.
Alec’s stomach tipped from the weight of his regret. How many miles he had traveled these last few days, yet it was this slight distance that now felt insurmountable. He had to clear his throat before he could answer. For all he knew she would still prefer being locked up. “It’s—it’s Alec.”
She nearly shrieked and pulled on the doorknob. “Oh, Professor Gresham! Please help. I’m trapped!”
His heart plummeted to the richly carpeted floor. “Valentina? Where is Lottie? Is she well?”
There was an ominous pause on the other side of the door.
“Someone’s coming,” Rafe interrupted.
Alec glanced down the hall and back to the door. “Valentina,” he hissed, but before he could say more, their presence was discovered.
“Who the devil are you?” A man about Alec’s age, tall and thin with light blond hair and blue eyes, was prowling down the hallway. “Thebothof you?”
Alec faced him. “Alec Gresham. Mr. Wetherby, I presume?”
His glare turned malevolent. “You’ve got ahellof a nerve, showing your face here.” Apparently he had an inkling of what his bride had gotten up to in Venice.
Alec raised an eyebrow. “I won’t take etiquette lessons from a man who locks up women.”
The man narrowed his already beady eyes. “That is none of your concern. Get out of this house.”
Alec adjusted his gloves. “No. I thinkyouwill be opening this door.”
Rafe moved uncomfortably close to Mr. Wetherby. “I’m happy to assist you,” he added cheerily.
Mr. Wetherby cast him a wary glance, then quickly frowned. He grumbled something under his breath and pulled a key out of his pocket. Alec stepped away from the door while the blood pounded in his ears, first from outrage and now from nerves. Why, Lottie might very well shut the door in his face, and he deserved nothing less.
Once the key turned in the lock, Valentina pulled open the door, her face tight with anxiety. Alec shoved Mr. Wetherby aside. “Where is she?” he demanded as he entered the bedroom.
“I don’t know,” Valentina said miserably. “After they locked us in here, I went to the en suite. When I came back, she was gone.”
Alec raced toward the partially opened window. Fear gripped his chest even while his mind reasoned that she had made it to the ground safely. Otherwise they would have found her. Alec held back the wave of nausea that suddenly rose in his throat at the thought. He turned around and gripped Valentina by the shoulders. “Where did she go? Tell me everything she said to you.”
The girl hung her head. “She told menothing, Professor. I swear! She was so unhappy. So scared. And now you have come for her, and she is lost!”
Alec pulled the sobbing girl’s head against his shoulder. “There now. Don’t cry. I’ll find her.”
“Younevershould have sent her away,” she scolded through her tears.
“Yes,” Alec said softly. “You’re right.” Then he leveled a glare at Mr. Wetherby. “Where is Sir Alfred?”
As Alec stalked down the hallway to Sir Alfred’s room, Wetherby was hot on his heels. “Stop! You can’t go in there. He’s not to have any visitors.”
Alec paused by the door. “Oh, I’m no visitor,” he said over his shoulder before entering the darkened sick room. There he found an older woman standing by the bedside helping an elderly man use a spoon to feed himself.
It was a moment before Alec recognized Sir Alfred.
His hair, always a healthy mix of salt and pepper, was now mostly white. Yet he looked almost childlike in a billowing nightshirt with a napkin tucked into his collar.
The sight brought Alec to an abrupt halt. The pair turned at his entrance and seemed just as surprised to see him.
