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Chapter Sixteen

The Duke, too, had found trouble at Worthington Hall.

The night of the dinner party, the Earl made sure to instruct a footman to keep His Grace’s glass filled with wine. The Duke could carry his drink well—he only acted inebriated when he was deliberately playing the fool. But he had so much wine that night that his brain did feel a little foggy.

Later that night, a fast coach arrived from London with an urgent message. The Duke was needed in France as soon as possible, on the private matter previously discussed. There was a British naval ship,The Valiant, just beyond the port of Worthington; it would delay sailing until His Grace could board. The signer of the note was someone unknown to the Duke. But a man probably wouldn’t use his real name in these circumstances, so it was of little importance.

The Duke told his host about the urgent matter that had arisen. The note was not the Earl’s doing—perhaps it was even genuine. The Earl had only plied the Duke with so much wine because he wanted him too sleepy to aid his daughter, if the Earl caught her in bed with that fellow Smith.

But the Earl was glad to use any tool placed at his disposal. Both Smith and Lady Josephine were out of the way. It was very convenient that the Duke would also be leaving—and would probably be in too much of a rush to say farewell to his daughter or to question her current whereabouts. Very convenient indeed.

“Your Grace,” said the Earl affably, “I suspect your travel serves the King. I will ask no questions. You know thatH.M.S. Valiantawaits in Worthington Harbor. I will send word to the Captain by longboat, instructing him to show you every courtesy as you cross the Channel.”

After insisting that the Earl was too kind, the Duke went to see his daughter. He knocked repeatedly on her bedroom door, but there was no response. He did not know she was no longer in there.

A door down the hall opened partway. It was Lady Hermione. “Lady Josephine asked not to be disturbed, Your Grace,” she said, thus unwittingly aiding the Earl’s schemes. “I can give her a message in the morning.”

“Would you please, my dear? Tell her I have left by ship for France on urgent business. I should speak to Mr. Smith, too, before I go,” he added.

Lady Hermione was no fool. She suspected the reason Jo was not answering her door was that Ace was in the bedroom with her. So she said, “I can give him a message, too, Your Grace, if it will save you time.”

“Tell him to keep Lady Josephine safe—not to wander too far from her presence, when possible. Tell him I’m afraid for her, for a number of reasons.”

“I will, Your Grace,” she said soothingly. “I’ll see that your messages are delivered. Have a safe journey, Your Grace. We’ll be awaiting your return.”

After she had closed the door, he stood in the hall for a moment. What a strikingly beautiful girl Lady Hermione had become! As lovely as her mother, but far sweeter and kinder than the Prince’s current mistress. You had to see them together in the same room to appreciate Lady Hermione’s qualities. Funny he hadn’t noticed before.

* * *

As it happened, the Prince Regent and his party left the next day, because His Royal Highness had to be back in London for a different commitment. He seemed puzzled that the Duke of Clover had already left on his overseas mission. “We had spoken of what needed to be done. But he was to await my final orders before leaving. I certainly had no note sent to him,” the Prince protested.

But he acknowledged to the Earl that the Duke of Clover was sometimes too rash, too willing to follow his own instincts. Perhaps this was one of those times. His Royal Highness wasn’t worried, in any case. The Duke could be counted on to handle sensitive matters with care. The Prince said he trusted him implicitly.

Neither the Duke nor Ace was there, of course, to bother the Earl with questions about Lady Josephine’s whereabouts. Neither man could possibly know she was imprisoned, the Earl reasoned to himself. His Grace no doubt believed that his daughter had been safe in her room when he left. And while Smith knew his paramour was now completely in the Earl’s power, no doubt the man believed that her gender and her high rank would protect her from any real harm.

Thus only Hermie and Ducky raised questions. Both Lady Josephine and Mr. Smith were missing. The Earl suggested that his fiancée might have returned to London under Mr. Smith’s care.

“No, that’s not possible,” said Ducky, for once raising her gentle voice. She protested that Lady Josephine would never have returned to London and just left her faithful lady’s maid behind.

“But if for some reason, she was acting on her lord father’s orders—” suggested the Earl.

Lady Hermione had the temerity to interrupt him. “No, that is also not possible. For His Grace stopped outside my room immediately before he left for the ship—he had gotten no answer at Lady Josephine’s door. And among the messages he left with me, both for Lady Josephine and for Mr. Smith, there was absolutely no mention of their returning to London early, together and without a chaperone.”

Clearly, Lady Adeline’s daughter, who had seemed such a nonentity until now, meant to cause trouble. He needed her to shut her mouth, while he tried to figure out what to do with Josephine in the longer term.

“Lady Hermione, I am going to suggest something that may shock your maidenly sensibilities—and Miss Duckworth’s even more. So I apologize in advance. I do not mean to offend you.”

“Pray speak your mind, my lord,” Lady Hermione said.

“Has it ever occurred to you that, against all the laws of God and man, Lady Josephine might be involved in a...shall we say...a liaison with Mr. Smith? Even though she and I are to be married in several weeks? And that the two of them may have taken advantage of the Duke’s sudden absence to elope together?”

“That would never happen,” said Lady Hermione, with staunch loyalty. But in truth, she had suspected precisely that, when she awoke this morning and learned that both Jo and Ace had disappeared.

She knew how in love the two of them were. She knew how desperate Jo was becoming, with the wedding date getting nearer and nearer. She knew Jo feared and despised the Earl, and she might do anything to prevent the marriage.

Nonetheless, Lady Hermione remained silent. She did not want to support the Earl in any way, even if his surmises were correct.

But after that, they said little to the Earl. And within three more days, Lady Hermione and Miss Duckworth packed up and rode the coach back to Clover House. Only the coachman and footmen were with them.

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