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“I found her in the middle of the road, her carriage long gone. I brought her here to Seahorn.”
She slowly gave one nod of her head, then looked to Victoria. “And your version?”
Victoria quickly relayed the story she’d told Desmond.
Panic flooded Jules’s face. “Does Des know all of this?”
Victoria nodded. “He caught us in the foyer. He already went to round up the Scotsmen that arrived earlier.”
“Good.” Her gaze shifted between Rafe and Victoria again and a frown overtook her face as she shook her head. “Oh, sweet one, I have to ask, am I right in assuming your father did not do well with you strolling in here with a strange male?”
Victoria’s lips pursed for a long second. “No, he did not. But he has moved onto gathering men to go after Eva now, which is the most important thing at the moment.”
Jules shifted a hand off of the babe’s back to point at Victoria’s face. “You left out the part where you got the black eye. Where did it come from?”
Victoria touched her cheekbone below her eye. The bruise must have gotten darker today for the way both Desmond and Jules reacted to it. “There were some men that attacked me outside one of the coaching inns.”
Jules’s head snapped back. “Did they hurt you?”
“Just the eye. Rafe intervened at a crucial moment.”
Jules let out a breath of relief, her look now curious on Rafe. “Well, thank you for that, Lord Winfred. And thank you for bringing our dear Vicky safely to Seahorn. Do you think the men that attacked her were the same ones that kidnapped Eva?”
“I don’t.”
Her eyes narrowed, shrewd. “Why?”
“They were more the average drunk bastards that had spied a skirt they could corner and lift. For their stupidity and skill at fighting, I don’t imagine they could have helped with disposing of all four of the men surrounding Victoria and Eva.”
Jules’s hand rubbed along the spine ofSusannahas she nodded, her stare still scrutinizing Rafe. “Can I ask what is between you and my daughter, Lord Winfred?”
Jules had asked Victoria long ago for permission to call Victoria her daughter. Not in an overbearing way, Jules just wanted everyone to know exactly how much she loved Victoria. Victoria had a mother she’d never known, then a mother in Sloane, and in Jules, she had an additional, unexpected mother that loved her just as fiercely as she did her natural born children.
Rafe’s gaze shifted to Victoria.
Victoria groaned inwardly. His look on her alone probably told Jules volumes she wasn’t ready to share yet.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to answer for Rafe, Desmond popped his head into the nursery. “Here you are.”
He walked into the room and caressed the top of Susannah’s red-fuzzed head, then kissed it. He looked up to Jules. “Victoria told you everything?”
“Not quite everything, but enough to understand where you are about to leave to.”
He nodded. “I’m going with the Scots to retrieve Lach and then to go after Eva. With any luck, we’ll meet Reiner and Sloane, and hopefully Roe and Torrie as well along the route and we can enlist their help.”
He looked to Victoria. “When were Reiner and Roe due to leave Wolfbridge?”
“Roe and Torrie were to leave the day after us. They were going to leave when we did, but little Quinton had bit of a fever, and Torrie wanted to stay an extra night or two at Wolfbridge because of the doctor Reiner has on hand. Uncle Reiner and Sloane were to leave with their children two days after us.”
Desmond nodded, his look shifting back to his wife. “I already told Fredrick to bring in the extra forces to fully surround Seahorn.”
“Is that necessary?” Jules gave a slight shake of her head. “Whoever those men were, they took Eva. This probably doesn’t have anything to do with us. I would guess Lach already knows exactly what this is about.”
“I’m not taking any chances.”
She nodded, her fingers rubbing up and down Susannah’s back as the babe shifted, gurgling.
Victoria stepped forward, grabbing her father’s arm. “I should come with you to find Lachlan.”
