AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“They do this, Your Grace, they do as though there’s someone in distress…” he grumbled, pulling back the door bolts.
But something in the woman’s tone made Jackson believe this was no decoy. As the door opened, a figure fell through, soaked to the skin, and crying out in desperation.
“Oh, Your Grace. You’ve got to help me! You’ve got to help Her Ladyship,” she cried.
Jackson realized this was Eloise’s maid, the faithful Delphine who had acted as a chaperone during their visit to the theater, and whom Eloise often spoke of as her most trusted companion. She was soaked through, wearing a tattered traveling cloak streaked with mud. Her hair was disheveled, and her dress was torn to shreds.
“My goodness, Giles, help me with this poor lady. Let’s get her into the drawing room,” Jackson exclaimed.
The commotion had brought his uncle to the landing, and he peered down, staring in astonishment at the scene below.
“What’s going on? What’s all this?” he demanded.
“It’s Eloise’s maid, Delphine. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but… oh, goodness me,” Jackson said, as Delphine grasped him by the scruff of his neck, her eyes wide and fearful.
“There’s no time, Your Grace. Please!” she cried.
With some difficulty, they calmed her down. Giles fetched sweet tea and the remnants of the dinner between two slices of bread.
“I’ll see if one of the maids has something she could wear,” he said, glancing at the pool of water on the drawing room floor.
Jackson sat next to Delphine as she drank her tea, anxious to know everything she knew about Eloise.
“What’s happened, Delphine? Why have you come here? Why aren’t you with Eloise?” he demanded.
Delphine looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
“He took her, Your Grace. We tried to get away, but he took her. There was nothing I could do,” she cried, and her sobs grew louder as she threw her arms around Jackson and wept.
The meaning of Delphine’s words was all too clear – Lord Crawford.
“But to where? What did he do?” Jackson tried to make the maid speak sense.
“We were at an inn, Your Grace. On the way to Bath.”
Jackson did not understand. Why would Eloise be going to Bath? A hundred questions raced through his mind.
“But Bath? You ran away?” he asked, and Eloise nodded.
“That’s right, yes. We had no other choice. But he followed us. We thought we had gotten away, but his trap was closing in all the time. They left me there, Your Grace. I had to walk back to London. I had no money and nothing but the clothes on my back. She wrote you a letter that morning. You were to meet us in Bath. I’ve got it here. The landlord was going to send it, but I took it myself,” Delphine said. She pulled out an envelope from beneath her sodden travelling cloak and handed it to Jackson.
He took it and opened it. The edges were damp but the paper was preserved. He unfolded it and began to read.
“My darling Jackson, you will forgive me for writing to you in such a way, and for asking such things of you, but I had no choice but to flee my father’s house and make for Bath. I write this from an inn, and this morning, Delphine and I will take the mail coach west. I beg you to seek us out in Bath. My father intends for me to marry Lord Crawford. That’s why we fled. But if you come and we marry, then all our troubles will be at an end. I cannot tell you how much I have come to love you. This is no ruse, no lie of the heart, but the truth. I want no one but you, and if you feel the same, I beg you to follow me so that we might be together. You will find me at the home of my cousin, Lady Patricia Venell on the Royal Crescent. Ever yours, with love, Eloise.”
Jackson folded up the letter and sighed. He had read it with a heavy heart. Had he received it as Eloise had planned, then he would have left at once from Bath. His feelings were her feelings, and to read her words had brought such sorrow to his heart. How close they had come, and how cruelly that possibility had been snatched away.
“But Lord Crawford found you?” Jackson asked, and Delphine nodded.
“Yes, Your Grace. Just as we were about to board the mail coach. Him and his wicked sisters. They brought ruffians with them. We were separated. Oh, I’ll never forgive myself for abandoning her,” she cried, as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks and she sobbed.
“There, there, Delphine. This isn’t your fault. That wicked man, this is all his doing. But what happened then?” Jackson pressed, even as he feared the answer.
“They took her, Your Grace. She didn’t have a chance against him and his sisters. They dragged her into the carriage and set off for London. That’s all I know, Your Grace. Oh, it’s too terrible. He’s going to make her marry him. I know he is. It’s wicked, Your Grace. Utterly wicked,” Delphine sniffled.
Jackson shook his head. He did not know what to do, even though he knew he had to do something to help Eloise. Thoughts of storming the house and rescuing her came to his mind. He could challenge Lord Crawford to a duel… but such thoughts were futile. Lord Crawford had been determined to regain what he wrongfully believed was his for the taking. There was nothing Jackson could do to prevent the marriage, even as he felt desperate to do something to save Eloise from her terrible fate.
“You did the right thing by coming here, Delphine.” Jackson put his arm around the maid to comfort her.
