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“Oh, he had good news. That is why I look so happy,” James said with thick irony, watching as Michael winced. “I’m sorry,” he apologized quickly and sat on his desk. “This is awful.”
He couldn’t describe the feeling in his chest. This heavy darkness had been lodged there all night. He rather imagined it was as if something had a tight hold of his chest and was compressing it down, like some ugly creature clawing at him.
That feeling had made it impossible to sleep, and in the early hours of the morning, even before the sun had risen, he’d left the house. Taking his horse, he’d gone back to the remains of the gambling hall, searching for any sign of Marina, but there was none. From there, he’d gone on to see the constable.
“They didn’t find any trace of her,” James muttered angrily. “No one in the street even remembers seeing her or this masked man. They were all too busy staring at the burning building.”
“It’s clever,” Michael said, clearly reticently. “Everyone would be staring elsewhere. It would make it almost easy to take her.”
“Don’t say that,” James muttered darkly, rounding his desk and dropping into his chair. “I have to find her, Michael.”
“I know. We will.” Michael sat forward in the chair until James urged him to sit back with a wave of his hand. “I’m not an invalid.”
“That is debatable at the moment, especially with how wan your face is.”
“You look awful too,” Michael replied quickly.
James leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk, when his eyes landed on some papers before him.
“What’s this?”
“It’s the papers of who is in debt to the gambling hall. I thought some of them may be of use, so I had my butler bring them over.”
“I thought these were destroyed in the fire?” James grasped them up with eagerness, gripping them so hard he almost gave himself a paper cut.
“I took them home to work on them the other day. It’s a good thing I did.” Michael sighed as he leaned back on the settee.
James tore open the papers and began to search the names, looking for any clue that might relate as to who would take Marina. There were too many names for comfort. There were three that owed the largest of sums, and therefore were the most likely, but there were plenty of other men who owed smaller sums, and James had seen enough of a gambling hall to know a man desperate for money could be drawn to awful violence if it meant even protecting the smallest of sums.
His eyes darted over the papers, trying to focus, for his mind was distracted every few seconds as he thought of Marina.
I’ll find her. I have to!
The memory of her moving beneath him on the bed as he made love to her was a thrill but also one that now terrified him. He had vowed to protect her, and look at what that had come to?
“I can’t let anything happen to her,” James said aloud, surprising himself as well as Michael with the words.
“Do you love her?” Michael asked. The words were such a bolt from the blue that James nearly dropped the paperwork in his hands. He struggled for an answer, staring at Michael’s pale face, when there were harried footsteps through the house.
“Your Grace! Your Grace?” Mr. Pitt-Rivers was calling.
“Yes?” James jumped to his feet as the door burst open. Mr. Pitt-Rivers appeared and behind him was Mrs. Viner, looking flustered with her face red. They all knew of Marina’s disappearance, and judging from the bags under their eyes, they had suffered equally sleepless nights as he did.
“A letter. Mrs. Viner just found it now.” Mr. Pitt-Rivers thrust forward the envelope.
“Someone left it on the gate. I saw him running away, I did,” Mrs. Viner said with a bawled-up handkerchief in her hand as if she had been crying. “He was all dressed in black.”
James exchanged a worried look with Michael before he took the letter and broke the plain red wax seal, offering no clues to its sender.
‘You will know by now she is gone. You didn’t listen to my first letter, so I was forced to carry out my threat. Tonight, at midnight, you will come to the address I list below. You will come alone, no gun, no weapon of any kind, and you will bring with you cash.
‘I want five thousand pounds. You will bring it without any constables, without any man by your side. Once I have the money, you will have your wife back.’
The letter wasn’t signed.
“James?” Michael said, sitting forward in his seat. “What is it?”
“It’s from her abductor.” James’s voice was seething, the words coming in sharp syllables. “He wants five thousand pounds.” It was worth a year of James’ income. “Only then will he release Marina.”
