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Lost?
No, I would not allow it. My sister could not be lost.
“Verity!” I yelled into the darkness as I searched throughout the grounds with my men. Each one with torches, but still, we could not find her.
“Verity!” I called out once more.
“Your Grace!” One man ran up to me.
“Did you find her?”
He shook his head but pointed behind me. “The doctor is calling for you. I believe he has found something.”
I gritted my teeth. Damn him. “Take me to him.”
“This way, Your Grace,” he said, running as I kicked into my horse and followed him. It took us only two or three minutes before we reached where Darrington was kneeling upon the earth.
“What is it?” I called out to him.
“Your Grace, were you hunting this way?” He rose, his fist clenched upon something.
“What?”
“Were you hunting this way!” he shouted at me.
“No! Why would that matter? I do not have time—”
He unclenched his hand and lifted the object for me to see. It looked to be a necklace of some sort. I believed I had seen it on Verity once before.
“She was here?” I gasped, looking around as if she would suddenly appear.
“She was not alone,” he said, regaining my attention. This time, he pointed with his torch to a tree with bark shattered from its side and a ball at the roots. However, only when he brought the fire closer did I see the blood. “Someone fired upon this ground, Your Grace, and if it was not you, then who?”
I heard what he was saying, but I could not come to terms with it, for…for these were my grounds, and besides Aphrodite, who did not take to the sport, no one else could have fired. Unless it was poachers, but even they would not risk the sound of gunfire exposing them.
“Your Grace, we must find her, now. Have your men search this area. She frequently visits here.”
I could not remove my eyes from the blood. “What if she is…”
“It is not enough to be fatal, but still, someone is wounded, and I can only imagine it is her.”
I looked at the man beside me. “Call everyone here. Quickly!”
“Yes, Your Grace!” he said as he went.
My eyes now focused on Darrington, who clenched her necklace as though it was his heart and began to walk absentmindedly forward.
“Your horse!” I reminded him.
But he did not seem to hear me. He just kept walking and searching through the trees. The fool almost tripped in the darkness.
“We will not find her if you break your neck first,” I snapped, going after him.
“Shh!” He held his hand up for me.
“What—”
“Shh! Get off your horse. It’s too much noise,” I noticed he was rather comfortable yelling, sneering, and snarling at me. But I said nothing. I carefully got down, making sure not to drop my torch.
Darrington crept again, turned his head, and then walked in the other direction. The look of sheer concentration and worry on his face was evident. Once more, he stepped and then stopped, glancing at me.
“Do you hear that?”
I listened but heard nothing.
“Hear what?”
His eyebrows furrowed together as he spun around, and I was sure he was in so much grief that his mind had broken.
“Verity!” he yelled out, but it was silent.
“Let us wait for the men. We will search—”
“Shh!”
I was ready to hurt him when all of a sudden, I heard it too.
“Theodore!”
I spun, not sure where it had come from.
“Verity!” he yelled again, running toward the sound. “Verity, where are you?”
“Here! I am here!” The voice was louder, but we could not see her.
“Verity?” I called out, my heart racing. Thank God she was alive.
“Verity, we are close. Where?” the doctor yelled again.
“The well!”
“Evander!” Theodore yelled to me, somehow managing to see it and already running toward it. “Verity, are you down there?”
Rushing over, I reached the broken edge, and it was only with the fire’s light that I could see her at the bottom. She peeked up at us before coughing.
She mumbled something before closing her eyes.
“Verity!” we both yelled at her.
“I need to get down there!” Theodore said, one leg already over the edge, but I grabbed his arm.
“Are you mad? It is at least twenty feet deep! Let us wait for rope—”
“And how do you suppose we get the rope around her if she is unconscious!” he yelled at me, yanking his arm away.
“And how do you suppose you will treat her if you are harmed as well? Think! Someone else will go down.”
“I will not allow her to stay in that darkness alone a second longer!”
The man began to climb down.
Staring in shock, I watched as he nearly broke his foot as he landed, yet he still crawled over to her. His earlier words came to mind.
Nothing you say or do has power over me, Your Grace. Only she does now.
