"I somehow doubt it," he said as they hurried in among the trees and toward the river. "The heavens are about to open. I think you must prepare for a wicked night of sin with me, Mrs. Ingram. We seem to have a habit of getting ourselves into such situations during rain storms, do we not?"
* * *
"Mama."Lord Crensford tapped his mother on the shoulder as she was talking with some guests. He smiled and nodded to them. "May I have a word with you?"
She looked beyond his shoulder, saw that he was alone, smiled back at her guests, and took his arm.
"Where is Angela?"
"Where is Miss Wickenham?"
Their questions, when they were safely outside the ballroom, were simultaneous.
"She is not in the greenhouses," he said. "Did she not come back?"
She stared at him blankly for a moment. "She must have gone to her room," she said. "I will go up and see, dear."
"While you do so," Lord Crensford said, "I will check the downstairs rooms, Mama. Did she say she was going to the greenhouses?"
"In so many words she did,'' the countess said distractedly as she hurried away. Lord Crensford did not call her back to explain the strangeness of her words.
A fifteen-minute search of the house did nothing to solve the mystery of the missing Angela Wickenham.
"Oh, dear me," the countess said, a hand to her throat. "Wherever can she be, Ernest? There is a storm coming on outside."
"You said she was upset, Mama?" Lord Crensford said, frowning. "Where would she go if she were upset? She is not in her room. She is not with her mama or with Claudia. Let me think."
''Are you quite sure she was not hiding in one of the greenhouses?" she asked.
Lord Crensford did not answer her. He was frowning in concentration. "It is going to storm, you say?" he asked."A stormy night.There was something about a stormy night." He pressed four fingers to his forehead. "Oh, Lord! She wouldn't do that, would she? She wouldn't do that!"
"Do what?" The countess sounded genuinely distraught.
''She has gone to the castle to throw herself off the battlements," Lord Crensford announced before breaking into a run.
"Ernest, are you mad?" his mother shouted after him. "She would never go to the castle all alone."
"I'm going to ride there," he called back. "I'll overtake her. And wring her neck."
The countess was left standing, both hands pressed to her mouth. What was she to do? There seemed to be precious little she could do. She turned back to the ballroom in some dread.
Yet after she had assembled the earl and Mrs. Wickenham and Clarence and Claudia in an anteroom, they all seemed to think the situation far less disastrous than she had thought. And Claudia laughed openly at Ernest's fear that Angela had gone to the castle to throw herself to her death.
"I can fully believe that she has gone to the castle," she said, "thoughit was a very foolish thing to do when there is a storm approaching. She has gone there to dream about the romance of it all, doubtless."
"In the middle of a ball when she has had so many partners?" Lord Wendell asked in some disbelief.
"I am afraid it would be just like Angela to do such a thing," Mrs. Wickenham said. "And I do believe she has been somewhat unhappy about ..." She looked a little uncomfortable. "Well, young girls very easily fancy themselves heartbroken."
"Should we not organize a large search party?" the countess asked.
"By no means," Mrs. Wickenham said. "That would quite ruin this splendid ball. If Lord Crensford has searched the greenhouses and you have both searched the house, ma'am, she must be at either the pavilion or the castle. And if Lord Kenwood and Mrs. Ingram have gone to search the pavilion, and Lord Crensford has gone to the castle, then I believe that everything is in hand. We should return and dance before other people start asking questions."
The countess looked uncertainly at the earl, and Viscount Wendell was biting his lower lip, a habit he had when he was worried. But Mrs. Wickenham's words seemed sensible. There was no point in giving way to panic.
"So, my dear," the earl said to the countess as he led her back into the ballroom, "it seems that both pairs of lovers have the perfect opportunity to discover one another if only they have the sense to do so."
"Oh, but I did not intend this, Rotherham," she said. "Jack and Diana are on their way to the pavilion, it is true. But I intended for Ernest and Angela to meet in the greenhouses. I am not happy about this at all."
