“I have to meet Lady Astor at Vauxhall,” he murmured to his table companions by way of excuse.
“How long has it been, Astor?” one of his friends asked with a grin. “A month? Six weeks? She has you firmly in leading strings, eh?”
“What does a leg shackle feel like, Astor?” another acquaintance asked.
“It must be love,” a third said with a sigh, his hand over his heart.
Lord Astor joined in the general laughter.
When he reached Vauxhall Gardens, he could not immediately locate the right box. He had arrived after the main entertainment of the evening was over, he realized, and before most people settled down for supper. Crowds were milling around in the open semicircular area before the boxes. Others were doubtless taking the air by strolling along the numerous paths that led off in different directions. Eventually he spotted a box that was empty of all except the slouching figure of his drunken friend.
“Hubbard!” he said, entering the box and taking one of the empty seats. “All alone?”
“Abandoned,” his friend agreed cheerfully. “I would have stayed sober if there had been dancing, old boy, but what else was there to do during that interminable fiddling and trumpet-blowing except drink? Now I have boneless legs. Sorry about it, too. I couldn’t oblige your wife by walking with her. Fetching little thing, Astor.”
“Where did she go?” Lord Astor asked.
Mr. Hubbard gestured along the main path leading away from the gates. “That way,” he said. “Five minutes ago. Probably closer to ten.”
“The whole party is walking together?” Lord Astor asked.
“Oh, Lord, no,” Mr. Hubbard said. “Let me see. First Farraday and his sister went to pay their respects to a second cousin or something remote like that. They all disappeared along that path.” He pointed. “Then that large silent character—friend of Lady Astor’s—went for a stroll that way with Lady Harriet. Her sister and what’s-his-name, her husband, trailed along to make it all respectable, I suppose. No one else wanted to join them. Lady Astor insisted on staying to stop me drinking more and making myself ill or foolish, she said. Seemed to be under the impression that I was about to start warbling or something. Then Miss Wilson and Charlton found it imperative to set off in the same direction as the other four.”
“And Arabella went with them?” Lord Astor asked after a pause had indicated that no further information was forthcoming.
“Oh, Lord, no,” Mr. Hubbard said with a yawn. “She was busy chattering my head off so that I would not think about tipping back more drink. Sweet little thing, Astor. All heart.”
“Where did she go then?” Lord Astor was frowning and beginning to feel a twinge of alarm.
“Fellow came by,” he said. “Tall, thin, gangly. Spots.”
“Er, Browning?” his friend suggested.
“Right first time,” Mr. Hubbard said. “Browning. That’s it. Told her he had just seen her sister. ‘With Lady Harriet?’ says Lady Astor. ‘No,’ he says, ‘with Sir John Charlton.’ And then he moved on.”
“Yes?” Lord Astor prompted.
“Oh. Your wife got all excited about chaperones and dark alleys and whatnot,” Mr. Hubbard said. “Wanted me to go with her to find them. I couldn’t, Astor. Sorry, old chap. I suppose I should have. She shouldn’t be running around here alone, should she? No harm, though. She will be with her sister by now and ripping up at her, no doubt.” He chuckled. “She is younger than Miss Wilson, isn’t she? Acting like a mother hen, she was. Where are you going, old fellow? Have a drink.”
Lord Astor did not even hear him. It was worse than he had thought possible. Arabella had gone wandering off on her own. And where would he look if she had not kept to the main path? Surely she would not have wandered onto one of the darker side paths alone?
Damn Farraday for inviting her and then not looking properly to her safety. And damn Hubbard for getting drunk in the presence of ladies.
He felt a surge of relief a couple of minutes later to see a group of familiar figures approaching him on the main path. Frances was in the lead, arm-in-arm with Lady Harriet.
“My lord!” she called. “What a pleasant surprise. Bella will be delighted. Is not all this truly enchanting?”
“Where is Arabella?” he asked as he drew closer to the group.
“Oh, she stayed back at the box with Mr. Hubbard,” she said. “We will have to tease her about her laziness, my lord.”
“But she followed you,” he said. “Is she not with you?”
“Bella came after us alone?” Theodore asked, pushing his way past the two ladies. “And Hubbard allowed it? Wherever can she be?”
“I am going to find her,” Lord Astor said. “She must have turned down one of the other paths.” And he hurried past the group without even hearing Theodore’s worried declaration that he would search back closer to the boxes.
Lord Astor knew the impossibility of his task even as he hurried on, his head swiveling from left to right to peer down paths that curved away out of sight into the darkness. She could be along any one of them. She could be ahead of him or behind him or to either side of him. And if he turned off the main path he stood almost no chance at all of finding her. He felt his heart begin to pound against his chest.
