“You are correct, my lady.” His voice murmured next to her ear.
A large hand covered her nose and mouth. Panic rose fast and she kicked back with her booted foot hearing a low grunt from her attacker. But his other hand moved to squeeze her throat, his thumb pressing painfully under her chin. Her vision began to go fuzzy and then the world around her went black.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Hart looked downat his watch fob. It was four o’clock, and he’d seen neither hide nor hair of his wife all afternoon. Not that they had to spend all their time together… but also, he would happily spend all his time with her. Christ, what a lovesick fool he had become. Since when had one woman consumed his thoughts so fully, so endlessly. He ran a hand over his face. Lovesick was exactly it. He had fallen in love with his wife.
Hart stared straight ahead, a smile spreading across his face until the stretch of it began to ache. He slapped his hands on his desk and stood up. He should go to the bank vault and pick out a proper ring for her. There had to be something among the Hartwick jewels that exemplified how big his feelings were for Lucy. Something with a sapphire to match her eyes.
The door to his study swung open without a knock first. Townson stood on the threshold his expression grim, brows furrowed together like one long hairy caterpillar.
“Please excuse the interruption, sir. But these two have distressing news to impart about Lady Hartwick.” He stepped into the room.
Behind him Herbert and Helen stood clutching hands. Helen’s face was red and mottled with tears.
Hart’s stomach lurched. “Where is she?”
“We was shopping at the Covent Garden market this afternoon after she’d had lunch with Lady Blakely.” Herbert began, his cockney accent thick with worry. “We was just collecting the fabric she selected, and then I turned around and she was gone.”
Helen met Hart’s gaze. “She was right next to us one minute. And then she was gone.”
“We spent the last two hours searching the entire market for her. We thought maybe she ended up coming home…” Herbert hung his head.
Nausea rolled in his gut. Hart sucked in a deep breath. “What happened right before you noticed her missing. I need to know every detail. Did she speak with anyone?”
“Yes,” Helen said. “Yes, a gentleman approached, and I saw her converse with him,”
Hart stepped forward. “Do you know who it was?”
Helen screwed up her face as she thought about it. “She called him Lord Perrin. He said he saw some clocks she might like? I think he said clocks. We were gathering up the things we bought. I never thought she wasn’t waiting for us.” Helen voice hitched with emotion. “I’m so sorry, Your Grace.”
Hart’s blood froze. Lord Perrin was Griffen’s son. Lucy would know better than to go anywhere with him. Unless she was forced somehow. Fury cold and hard raced through his veins. Griffen would pay with his life if he hurt one hair on her head.
“If she is harmed the both of you are sacked. You had one damn job, to keep an eye on her!” Panic had a vice grip around his heart. He pushed past the servants and stormed down the corridor to the front hall. He needed help and there was only one person who could figure out where she was. Hart opened the front door and raced down the front stoop to the drive.
“Seaton,” he shouted up into the ether. “Seaton!”
Across the street Seaton melted out from the shadows of a large oak in the park. He walked casually up to the front gate. “You bellowed?” he said with a smirk.
“Do you know where she is?” he demanded.
“I’m paid to follow you, not her,” Seaton replied.
Hart stalked toward his half-brother. “She’s gone. Disappeared from the Covent Garden market this afternoon. Last person she spoke with was Griffen’s son, Lord Perrin.”
His breath came out hard and fast as his thoughts started to spiral. Everyone he loved had been taken from him. Griffen wouldn’t have been able to use her to get to him if he had just followed his first instinct and kept her at arm’s length. Now she was in danger because of him. Grabbing the iron gate, he flung it open and Seaton walked through eyeing Hart with serious grey eyes.
Hart paced away his hands clenched into fists at his side. The hell if he would lose Lucy too. He would burn down the whole city to find her. He swung around. “Fuck.This is all my fault. She is in danger because of me.”
Seaton let out a sharp whistle. Hart followed Seaton’s gaze up to the roof line. Less than two minutes passed and a young man maybe sixteen shimmied down the drain pipe landing on his feet with more grace than any adolescent usually possessed. Hart couldn’t help but gape.
The boy reported to Seaton who said, “Gabe, race on down to the garden and talk with the lads who was working it today. We are looking for Lady Hartwick. See if any of them saw her this afternoon. Then report back to me.”
“Yes, sir.” The boy ran off down the street.
Seaton turned back to Hart. “What? I can’t sit around and keep an eye on you personally every minute. I have my team on the job.”
Hart didn’t care who was on his roof or which scruffy street urchin followed him around the city as long as they could use them to find Lucy. Some of the panic that mixed with the rage in chest loosened as he watched the boy disappear.
