Oliver skirted around a fishmonger’s wares to cross the road to where Tony was holding the door open for him. He vaulted inside.
Tony clapped him on the back. “I thought you were going to Vauxhall? I was just on my way to find you. I have news—”
Oliver shook his head. “It will have to wait. I have to go to my aunt. She needs me.”
“I don’t understand why—”
“She is ill, and the surgeon has been called.” Oliver looked at his pocket watch in distress. He could not afford the delay that Tony would no doubt bring.
He banged on the roof and instructed the driver to go to his aunt’s address.
Tony stuck his head out the window and told the driver to wait.
“What the devil?”
“Oliver, I’ve just left your aunt. She’s fine,” Tony said.
“What do you mean, you’ve just been there?” Confusion was warring with his guilty conscience over his aunt’s health. “Why would you have been at Aunt Petunia’s?”
“If you will stop interrupting, I’ll tell you.”
When Oliver reluctantly nodded, Tony said, “I was looking for you. Lady Fortesque’s butler informed me you had left the luncheon. I went to your house but you were not there. I went to Lady Blackhurst’s but her butler is nothing but a closed-lipped, livery-clad stick-in-the-mud and he told me only that her ladyship was not receiving. I went to your aunt’s next where she insisted I come in. I was hoping she would tell me where you were. It took a bit of getting to the point, but she did tell me some interesting information about your brother and his hatred for Blackhurst.”
“My brother did not kill Blackhurst,” Oliver insisted.
“I have no doubt on the matter, but he did hate him. So did many others apparently, including your friend Dalmere.”
The carriage jerked and moved a little causing both men to grab for their doors to stay seated.
“Dalmere?” Oliver asked.
“Yes,” Tony said, running his fingers through his hair. “We will have to make sure Lady Blackhurst stays put until we can determine for sure.” Tony looked contrite for a moment. “Oliver, I have to tell you it was Dalmere who hired me to investigate her although he did use his uncle’s name and not his own. It was this that sparked my suspicions about him. I know he is a friend of yours, but I have reason to believe he killed Blackhurst. Oliver, are you all right? You’ve gone as pale as a ghost.”
Oliver already had his hand on the handle of the door. “Tony, I’ve just left Lisbeth with Dalmere at the gardens.”
Tony swore but Oliver was already out of the hack, running, ducking, and weaving down the street. He hurdled over dogs and skidded around carts in his desperation to get back to the gardens and Lisbeth. How could he have been so blind?
He had to get to her, but all before him stretched like an endless winding road. The distance between him and the gates to the gardens felt miles and miles away. Time ticked in slow motion. What would he do if he did not get there in time? How would he live if something happened to her?
She had his heart, had for weeks.
He loved her.
He needed her.
“Lisbeth,” he said in a pained voice, increasing his speed.
His chest heaved with exertion and his thighs burned, but he didn’t care. Bloody, bloody hell!Dalmere had been under their noses the whole time. How had they not connected him with Blackhurst?Dalmere used his own connection with Henry to play me,Oliver thought. It was like Dalmere had orchestrated this whole mess with Lisbeth, Tony, and the speculation. What then of the Black Raven wager and his insistence that she was not to be trusted? Had he been setting him up?
Tony had distrusted Lisbeth, too, but he knew Tony would never have run all around London looking for him unless he knew his information about Dalmere was accurate. This only made him more anxious about Lisbeth. He had to have her safe in his arms. But first he was going to kill Dalmere.
Tony caught up to him, but they exchanged no words and just kept on running. Finally, the gates of Vauxhall gardens appeared. They didn’t stop to pay the entry fee but ran right past and into the crowd.
“Eh? Nobody gets through my gates wifout payin’,” the gate keeper yelled as, at his direction, his thug took off in pursuit of Oliver and Tony.
Oliver pointed towards where the balloon ascension was being held, and they both headed for the crowd.Damn!How would they find Lisbeth in this crush? Both of them started to ask people if they had seen Lady Blackhurst. One gentleman pointed towards the path that led to the supper tents.
The thug was catching up, yelling for them to stop. “Hey, you buggers. I’m coming after you, I am. You better stop now or else I’m gunna have to thump ya.”
