Ian could hardly blame her for that. Travelling about with Izzy must seem vastly better than being an unpaid nursery maid for her husband’s large family. He looked through the drawers, but they were all empty.
He noticed a pile of folded blankets in a corner on the floor, but when he asked about them, the girl merely shrugged.
“Sophie did not have a child of her own?”
“Not her. If she had, she could’ve stayed on at that house of hers, but—”
She stopped abruptly, her cheeks reddening, but Ian was not interested in Sophie’s circumstances, only that she was with Izzy and they had both taken a box. That did not seem as if they were simply planning to stay at an hotel in Durham for a few days.
“Did Sophie have a manservant? Her own carriage?”
That elicited nothing but raucous laughter. Ian gave it up. He returned to the Queen’s Head, summoned the head ostler and drew out his notebook.
“Give me the names and addresses of every posting house in the city,” he said. “Anywhere one might hire a post chaise and horses.”
“You think she’s gone off somewhere,” Samuel said, when the ostler had left, silver coins in his pocket and a smile on his face.
“I do, and I cannot believe she hired a farmer’s gig. She will have found a post chaise, and that means there will be ostlerswho remember her and postilions who can tell me where she went. And at the next stage, there will be more postilions.” He smiled in grim satisfaction. “We shall find her, Samuel, never fear.”
It took Ian the rest of the day to find the posting house that had supplied a post-chaise and pair to two ladies and a man, one of the ladies both fashionable and beautiful. It was now three days since Izzy had been there, and Ian had expected to have to use his miniature of her to jog memories, but the ostlers remembered her very clearly.
“Aye, a fine lady an’ her maid an’ a man.”
“Which road did they take, do you know?”
The ostler conferred with his postilions to find the one who had taken Izzy, coming back with the answer, “Sunderland. Golden Lion.”
“At what hour did the chaise arrive there?”
“A little afore five, I reckon,” the postilion said.
“They would have stopped there for the night, I suppose?”
“I reckon. I never saw what they done.”
Ian thanked them with silver, and returned to the Priory well satisfied.
“I do not like to think of her travelling all alone, and without even her own carriage,” Lady Rennington said anxiously, as they gathered before dinner.
“She is not alone, Mama,” Josie said. “She has this Sophie Hearle with her, who is a widow and no doubt perfectly respectable, for all the ostler mistook her for a maid. And the man.”
“Whoeverheis,” muttered Mrs Edward.
“He must be someone known to Izzy, or she would not have taken him with her,” Josie said firmly. “If she must go wandering about the countryside, it is far better to have a man with her.”
“Is she wandering?” Lady Rennington said. “Or does she have a destination in mind?”
“We shall find out soon enough,” Ian said. “Ma’am, I shall be following Izzy’s trail as fast as I can manage, so it is unlikely I will stay long enough in any one place to receive mail. If Izzy should return here, keep her here, by force if necessary. Lock her in somewhere, I do not care where so long as it is secure, and I shall write to Corland and Stonywell with the same instructions. If I lose track of her altogether, I shall return here.”
“Ian, I have no power to compel Izzy to do anything,” Lady Rennington said gently. “Nor have you. She is not your wife any longer.”
“That is only a temporary situation,” Ian said. “I have the special licence, so as soon as I catch up with her—”
“And what if she does not wish you to catch up with her? She has intentionally made it difficult for anyone to follow her. Why not leave her to pursue whatever phantom is in her head?”
“I cannot simplyabandonher,” Ian cried, horrified.
“It seems to me that she has abandoned you.”
