Olivia gasped. “No! But where have they gone?”
“If only we knew,” Mr Franklyn said with a smile. “They must have turned off the main road at some point, but— Here we are.”
He threw open a door and ushered them into a parlour so hot from a blazing fire that Olivia almost felt her cheeks melting.
“Goodness,” Lady Esther said, fanning herself with her hand. “A window, I think, Mr Franklyn, if you please, unless you wish us all to collapse with heat stroke.”
There was bread, cheese and cold meat laid out on the table, together with various wines. While Mr Franklyn went off to secure accommodation for the new arrivals, and Lady Esther fanned herself beside the open window looking down on the street below, Olivia discovered that she was hungry and set about remedying this deplorable state of affairs. She was polishing off a large piece of cheese and wondering whether she could manage another slice of ham when her father came in, looking glum.
“Well, this is a quandary, is it not? All this way to find the runaways, and they have vanished from the earth. Ah, food,” he said, brightening a little.
“May I slice you some ham, Papa?” Olivia said.
“If you would, daughter.” He poured himself a glass of wine and sipped appreciatively. “Excellent, excellent. There is nothing like a drop of claret to improve the spirits. Lady Esther, may I offer you a glass of wine? Most refreshing after so many hours on the road.”
“Thank you, no,” she said faintly. “A lie down is what would do me the most good, I believe. I shall find Mr Franklyn and ensure that the rooms offered are of a suitable standard.”
“May I accompany you, Lady Esther?” the earl said politely, but she waved away his help.
For a while, father and daughter ate in companionable silence. Olivia watched him carefully for signs of low spirits, but she thought he was somewhat less despondent. The familiar northern countryside was clearly doing him good.
The other gentlemen came in soon after, Mr Franklyn reporting that his wife was resting under her maid’s ministrations.
“Poor Lady Esther!” Olivia said. “She is dreadfully knocked up with all this travelling.”
“She will recover very speedily, I am sure,” Mr Franklyn said. “She will be well enough to join us for dinner. Embleton, did you have any luck finding which road Grayling might have taken?”
Lord Embleton shook his head, looking as if he wished to wring his sister’s neck. “Vanished!” he muttered. “They have turned off somewhere, but I cannot find out where… or why! Surely having come so far they will proceed all the way to Scotland. Foolish girl!”
“We will find them,” Mr Franklyn said easily. “We know they did not reach Thirsk, so tomorrow we will work our way south again and explore the byways. Unless they fell into a river and sank without trace, we must come across some news of them sooner or later.”
“Perhaps Lady Euphemia wished to visit her sister,” Olivia said diffidently.
Five pairs of eyes turned curiously in her direction.
“Her sister?” Lord Embleton said, his expression darkening. “Given that we are currently in the North Riding, Lady Olivia, do you refer to the sister who lives in Shropshire, or the one who lives in Gloucestershire? For I have to tell you that in either case your understanding of geography is abysmal.”
Olivia flushed, but said calmly, “I refer to Lady Harraby, Lord Embleton, who was residing at Harraby Hall the last I heard, not three miles from here. Perhaps Lady Euphemia wished to know if Lady Harraby has had her baby yet.”
Lord Embleton looked thunderstruck.“Harraby Hall!How foolish of me to forget that Jane is at Harraby! I was there myself not two months since. Lady Olivia, I ap-p-pologise m-most abjectly for insulting your intelligence. In all the upheaval, I had quite f-forgot that Jane is at H-Harraby H-Hall. I shall go there at once.”
And without another word, he whisked out of the room and his voice was shortly heard in the yard calling for a horse.
“A man of action,” Mr Franklyn said, with a smile. “I had forgotten about Lady Harraby myself. Well done, Olivia. But how ironic if we have been chasing after a potential elopement only to find that it is nothing more than a family visit.”
“It would be a strange manner of undertaking a family visit to leave in the middle of the night with a gentleman to whom one is not related,” Osborn said sardonically. “I await Embleton’s report with interest. One of us may yet be called upon to act as second in a duel.”
Olivia gasped. “He would not… would he?”
Mr Franklyn laughed. “Embleton has more sense.”
But Olivia could not be easy about it. “Surely someone should go after him? To prevent him from killing Lord Grayling?”
Osborn stood up at once. “I shall go, if it will set your mind at rest, Lady Olivia.”
“Thank you! At all costs, they must not fight!”
“Believe me, I shall do everything I can to prevent it.”
