To his dismay, she was not in the dining room where several footmen were busy setting the table for tonight’s party.The crystal glasses and polished silverware gleamed brightly as sunlight struck the place settings.
Alex gave a nod of approval and headed for the parlor.
Tulips was not there.
His heart began to pound, for where else would she have gone?She must have been in the parlor until a few minutes ago because the furniture and carpets had been completely reconfigured and the room actually looked quite nice.
“Where is Her Grace?”he asked several footmen who had thick rags in their hands.They were on their knees on the parlor floor, busy soaking up what appeared to be ink stains.
“You just missed her, Your Grace.She ran upstairs to change out of her gown,” one of them replied.“The ink spilled as we moved this writing desk and it made a mess of her gown and the flooring.But I think we got to the spill before the ink stains bled into the wood boards or the carpets.”
Alex groaned lightly, blaming himself for creating this chaos.
Their dinner party was to start in about six hours, and he should have come up with a better idea than having Tulip move furniture about.“Do get on with your work.Let me not delay you.”
He hastened out of the parlor and took the stairs two at a time in his eagerness to reach Tulip and tell her what he’d found.
“Tulip,” he called, knocking on the door of her duchess quarters because he expected to find her in there changing out of her gown.
She would need assistance lacing the new gown, would she not?
He knocked again to give her warning he was coming in, and then turned the handle.
Locked.
“Tulip, it’s me!Let me in, sweetheart.”
When he heard nothing in response, he went to his chamber and hurried straight to the inner door connecting the two bedrooms.He breathed a sigh of relief upon finding it was open, for Tulip had insisted on no key and no lock between them.
But his relief was short-lived.
Tulip was not in either chamber, and there appeared to have been a struggle taken place in hers.Chairs were overturned and a vase and candlestick lay on the floor, the vase shattered.
His heart surged into his throat.“Tulip!”
He raced to his dressing area and tried the secret panel that surprisingly opened up for him this time.
Ernfield must not have been able to lock it while Tulip was no doubt kicking and punching him, and trying with all her might to fight him off.
Had he taken her up to the tower room?
He tore up the stairs and burst into that chamber through its connecting secret panel, but no one was up there.
Thank The Graces.
He thought for certain Ernfield meant to toss her out the window just as he had done with Elspeth almost two decades ago.But the window would have been open had he done that, for he could not have shut it after pushing her out or else everyone would have known it was murder and not a desolate wife leaping to her death.
A dead person cannot close the window after they’ve jumped.
His stomach was in a tight knot as he grabbed a candle, lit it, and then made his way down the tunnel as fast as he dared.
Where was Ernfield taking her?
The tunnel led out into the grove of trees just as indicated on the building plans.That access had also been left open, which meant Tulip was still conscious and fighting Ernfield as he’d dragged her out.The earth was dug up around the access portal which was more evidence of a struggle, but his heart tore to pieces when he noticed a thick branch with fresh blood on it.
Ernfield must have managed to knock out Tulip as soon as they had emerged from the tunnel.
Was Ernfield mad enough to take her into the salt marshes and drown her as he had just attempted to do with Mrs.Granger?
