She was still lying on the floor and showed no sign of getting up. He reached down and lifted her in order to place her on the sofa next to him.
'Why in God's name are we talking about pets? I've just thrown a very valuable silver heirloom through that window.'
'You also have yet to answer my question. What prompted that extraordinary reaction from you?'
'You pointed out the blindingly obvious and I should have seen that for myself. I'm beginning to think that I've been wandering about my home half-asleep for the past few years ignoring what was under my nose.'
He now had her full attention. 'Are you saying that your staff have been derelict in their duties before today?'
'Indeed, that's exactly what I'm saying. If I get rid of all the inside staff, which is what I should do, it might be weeks before the place is running smoothly again.'
It was her turn to exclaim, but she didn't use blasphemy or bad language. 'Goodness, I think your staff and your broken window must be forgotten for the moment. We have yet to find my missing maid and it will soon be too dark to search successfully. We cannot ask for help from your staff now, so what are we to do?'
He surged to his feet, snatched her hand and pulled her to her feet. 'I've absolutely no complaints about the outside staff. They are loyal to a fault. Therefore, I'll enlist their assistance immediately.'
'I'll leave that to you, James, I must return to Annabel as she'll be worried by my prolonged absence when I promised to return at once. I've been gone far too long. My initial thought was that Mr Sinclair had something to do with Mary's disappearance, but now I fear it might be something to do with Bedford or Foster.'
'Yes, return to your apartment. Leave this to me. I'll send word or come myself when I have anything to report.'
As she was about to turn to go her expression changed. 'Your dogs, I take it they are hunting dogs, so why not get them to hunt for her? If you fetch them from their kennel, then I'll run upstairs and find an item of clothing that belonged to Mary.'
She was gone before he could gather his wits. He knew himself to be quick thinking, highly intelligent and calm in a crisis but had never expected to make the acquaintance of a young woman who could match him on every point.
Othello and Caliban lived in his study and being well-trained would only leave that room with him or if he whistled for them. That had never happened until now. Tonight, everything was different.
He went to the end of the passageway, put two fingers in his mouth and the ear-splitting noise reverberated along the corridor. The study door was always left ajar and seconds later his faithful hounds had burst out of the room and were tearing towards him.
True to her word Sofia was at that very moment flying down the stairs clutching a shawl. She waved it triumphantly. 'Here, this is hers. I'm sure it will still have her aroma lodged within it.'
His dogs were not partial to strangers but as soon as they saw her they bounded forward. This didn't concern him as their tails were wagging. She dropped to her knees and his two fierce hunting dogs, one might go as far as to call them guard dogs, rolled about on the floor in ecstasy whilst she tickled their bellies and their legs waved inelegantly in the air.
'Enough of that nonsense, boys, you've a job to do.' He snapped his fingers and instantly they were at his side waiting for instructions. Sofia handed him the length of cloth and he rubbed it over their faces.
'Seek, seek, Thello, Cali, go find her.'
*
Sofia watched the huge hounds sniff the air, then put their long muzzles to the boards. They whined as they circled searching for the scent. Annabel ran down the stairs to join them.
'They won't find anything to follow, Mary will have used the back stairs,' her friend called out.
'Dammit, of course. My wits are wandering today and it's taking two young ladies to set me straight,' James said as he smiled a greeting to Annabel.
He snapped his fingers a second time and pointed to a narrower corridor that Sofia hadn't noticed. As she wasn't told to remain she ran along behind. James kept telling the dogs to seek and they were constantly sniffing the air and the floor, whining because they couldn't find what they'd been told to look for.
Then, the darker dog, the one called Caliban made a strange yipping sound and was gone, closely followed by Othello and James thundered along behind.
'I don't think we should go with them, Annabel, we can't keep up and we'll just hinder the search. There are things I must tell you quickly as we go to the stables.'
When her friend had heard the whole sorry tale she was horrified. 'It doesn't seem possible that his servants can have been dictating what happens here for all these years. I don't agree with you, Sofia, that we should leave, that our arrival was a disaster. I think it a good thing that finally the true character of these people has been revealed.'
'I'm not sure James will see it like that; I believe him to be a gentleman who prefers things to remain the same.'
She'd now found the side door that led directly to the stables and they exited together, her intention being to involve the head groom and ask him to get everybody to join in the search.
'That's just not so, Sofia, otherwise why would he have taken us in so readily?'
There was no time for further chat as they had arrived at the archway that led into the yard. This time there were two stable boys sitting on upturned buckets diligently cleaning tack. They jumped to their feet still clutching the bridles they'd been working on.
