Cursing under his breath, he stepped outside and looked around. He saw nothing. Walking down the street, he searched. An hour later, he had not found her, and his temper was once again raging. Reentering his house, he thought about his options. Did he want to know where she’d gone?Yes!The word was loud inside his head.
How could he in good conscience let her roam the streets of London with no money, friends, or place to sleep? He had to find her. He retreated to his study and tried to think as she would, tried to understand how her mind now worked.
“I passed by on the off chance you had arrived.”
Joseph watched his sister breeze into the room an hour later. Eleanor was four years his junior and looked the image of their mother, pretty with black curls and soft brown eyes. She was vivacious and full of life. Married to a man she loved desperately, she had never been happier.
“I have found Millicent.”
Her steps faltered before she reached him. He took the hand she held out to him.
“What has that cow done now! How dare she reappear!”
Her anger was a wonderful sight, and had always made him smile, especially when it was in protection of him.
“Sit, Ellie, and I will explain.”
He told her that Milly had not left him for another man, but for reasons that he could not go into, but that there had been danger to him if she stayed in London. His sister was not one to do anything quietly, and promptly burst into noisy tears.
“Oh, I feel so terrible. How could I have doubted her for so long? I am truly a bad person!”
“No you’re not, so stop the theatrics right now, and help me work out where she has gone to.”
“You still care for her?”
Did he? Poking around inside his chest, he didn’t believe he did. But there was something there, now that the anger had eased and been replaced with worry. Passion, yes, but also something like respect for her survival, and a need to know what course her life had taken in the last four years. God, all this emotion was exhausting. For so long he’d shut it away, but it felt as if since Milly had reentered his life she’d sliced open a vein and emotion was pouring out.
“She is at present walking about London in your blue velvet cloak, with no bonnet, and at a guess, no money,” he said, instead of answering her question.
“My cloak?” She wrinkled her nose. “Oh indeed, is that where I left it? But it matters not, what matters is that we find her.”
Unlike him, Ellie would harbor no ill will toward Milly. She could forgive with ease; it was her way.
His anger, he now realized, stemmed more from the fact that she’d had no need to take the course of action she had. He would have taken steps to help Milly if only she had come to him instead of fleeing. She should have trusted him to keep her safe.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Where is she?” Ellie snapped.
“That is what I’m trying to work out!” he snapped back. “After reading the papers her father left for her, she fled... again.”
She fell silent, brows lowered, frowning as she thought.
“The lawyer. Surely she has gone there? Her father’s lawyers would be the logical first step?”
He hadn’t thought of that, and now wondered why he hadn’t.
“It is a good place to start,” he conceded.
“It’s a bloody brilliant place to start, you mean.” She regained her feet and gave him a cheeky smile. “And you are merely annoyed that I thought of it before you.”
“Such a humble creature you are, little sister. I’m sure your husband would be displeased to hear you swearing like a sailor,” he said, nudging her through the door.
“Oh, pooh to that. Louis is far worse than I. Don’t you want your coat, hat, and gloves?” she questioned him, and it was then he realized he’d just walked about for an hour without them. Ignoring her smug look, he returned to his house to shrug into his coat, and grab his hat and gloves. Looking at the darkening skies, he hoped they found Milly soon.
Where are you?
