“I’m sorry, Lord Kilsyth. I don’t know where she’s gone.”
Henry scrubbed a hand over his face. “By chance has Jeffries returned?” He was the last servant to be questioned, but Henry doubted the butler had any further information. Even so, one never knew when someone had a bit of information that could lead to an answer.
“I believe he has also just returned,” Mrs. Peade answered.
“Have him sent to me.”
“Of course, Lord Kilsyth.”
“Did Miss Doyle say anything to you about leaving?”
She gasped. “I would have certainly told you if she had.”
It was as he had assumed. “Were you aware of anything that might have been bothering her? Had her brother tried to contact her? Do you know of anything that might have caused her to leave?”
“I’m sorry, Lord Kilsyth, but Miss Doyle confided nothing to me, nor was she behaving oddly.”
Henry blew out a sigh. “Thank you, Mrs. Peade. Please send Jeffries to me.”
“Of course, Lord Kilsyth.” His housekeeper started for the door then stopped and turn. “Oh, I do hope you find her.”
“As do I, Mrs. Peade. As do I.”
Henry crossed to the sideboard and poured more brandy into his glass, racking his brain for any clue that Eve might have said during any discussion that could indicate where she might have gone.
“You wish to see me, Lord Kilsyth?” Jeffries asked from the entrance.
“I am assuming that you’ve learned that Miss Doyle has left with no clue as to where she’s gone.”
“I just learned.”
“Did she say anything to you about her destination?”
“No, Lord Kilsyth. The last time I saw her was after the ball, after an officer with the Thames River Police called. I left later that morning.”
“Thames River Police? When the blazes were they here and why didn’t you alert me?”
Jeffries frowned. “They knocked shortly after you retired. Miss Doyle was still in the library but she insisted that I not disturb you and that she’d tell you after you’d awakened.”
“As she was gone when I woke, why the blazes were the Thames River Police calling at my home and at such an ungodly hour?”
Jeffries gulped and took a step back.
“Well?” Henry demanded. Though he had no answer yet, he was certain that he now had the answer to why Eve had fled. He highly doubted she was wanted for any criminal activity, it was linked, somehow.
“Her brother, Lord Kilsyth,” Jeffries answered. “Bow Street suspected him of being one of the thieves that took the mummy and artifacts and gave chase. Mr. Doyle tried to outrun them but ended up tossing himself from the Westminster Bridge. Thames River Police came to inform Miss Doyle after they fished his body out of the Thames.”
All Henry could do was stare at his butler as he absorbed this new information. Rage engulfed him. “And you didn’t think I should be told immediately?” he bellowed.
Jeffries took another step back. “Miss Doyle insisted. I poured her a brandy and she said she wanted to be left alone and that she’d tell you in the morning.”
“You should have gotten me,” Henry yelled.
“Kilsyth,” Pickmore interrupted. “How could Jeffries have known that Miss Doyle would leave? Had she asked the same of me, I would have given her the peace to mourn as well and honored her wishes.”
“It was a devastating loss, no matter how poorly the man may have treated his sister, he was still her brother,” Kilsyth argued. “She shouldn’t have been left alone.”
Jeffries hung his head. “I apologize, Lord Kilsyth. I was only doing as Miss Doyle asked.”
