Chapter 28
“Are you sure you haven’t seen her at all today? Perhaps she came by when you were out?” Davien was trying to decide if the older widow in front of him was lying, but since she had seemed equally perplexed by his appearance, either she was simply a talented actress, or she was telling him the truth.
“I haven’t left at all, Your Grace,” Mrs. Woodard replied, standing on the steps of the House of Perpetual Hope workhouse. “And I haven’t seen Cosette in weeks. I do hope ye find her. In a city like London, one can’t be too careful.”
She offered him a tired, but polite smile as she turned around, leaving Davien standing beside his carriage with a perplexed frown.
He hadn’t meant to wait until dusk to return for Cosette, but it had taken hours for the bedlam around his smoldering estate to settle down. Once the fire brigand had arrived, it brought the curiosity of the rest of the city to his doorstep. There was a mob of onlookers, everyone from men, women, and children, in the midst of the men who were working to put out the remaining flames. For hours, the men of the brigand worked, pumping water onto the site, while a steady stream of buckets filled with water were passed around some of the others, all in an effort to douse the roaring flames.
In the end, the efforts had been valiant, but the entire structure was a loss, along with everything in it. His father’s once grand estate had finally burned down to nothing more than a pile of charred wood, ash, cinder, and stone rubble.
Davien supposed that he could clear it all away and rebuild on the site, but since it wasn’t entailed, he would probably just sell the land and move on. His dream was not to rebuild an impressive manor, but to turn one of his estates into an actual home. With Cosette by his side, he realized that was possible.
She was his foundation of hope.
As Davien finally left the remains of Shadowlawn behind later that day, he had nearly gone to Cosette right then, but considering that he was in a sorry shape of disrepair; he thought it would be best to make himself more presentable first. That way, when he asked her to marry him, he wouldn’t look as though he had just faced death and come out on the other side—even though that’s exactly what had happened.
In spite of this, he vowed not to waste any more unnecessary time lamenting the past. Cosette was his future, and that’s what he intended to focus on right now.
So Davien had headed for Mayfair. He rented out a townhouse there, and while he was currently in between tenants, he’d gone there for a much needed bath. The modest staff he employed was eager to see to his every need. A footman had been dispatched to the tailor to procure Davien some clean clothes, and a maid was sent to Madame Louvre’s to take care of Cosette’s attire. The Cook set to work preparing a meal while the butler directed a handful of footmen to fill the copper tub in the master’s chamber.
Davien felt it was strange to have people waiting on him hand and foot again, for he’d managed on his own for more than twenty years. Then again, he’d had a dark secret to hide, not to mention the ability to take care of himself. Things were going to be a lot different now that he was a ‘normal’ duke.
As he’d waited for his bath, he’d sat on the bed in his chamber and contemplated many things, the foremost of which he hadn’t let himself consider until that moment. The beast had been fearsome, intimidating, whereas Davien was just . . . a simple man.
Would Cosette still want him?
As he watched Mrs. Woodard go back inside the front door of the workhouse, Davien felt his coachman come up beside him. “Where else could she have gone, Quinn?” he murmured.
The other man shrugged. Davien had always let Cosette believe that Quinn was under some sort of spell, but the truth was, he really couldn’t speak. He was born with the disability. It had just been amusing at the time to pretend otherwise.
“Come to think of it,” Davien added, “have you seen Charlotte lately?”
Quinn shook his head.
“Then my guess is that where one is, we will soon find the other.” He walked toward the coach. “The Lion’s Share,” he instructed.
As Quinn took his place atop the carriage, Davien looked out the window at the city beyond.Where are you, Cosette?
~ ~ ~
Cosette hugged Charlotte. She was dressed in a simple, brown bedgown, not in much better condition than the one she’d originally worn the first night Davien had taken her to Shadownlawn. While it was only a few short weeks ago that she’d passed through the gates of that grand estate, it seemed like an eternity had passed.
She kept telling herself that she wasn’t being a martyr, that she really had Davien’s best interests at heart, but there was that one small part of her brain that kept nagging at her that Charlotte was right—that she was making the biggest mistake of her life. She pushed it firmly aside.
“This isn’t goodbye,” Charlotte sniffed. “Ye better write th’ minute ye make it over th’ border into Scotland. Just tell Mrs. O’Malley that ye know me an’ she’ll give ye safe room an’ board until ye find respectable employment.”
The reticule Cosette carried was weighed down with the coins that her friend had pressed into her palm. It was enough for her to secure passage on the bone-rattling public coach. Her throat ached with unshed tears even though there was surely no way she could cry any more. She’d already managed enough during the past twenty-four hours to drown an army.
She forced a smile. “I’m sure there’s some village in Scotland that’s in need of a seamstress.”
Charlotte’s mouth drooped. “Are ye sure ye won’t reconsider—”
Cosette shook her head as she climbed into the hired hackney and shut the door. “I promise I’ll write as soon as I can,” she whispered, and then knocked on the side of the coach to let the driver know she was ready to depart.
Two hours later, she was in the public coach, crammed between three other occupants as they bounced over one of the uneven roads leading out of the city. She leaned her head back against the cushion and closed her eyes, feeling her heart break with each turn of the carriage wheel.
~ ~ ~
