There was no sense of panic as he spoke, simply curiosity as to where she may have gone. Cruz looked at the other cottages, the rear of Tay’s, Sinclair’s, Fox’s, and Payne’s. They were all gathered in the same general area.
“Mayhap she is visiting with her friends,” Cruz said. “Or mayhap she is out looking for you.”
Creston ran his fingers through his damp hair, looking toward the south where Tay’s cottage was. “Possibly,” he said. “I will speak with Athdara.”
Cruz and Brenton and Myles remained where they were as Creston headed down to Tay’s home, hoping to find his wife. She wasn’t there, however, so Athdara went with him over to Fox’s cottage, but she wasn’t there, either. That had Fox and Gisele and Athdara accompanying Creston to Sinclair’s home and, finally, Payne’s.
Ophelia wasn’t in any of those locations.
Now Creston was starting to become worried.
At this point, Payne went to rouse the other trainers from their homes as Cruz, Brenton, and Myles joined the hunt. Blackchurch was a very large property, so they spread out, speaking to soldiers and servants, as Creston and Cruz went to the kitchens. The cook hadn’t seen the lady since that morning, when he gave her eggs and chives and garlic, and he dropped what he was doing to help Creston search.
Soon enough, most of Blackchurch was looking for her.
Creston went to the stables to see if his wife’s palfrey was still there. When he saw that the little animal was gone, he gathered the stable servants and asked them what they knew. Unfortunately, no one seemed to know, or had seen, anything, which only fed Creston’s panic. He had been halfway through interrogating the stable servants when Cruz, figuring that Lady de Royans had to have used one of the gatehouses if she rode a horse from Blackchurch, raced to the east gatehouse, since it was the closest. Creston sent the stable servants out to look for his wife and the horse on the grounds of Blackchurch, just in case she’d gone for a ride and was injured somewhere, as he went to follow Cruz to the gatehouse.
The men on duty at this time weren’t the same ones who had been on duty during the day. There was a day watch and a night watch. Creston summoned the day watch for both gates and, by this time, St. Denis and St. Sebastian were involved in the hunt. The guards for the day watch at the main gatehouse hadn’t seen Lady de Royans, but there were two men on the day watch for the eastern gatehouse that had seen someone ride a white horse from the gates. They hadn’t paid much attention since the horse and rider were coming out, not going in.
But that told Creston all he needed to know.
Ophelia had left Blackchurch.
Sick with the realization, Creston put his hands over his face and fell back against the gatehouse wall. “My God,” he breathed into his hands. “Why would she leave?Why?”
The men were passing concerned expressions at each other, though none of them wanted to say what they were thinking. It was Fox who finally spoke.
“You said that you told her about Sidbury’s plot,” he said. “When did you tell her?”
“This morning,” Creston said.
“How did she take the news?”
“She was upset, of course,” he said, growing agitated. “She was so upset that she had to lie down. I went out into the shed and got drunk, angry at myself because I was the monster who had upset her with the news. But sometime during the day, she must have… God, I don’t even know what to think. She must have run away from me.Ichased her away. It is my fault.”
Fox glanced at Tay, who nodded faintly. They were both thinking the same thing, and it wasn’t that the lady had run from her husband. It was something entirely different. Knowing how Creston felt about his wife, how they all felt about her, he hated to even speak what was on his mind.
But it was necessary.
“Creston,” Fox said, “please do not think I am being cruel and suspicious, but there is another possibility.”
“What possibility?”
“That she has gone to warn him.”
Creston’s head shot up, his eyes narrowing at a man who was a very dear friend. “Warn him?” he said. “Warn him about what?”
“That we know his plot,” Tay said, taking some of the heat off Fox. “Mayhap she has gone to tell him that we know so that he will cease pursuing whatever it is he is pursuing. We’re notsaying she is betraying you, or any of us, merely suggesting that she was upset enough to warn her grandfather off his plans.”
Creston was struggling not to lash out at them but he couldn’t quite manage it. “For what purpose?” he demanded. “If you are suggesting she is somehow in on this plot to destroy Blackchurch, then say so. Tell me that to my face.”
He was enraged. Cruz put his arm across Creston’s chest, knowing the man was angry enough to strike. “Easy,mi amigo,” he said softly. “No one is suggesting that. No one believes she is part of this plot.”
Creston was so angry that he was trembling. “That is not what it sounded like.”
“She isnotpart of any plot.”
A female voice came behind Tay, and they all turned to see the Blackchurch wives walking up. Athdara had spoken those words in defense of her friend. The women had been out searching for Ophelia but then saw their husbands gathering at the east gatehouse, so they’d hastened to join them. They’d heard enough of the conversation before they came close, and when all eyes turned to them, Athdara wasn’t shy about speaking her mind.
