His look changed, became as frozen as that worn by Mrs. Williams.
“Do you know the address of Douglas’s solicitor?” she asked.
He nodded. “I’ll tell your driver and give him directions,” he said.
She didn’t say anything until she reached the door, then she turned to him. “Mrs. Williams seems to miss you a great deal,” she said. “She was weeping the last time I saw her.”
He didn’t respond, merely descended the steps to speak to Edmunds. Once he’d done so, he turned to Sarah again. “It’s not like Douglas to disappear, Lady Sarah. If he isn’t at Chavensworth, there’s a reason forit. If there’s something he had to face, he’d do so. The man is not a coward.”
She didn’t know what to say to that, so she opted for the truth. “I need to know why he left.”
“Let me come with you,” he said. “I might be of some use.”
Surprised, she nodded. “I would be grateful for the company,” she said.
The solicitor’s office was located in an area of the city unfamiliar to her. Edmunds waited with the horses while she and Alano entered the small office. After a flurry of introductions and some stuttering responses from his clerk, she and Alano were shown into an inner office and introduced to Peter Smythe, her husband’s solicitor.
The man was the antithesis of what she’d imagined. Instead of being stoop-shouldered, he was tall. When he stood and came around the desk to greet her, he did so with a smile. He was also younger than she’d thought he’d be—not much older than Douglas. He wasn’t as attractive a man as her husband, but she had to admit, sitting there, that if she’d never seen Douglas, she would have thought the solicitor handsome.
A thought that lasted only until she’d come face-to-face with Mr. Smythe’s incredible recalcitrance. Her husband’s solicitor was even more stubborn than Douglas, and more obstinate than her most intractable Scottish relative.
“I’m afraid, Lady Sarah,” he said, “that I cannot divulge the information you seek Perhaps if you sought the answers from your husband, he could tell you why he came to see me.”
She didn’t like feeling powerless, but she kepther smile anchored in place, all too conscious of Mr. Smythe’s watchful glance and Alano’s presence at her side.
“Are you being confidential because that is what every client deserves, Mr. Smythe? Or is there a particular reason you might be keeping that information from me?”
“I beg your pardon?”
She took a deep breath. “If I left the room, would you give Mr. McDonough the information I need?”
He drew himself up in his chair, a quite impressive performance, actually.
“I would not, Lady Sarah,” he said. “On the contrary, I would probably interrogate Mr. McDonough with a great deal more severity than I’m questioning you. I might ask him, for example, why he is so desirous to know? Why has he come to me? Is there a reason why he thinks I might give him the answer he seeks?”
She applauded Mr. Smythe’s honor, yet at the same time, it played havoc with her intent to learn where Douglas was.
“But you can verify that my husband was here on Tuesday,” she said.
“I will do that much, Lady Sarah.” He stood, a rather impolite way of ending the meeting.
She stood as well, catching Alano’s glance, and wishing she could tell him that she would deal quite well with this setback. She would not be an object of pity. She bent her head, playing with the catch on her reticule to give her some time to frame her words.
“Mr. Smythe,” she said, looking up at the man, “can you at least tell me if my husband sought your counsel in the matter of the dissolution of our marriage?”
Was there compassion in his gaze? Perhaps so, butshe couldn’t retreat now. Nor did she shake off Alano’s hand on her arm. Sitting in her bedroom and wondering at the future was so much worse than being faced with the truth.
She tilted back her chin, and faced him resolutely.
“I cannot say, Lady Sarah.”
She bit her bottom lip, clenched her jaw, and was determined not to cry.
Turning, she glanced at Alano and only nodded at him. Would he understand that it was her way of saying that she was fine?
“If he had, however,” Mr. Smythe said from behind her, “I would have advised him of the details of the Matrimonial Causes Act.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him.
