His thinking had been going one way, and now here was this new possibility. “Was it Jess, the petite blonde?”
Kate and Mars exchanged a look. Kate spoke. “Yes, she has never missed a performance and we can find her nowhere. I’m worried. I fear something terrible may have happened to her.”
“Not truly terrible,” Bran said. “But I believe she’s on her way to becoming a duchess.”
Lucy screamed in distress and Bran had had enough. While his sister broke down into noisy tears, he walked over to the recently closed tent flap. As he suspected, Mrs. Warbler and a host of others were standing as close as they dared to the tent. He motioned for Mrs. Warbler to come to him.
“My sister is not feeling well. Will you help see her home?”
“I would be honored, Mr. Balfour,” Mrs. Warbler said.
“Can you drive the gig?”
“Of course.”
Bran was thankful for the woman’s lack of nonsense. Lucy needed a stern hand right now. He fetched her. She actually came along willingly. Looking up to Bran, his sister muttered, “He didn’t even take thegoodactress. What is the matter with my son?”
Bran had an idea, and he feared he was guilty of the same trait. History seemed to be repeating itself. He remembered his storming into the offices of the East India Company and demanding they hire him on. He wished to be sent as far away from London as possible, and he had been.
To Mrs. Warbler, he said, “See she gets home, and make sure you give her a big glass of Madeira.”
“Yes, sir.” Mrs. Warbler actually sounded docile. The women drove off.
He returned to the tent. Mars and Silas were giving him well-deserved scowls while Kate seemed intent on looking everywhere but at him—and he understood.
If jealousy was an uncomfortable emotion, shame was even worse. He closed the tent flap and stood away from everyone before saying, “I believe Winderton has run off with Jess.”
“Why would he do that?” Kate asked.
Bran looked at the others. Would she want this information known?
Kate took a step toward him. “Where isWinderton?Is Jess in danger?” Her voice had grown shrill and Bran knew she was suffering from her own fears carried from the past.
“He’s eloping.”
“With Jess?” she said with disbelief.
“If you haven’t found Jess alive and you haven’t found her body, what do you think the odds are that she is with my nephew who left a note claiming he is eloping with the woman he loves?”
Silas spoke up. “It is possible. I never liked the chit, Kate. She was like moth to the flame when she was around the duke. Every time he came here, she was following him.”
“And she rubs up against him every chance she can,” Nestor added. The other actors nodded.
“I didn’t notice,” Kate said.
“You were busy avoiding him,” Silas answered.
Mary said in her quiet voice, “Jess left her cot last night and I didn’t see her this morning. She also spent the night before somewhere else.”
Kate looked at Bran. “He won’t actually marry her, will he? I’m sad to say, but Jess is the sort only a fool would take to wife.”
“Or a duke who is acting out of spite,” Mars answered.
“He wouldn’t be so lost to good reason as to marry someone he hardly knows,” Kate said, directing the comment to the earl. She had yet to look at Bran.
“I don’t know, Miss Addison,” Mars said. “Let’s ask someone who knows him. What do you believe, Balfour? Do you think our young duke would be so reckless?”
There was an edge in his friend’s voice and it dawned on Bran just how harsh he’d sounded when he’d first seen Kate...
