Chapter 2
“Where can she be?” Linette whispered in an aside to Corie, who had glanced once again over her shoulder to look for Estelle. The church was packed, the parishioners jammed as tightly into the mahogany pews as salted pilchards in a barrel, while voices raised in the familiar carol “Joy to the World.”
Linette looked again, too, but there was no sign of Estelle among thefamiliar faces of the local gentry, villagers, tinners, and their families. She recognized nearly everyone, well, except for the tall gentleman in the last pew who seemed to stand a head above those near him, his unassuming attire a dark brown that matched the color of his hair. She didn’t mean to stare, but he was clearly a stranger among them, which made her wonder who he might be until Corieabruptly drew her closer to whisper into her ear.
“Did Estelle say anything else to you other than what you’ve already told me? Anything else that might have been distressing her to give us some clue as to her delay?”
Linette shook her head, and noticed now that Donovan, seated next to Corie, listened, too, to whatever she might have to reveal. Yet she knew nothing more than what Estelle hadtold her that morning, and here all along Linette thought she might have reassured her about the whirlwind of change facing them…
“She seemed fine once she began to dress,” whispered Linette somewhat lamely, searching her mind for any details she might have missed. “Yet she did opt for a ride instead of eating breakfast with us. I’m sorry, Corie, truly—”
“It’s all right, she’ll be here soon,”Corie said under her breath as the last verse of the beloved carol resounded from the rafters. “She’s never missed one of Papa’s Christmas sermons, no, not a one.”
Corie squeezed Linette’s arm with her gloved hand and Donovan drew his wife closer as if to reassure her, too. Paloma, wearing a new pink velvet bonnet, sat on the other side of her father, and held his arm tightly even as she glancedagain over her shoulder for her missing aunt. It was only the four of them in the front pew when it should have been five with Estelle, while the three younger children had been left at home due to the cold, drizzly weather.
Whatever storm might have been brewing had been swept out to sea, thankfully, but the weather would have been considered truly dreary if not that it was Christmas Day. Asthe Reverend Joseph Easton came forward to greet everyone with words of welcome, Linette couldn’t help but feel a surge of love for her white-haired father.
Life had dealt him a harsh blow fourteen years ago with the death of his beloved wife, Adele, aging him physically, his dark hair turned to snow.
The cruel abduction of his three youngest daughters six years past hadn’t helped matters, yetthankfully since then the years had been kinder and filled with joyful occasions: Paloma’s reunion with her father and the subsequent births of three more children for Donovan and Corie; Marguerite and Walker’s marriage three years ago and the birth a year later of their son, Dwight; and Lindsay and Jared, as loved as family, seeing their happiness made complete by two children, Justin and Cecelia.
Now as the Reverend Easton stood before the congregation in his vestments, his shoulders may have grown more bowed and his back less straight, but he remained a bulwark of the fishing village of Porthleven and a much respected figure among these hardy Cornish people. If he’d noticed that Estelle wasn’t among them, he didn’t appear concerned, always trusting that God looked out for each and everyone of them with His infinite wisdom and mercy.
Linette did her best to share his unshakeable belief, but nonetheless sent a hasty prayer heavenward for her spirited younger sister even as the church doors opened and closed to admit some latecomers. As if in unison she, Corie, Donovan, and Paloma turned in their seats with expectation, only for their shoulders to sink a little in disappointment.
No Estelle. Whatever had become of her?
While the rest of the family turned back to the front, Linette watched over her shoulder as the tardy parishioners brushed the dampness from their coats and settled into the last pew. Everyone had risen to make room for them, including the tall stranger, and she couldn’t help but notice how gallantly he had relinquished his seat to an older woman. Mid-twenties,handsome, his attributes ticked off in her head without even thinking. Only when he faced front, inclining his head toward Linette in the slightest nod, did she suddenly feel her cheeks begin to burn.
Why…why that stranger was looking right at her! Yes, fairly staring at her while she was certain her face was burning as red as a holly berry…oh, Lord. Had he truly just nodded and smiled at her,too? How unseemly, and in church, too! Why, she didn’t even know him—
“Linette!”
Corie’s whispered admonishment made her gasp and swing around, while Paloma peeked around her father to stare at her. Her father, the new Duke of Arundale, who appeared to grow increasingly tense with every passing moment that Estelle didn’t rush into the church, gushing apologies for being late as she plopped downbeside them.
“Ten minutes more, Corie, that’s all I’ll give her before I set out to look for her.”
Linette gulped. She wasn’t sure if Donovan had grown angry or was simply concerned, or perhaps both, but his low voice sounded ominous. As the service continued around them, three minutes, five minutes, then ten minutes, Corie’s expression had grown as strained as her husband’s, and Linette knewthen that the two of them were sick with worry. Something had to be terribly wrong for Estelle to be so late to Christmas Day service. It just wasn’t like her—
“Go now, Donovan, please,” came Corie’s hushed plea, which was all he needed. He kissed her cheek, squeezed Paloma’s hand, then rose and strode from the church as the parishioners’ voices swelled in another Christmas carol.
Except now,Linette felt so worried for her sister, too, that she had no heart left to sing.
***
“Prince Valentin, we must deliver the girl to her home at once! You can see she no longer shivers and her riding clothes have dried by the fire. Thank God you saved her in time from drowning, but she’s recovered enough that we must get her home to her family!”
As if from a great distance, Estelle heardthe man’s urgent voice that seemed to ring painfully in her throbbing head. Vaguely she recognized he spoke in French, but her grasp of the language was far from perfect and she winced, trying to understand him.
What had happened to her? Fuzzy bits and pieces of memory swirled in her mind like a scattered puzzle, while another voice, a younger man’s voice, seemed to reverberate just above her.
“Yes, Robert, fetch her clothes and my cloak. That should be enough to keep her warm during the ride. Damnable rain! Will it never stop?”
Estelle winced at his thunderous outburst, the pain in her head unlike anything she’d felt before. At once the voices lowered, the two strangers conferring though she hadn’t yet been able to open her leaden eyelids.
“Hopefully you’ll return her home with nonethe wiser, my lord. You know the danger you face! I’d hoped we might remain here longer, but now we must find other lodging at once! Maybe even a ship to take us further north along the English coast. God help us, was it too much to hope for drawing little attention to ourselves?”
“Enough, Robert, calm yourself! Let’s get her dressed and then be off. We’ll decide the safest course when we return.”
