Imogene said nothing. She threw up her hands in a gesture ofwell, there you have it. She whirled away.
Ian followed her into the corridor, his heart suddenly too fast for his chest.
Ian called over his shoulder to his valet. “Do you know of this, Pruitt? Has the duchess gone out?”
“I was not aware, Your Grace,” the valet called.
Ivy was following cautiously behind them holding the cat to her face. “But what have you seen, Ivy?” Ian asked. “Did Drewsmina go out?”
“I’m sorry, Uncle,” Ivy began cautiously. “She said . . .She told me that she was going to find you. She was ever so upset. I couldn’t stop her, and I went for Imogene, but by the time I’d found her, Aunt Miss Trelayne was riding away.”
“No, Ivy,” Ian said, stopping and turning back to the girl. “You cannot mean that Drew has really, actually left this house? In the storm? Tonight?On horseback?”
Ivy nodded her head into the cat’s fur.
Ian spun back to his valet. “Pruitt, go to the duchess’s maid. Rouse the entire house. I want every room searched. Send Greenly to me.”
Not waiting for an answer, he turned and ran.
“Imogene would have gone after her sooner,” Ivy reported, sprinting beside him, “but she said we would wait to see if she returned with you.”
“With me?” asked Ian, his brain a torrent of whys and hows and where, where,wherecould she have gone. London had been soaked in a deluge of cold, icy rain for the last hour.
“But where did she say she was going?” Ian demanded. He reached the grand hallway and looked right and left, forcing himself to prioritize, to think.
“Imogene!” he bellowed, the girl had disappeared. Behind him, Pruitt appeared, fluttering with a towel.
Ian waved him off. “Dry boots, a dry coat, a fresh hat. Hurry, man!” he snapped.
He spun back to Ivy. “Tell me once again. You saw her leave with your own eyes. She’s not fallen asleep behind a closed door? She did not, perhaps, go out, think better of it, and come back in?You are certain?”
Ivy shrank back, cowed by his demanding questions, hiding her face in the cat.
“She’s gone, Uncle,” said Imogene, reappearing at the top of the stairs. “I checked her bedchamber one last time. It’s empty. I prayed you’d return with her, but—no.”
“How can I return with her?” Ian asked, panicked. “I didn’t know she was gone.”
“Did you leave without telling her where you were going?” challenged Imogene.
“I left her a note,” he said.
“I’ve seen that note,” said Imogene, coming down the stairs, “and it’s bollocks. It’s no wonder she went. This is your fault, Uncle, even after I warned you. What did I say? About secrets?”
“It wasn’t a secret,” insisted Ian, barely able to comprehend the situation. “I didn’t have time to explain. She could have asked you.”
“I didn’t see her. She left without a word to anyone, saveIvy.” Imogene glared at her sister.
“She couldn’t be stopped!” Ivy cried. The cat let out a squeal and leapt from her arms. “She was so determined. And she had your letters. She said she was going to find you.”
“Letters? Which letter?”
Ivy rustled in a pocket and thrust out two pieces of parchment. Ian knew them on sight. One was his note to her, the other had been the original summons from Rucker Loring.
“She’s gone to Blackwall,” said Imogene, “in a hurricane.Lookingforyou.”
Ian reread the note, reminding himself of Loring’s original note. “Insanity,” he mumbled. “She wouldn’t.”
“Shewould,” countered Imogene.
