“It’s Lord Vale, sir. I imagine he’s here to call on Miss Jarvis.”
Jarvis stared blankly at the man. Eloisa? Why the devil would a young, wealthy aristocrat like Lord Vale want to call on Eloisa? Damned if he knew, but whatever it was Vale was after, he was impatient enough to get it. A second dull thud sounded from the front door, this one louder and more insistent.
Jarvis flinched. It didn’t sound as if he was going to go away without speaking to someone. “Damn the man. Go on then, Harley, and tell Vale Eloisa isn’t—”
Jarvis broke off. He wasn’t any cleverer a man than he was a kind one, but even the dullest brain enjoys an occasional flash of illumination.
Vale and Ramsey were friends—as thick as two bloody thieves. A man couldn’t lay eyes on one of them without being obliged to look at the other. If anyone in London knew where Ramsey had gone, it would be Vale.
Wasn’t there a chance, slim though it might be, that Vale would go straight to wherever Ramsey and Lucinda were hiding once he left here? Mightn’t it be worth sending him on his way, and then following him?
“Sir?” Harley was still waiting.
He’d need the carriage. That was the first consideration.
“Sir?” A faint note of impatience had crept into Harley’s voice. “Shall I fetch Miss Jarvis?”
The carriage, perhaps a blanket or two, and a bottle of his wife’s laudanum—
“Do you wish me to admit Lord Vale, sir, or do you intend to permit him to break the door down?”
Jarvis jerked his attention back to Harley. “Is the carriage ready, Harley?”
Harley blinked. “I believe so. I instructed the groom to ready it.”
Jarvis rubbed his hands together as a new plan began to take shape in his head. “Wait until I’ve gone, then you may answer the door. Tell Lord Vale Miss Jarvis has left London, and won’t be returning.”
“Left London, sir?”
Jarvis could see by the way Harley’s brow lowered he didn’t at all care for these instructions. Unfortunately for Harley, Jarvis didn’t give a damn whether he cared for them or not. “Impertinent fellow! You heard me. Now do as I say at once.”
Harley didn’t move. “May I assume, sir, whatever journey you intend to undertake will include Mrs. and Miss Jarvis?”
“Yes, yes. That is, not just yet. I, er…I just recalled I need to make a brief trip to Maidstone. I’ll return to London to fetch my family as soon as that business is concluded.” Though if things went as he hoped they would, there’d be no need to flee London, after all. “Now, mind what I said. Don’t open the door to Lord Vale until I’m out of sight.”
Harley didn’t look pleased, but Jarvis didn’t give him a chance to refuse. After one final peek through the window, he flew from the study down the hallway to the staircase. He went up, grabbed a coverlet and the brown bottle on the small table beside his wife’s bed, then lumbered back down the stairs to the kitchen and into the mews behind the house.
Lord Vale’s equipage was standing at the curb on the opposite end of the mews. Jarvis instructed his own coachman to wait until his lordship regained his carriage, then to follow him without delay.
They didn’t have to wait long. Lord Vale came rushing out less than ten minutes later, looking even less pleased than Harley had. He called something to his coachman, then leapt into his carriage as if his breeches were on fire. The coachman wasted no time, but flew off down the road at such a speed the carriage wheels skidded across the stones.
Jarvis held his breath as they followed Lord Vale’s carriage through the streets of London. Once or twice they were delayed in the heavy tangle of conveyances on the road and lost sight of Vale, but each time Jarvis’s heart began to fail, they managed to catch him again.
The chase continued until at last Lord Vale’s carriage came to a halt. Jarvis peered out the carriage window to find they’d stopped in an obscure London street in Cheapside, in front of an indifferent looking inn called the Swan and Anchor.
Once again Jarvis’s heart failed him. What the devil would they be doinghere? Why would Ramsey have brought Lucinda to some shabby little inn in Cheapside?
Lord Vale seemed to know exactly what he was doing here, however. He leapt from the carriage, rushed up the stone steps to the door, and disappeared into the interior of the inn.
Now Vale was out of sight, there was nothing for Jarvis to do but wait here in the carriage and hope Vale would come back out with Ramsey in tow. Jarvis had left just enough confusion behind him to tempt Vale to bring Ramsey to Portman Square to set everything to rights.
It was the sort of thing they’d do. The sort of thing tiresome heroic types always did.
But if they did leave the inn, mightn’t they take Lucinda with them? Jarvis hadn’t a prayer of snatching her away if Ramsey and Vale were hanging about. If she slipped through his fingers now, he wouldn’t get another chance at her. If he made a muck of this, his only other option would be to leave London at once.
Leave England.
Jarvis perched on the edge of his seat with his breath held, peering out the carriage window. He fixed his anxious gaze on the door, a curse falling from his lips. There was no sign of either Vale or Ramsey.
