He squeezed until her mouth opened. She expected the sharp, bitter flavor of laudanum, but the liquid that rolled over her tongue was sweet, with a hint of elderflower.
Dr. Digby’s Calming Tonic.
“There. That’ll keep you quiet for a bit.”
His voice rang with triumph, and Lucy understood at once her uncle didn’t realize it wasn’t laudanum in the bottle. Thinking quickly, she forced her limbs to go lax. Uncle Jarvis loosened his grip and she let her body slump against the carriage seat, seemingly lifeless.
Her uncle thought he’d dosed her, and Lucy intended to keep it that way.
She was trapped in a carriage with a man who wished her ill—a man who would stop at nothing to get his hands on her fortune. There was no telling how long it would take before Ciaran discovered she was gone. Once he did, he wouldn’t have the first idea how to find her. After their argument this morning he might even believe she’d left him, and gone off to Devon alone. Would he even come after her? Or would he consider himself well rid of such a troublesome friend, and leave for Scotland and Isobel Campbell?
A chill rushed over Lucy as the gravity of her situation sank in. Her one advantage was her uncle mistakenly believed he’d rendered her insensible.
It wasn’t much, but it was all she had.
* * * *
“Something’s wrong, Ramsey.” Vale met Ciaran’s gaze across the inn’s small back parlor. “Something’s terribly wrong.”
Ciaran paused at the threshold, his shoulders sagging. Yes, something was bloody wrong, all right. He’d just left Lucy alone in the bedchamber where they’d made passionate love not half an hour earlier, looking so miserable his heart hurt to think about it.
He’d left his dearest friend confused, angry, and unhappy.
And ruined. Mustn’t forget ruined. Of all the terrible consequences of last night’s loss of control, that was by far the worst. Why wouldn’t she listen to him? He had to find a way to persuade her to marry him. He refused to be the man who ruined his best friend and then left her, alone and unprotected—
“Ramsey!” Vale’s voice was sharp. “Are you listening to me? Something’swrong, I tell you. I’ve just been to Eloisa’s and the servant told me she’s left London!”
Ciaran’s head jerked up. For the first time since he’d entered the room he focused on Vale, and good Lord, his friend looked an utter mess. His coat was rumpled, his cravat askew, and his hair was standing up in every direction, as if he’d been clutching it in his hands.
“That’s impossible.” Ciaran strode into the room and steadied Vale with a hand on his shoulder. “She was in Portman Square just last night, Vale. She can’t have disappeared from London so quickly.”
Vale shrugged off Ciaran’s hand and began to pace, too agitated to remain still. “She could if that disaster of a father of hers decided to disappear her. I don’t put it past him to have shoved both Eloisa and Mrs. Jarvis into a carriage and sent them to God only knows where.”
Ciaran couldn’t help but agree. He hadn’t the faintest doubt the scoundrel would do whatever was in his own best interests, his family be damned. “Was Jarvis there?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t see him, or anyone else aside from the servant. It looked as if—” Vale broke off, his frantic gaze meeting Ciaran’s. “It looked as if the servants were closing the house, Ramsey. As if the entire family really had left London.”
Ciaran dropped into a chair and braced his hands on his knees as he considered the possibilities. “If Jarvis has left London, there can be only one reason for it. Godfrey’s found out Lucy’s fled her uncle’s protection. He’s told Jarvis there will be no marriage, and he’s after Jarvis to settle his debt.”
Vale let out a bitter laugh. “Jarvis is a bloody fool. He won’t escape the debt that way. Godfrey’s the sort who’ll chase him to the edges of England for a single shilling.”
Ciaran didn’t argue that point. He’d never come across a greedier man than Godfrey. “True enough, but it’s a good way for Jarvis to escape the London tradesmen he owes, and it gives him some time to think about what to do about Godfrey.”
“Do? What can he do? It’s a debt of honor. He’s obliged to pay it, unless he takes the coward’s way out, and…” Vale had been pacing again, but now he froze, his face going pale.
“Flees to the Continent,” Ciaran finished grimly.
Vale stared at Ciaran, horrified. “He’ll take Eloisa with him if he does. He’ll drag her off, and I’ll never see her again. I can’t bear to stand about helplessly while she’s left at the mercy of Jarvis’s sinister schemes. I can’t lose her, Ramsey.”
The anguish in Vale’s voice, the torment…
Ciaran understood it. He recognized it as the same anguish he’d felt when Lucy had been at Jarvis’s mercy. It was unbearable. He’d have done anything, gone anywhere he needed to go to keep her safe.
To the edges of England, and beyond.
“Enough of this. I’m going after them.”
Vale turned on his heel and was halfway out the door before Ciaran caught him, stopping him with a hand on his arm. “Vale, wait. We can’t be sure where they’ve gone, or evenifthey’ve gone. Jarvis’s servant might be lying for him.”
