“You can’t come with me, Samuel, or I won’t get a single word out of her. You’re the haughty, intimidating marquess, if you recall.” Emma took his hand and dropped a kiss onto his palm to take any sting outof her words.
“I’ll wait in the hallway outside thekitchen, then.”
Dear God, the man was stubborn. “The house is safe enough with so many guests about. One can’t stir a step without tumbling over some countess orearl or other.”
Emma was hoping for a smile. All she got was a sullen pinch of Samuel’s mouth, but somehow even that proved so endearing she couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to hispouting lips.
“You’ll cometo luncheon.”
It was a command, not a request, but Emma chose to overlook his imperiousness in favor of getting her way. “Yes, I promise it. Now hurry back to your own bedchamber, before Lady Crosby comes searching for me.”
Samuel grumbled as he got out of bed and dragged his breeches over his hips. Emma couldn’t prevent a regretful sigh at seeing all that smooth skin and those taut muscles hidden under clothing once again, but she was somewhat mollified by the dozen warm kisses Samuel pressed to her lips before tearing himself away with a reluctant groan.
“Luncheon, Emma,” he reminded her, pausing at her bedchamber door.
“Yes.I promise it.”
He gave her one last heated look, and then he was gone.
* * * *
In the end, despite their best laid plans, Emma didn’t see Samuel after her foray into the kitchens, or at luncheon an hour later. She kept her promise, but when she arrived in the dining room, he wasn’t there.
Lord Lovell took her aside and told her Samuel had been waylaid by a gentleman from a neighboring property with pressing estate business, and that he’dsee her at tea.
So Emma sat at the luncheon table between Lady Crosby and Lady Lymington, listening to their cheerful chatter, saying very little and eating even less. She was more disappointed by Samuel’s absence than a lady who’d sworn to keep herwits should be.
It was the culmination of what had turned out to be a disappointing morning.
Samuel had clearly instructed Lord Lovell to keep a close eye on her in his place, because Lovell followed her about with such determination that afternoon that Emma was finally driven upstairs to Lady Crosby’s bedchamberto escape him.
“Well now, Emma, how did you do with the kitchen maid this morning?” Lady Crosby asked, when Emma joined her. “Did Hannah have any secrets to share?”
Emma dropped down onto the edge of the bed with a sigh. “Disappointingly few, though she did confirm what Lady Lymington told me. Amy Townshend did havea sweetheart.”
“A sweetheart? I daresay that might lead to something promising. What sortof sweetheart?”
“Hannah didn’t know. It seems Amy kept him a closely guarded secret. Hannah claims never to have laid eyes on the man.”
“Nonsense. What sort of young girl keeps her sweetheart a secret?”
“A young girl with the sort of sweetheart who wishes to remain anonymous, I imagine.”
“Well, if that’s the case, that in itself is telling, is it not?”
“Very telling, yes. Amy took up with this man about six weeks before she vanished. She was coy about his name, but Hannah said Amy once let it slip that the man wasn’t from Lymington House. It seems Amy used to sneak down to a folly situated near a pond at the edge of the property tomeet with him.”
Lady Crosby frowned at her reflection in the mirror. “I never saw a pond, or a folly, and we’ve been all over the gardens since we arrived.”
“It’s not the sort of place one would stumble upon, my lady. It’s behind the kitchens, down a narrow, tree-lined pathway.”
“It sounds like a dreadful, muddy place.” Lady Crosby shuddered. “Not atall romantic.”
“No, but private, and thus ideal for a man who doesn’t wish to be seen.” Emma twisted a loose thread on the coverlet, thinking. That Amy Townshend should have disappeared six weeks after she found herself a mysterious sweetheart couldn’t possibly bea coincidence.
“What of Kitty Yardley?” Lady Crosby asked. “Whatbecame of her?”
“I couldn’t find out much about Kitty at all. She was shy, and didn’t have many friends among the servants. Lady Lymington mentioned she came from a large family, and was dreadfully homesick for them. Hannah said she assumed Kitty had run away back home when she disappeared.”
