Samuel stood in the middle of the stables, his gaze darting helplessly this way and that, as close to panicking as he’d ever been in his life. Emma had been missing forhours, now it seemed Brixton was also missing, and Samuel’s thoughts were on the verge of scattering into chaos.
But if he let that happen, he’d be no use to Emma at all. He dragged a hand down his face, drew in deep breath, and tried tothink.
Brixton would never have left Emma by choice. Wherever Emma was, Brixton was with her, so there was no sense waiting here for Brixton to turn up. Samuel would have to go to the folly alone, and hope for the best.
He ran out the stable doors and around the eastern side of the house. The light from the kitchen illuminated the area just outside the window, but beyond that was gloom, the shadows growing longer with every moment as the sun sank below the horizon.
There were no smooth gravel pathways or trimmed hedgeshere, but Samuel plunged ahead, stumbling over tree roots as he tore down the steep hill that led toward the pond, his boots sliding over the loose dirt, threatening to send him crashing to the ground with every step.
But he didn’t slow, even as the soil beneath his feet softened, before it disintegrated into muck near the water. By the time he reached the edge of the pond his chest was heaving with his panting breaths. It had been years since he’d been down here, but he remembered the folly was tucked under the stand of oak trees near the endof the pathway.
He paused, straining to see into the distance. “Emma!”
No answer.
He called Emma’s name again, but the only sound was the echo of his voice reverberating among the trees, and the squelch of his footsteps as he made his way through the muck toward the folly.
Before he’d even stepped inside, Samuel knew she wasn’t here. If she had been, he’d have felt her at once, but he circled around the building nonetheless, searching for…God, he didn’t even know what. Some hint of her, some sign she’d been here, but there was nothing, nothing—
He almost missed it. He didn’t realize it was there until hestepped on it.
A ribbon, lying on the floor, a familiar, distinctiveshade of blue.
Samuel snatched it up, brought it to his face, and inhaled.
Vanilla.
He stood for long, silent moments, the blue silk against his lips, breathing deeply of her scent and forcing himself to calm. She’d been here recently, then, but where was she now?
Young ladies didn’t simply vanish without a trace—
Except they did. At Lymington House, theydid.
Another moment passed, then another, Emma’s blue ribbon clutched in Samuel’s fist as he tried to decide what to do next. It could be some time before Dunn found Lovell, but shouldn’t Humphriesbe here by now?
Samuel shoved Emma’s ribbon in his pocket and ran back up the pathway, leaving the folly behind, intending to retrace his footsteps backto the house.
He’d drag every footman in the house downhere if he had—
Snap.
Samuel froze at the sound of a tree branch cracking under someone’s foot.
He squinted into the blackness. Was that…
Itwas. A flicker of movement, some distance away still, far enough he could hardly make it out, butit looked like…
The shadow of a man, weaving through the trees.
Who would be wandering the estatenow, in the dark, especially so close to the pond, over grounds made treacherous by slick mud and protrudingtree branches?
No one who wasup to any good.
Samuel hesitated, wondering if he could risk waiting for Humphries, but the man wasn’t likely to be of much use, and the shadow was receding further into the distance as he hesitated. Lovell and Dunn might arrive soon, but by then the man would have disappeared entirely.
Samuel didn’t haveany time left.
He crept from the pathway into the rough ground closer to the trees, a soft curse leaving his lips when the sharp branches tore at his hair and coat, but he never took his eyes off that threatening shadow.
