Emma’s heart gave an anxious thump. She leapt into the carriage without waiting for him to hand her in, but stumbled back before takingher usual seat.
Someone wasalready there.
A gloved hand grabbed hers to steady her. “Careful, dearest. Here,sit beside me.”
“Lady Clifford?” Emma’s knees felt suddenly wobbly, and she dropped clumsily onto the carriage bench. They hadn’t made any plans to meet today, and Lady Clifford wasn’t the impulsive sort. If she was here, then something was verywrong, indeed.
Lady Clifford nodded to Daniel to close the carriage door and smiled a greeting at Lady Crosby before she turned to Emma. “I’ve got news, and I warn you, dearest. You’re not going to like it.”
Emma drew her wrap tighter around her shoulders as a chill rushed over her skin. “It’s not Sophia, or Cecilia or Georgiana?” She’d been staying with Lady Crosby these past few months, preparing for Lady Emma Crosby’s appearance in London society, and had hardly seen her friends at all in that time.
“No, no. They’re all very well. It’s, ah…it’sHelena, Emma.”
Emma’s stomach dropped, and for one sickening moment the carriage seemed to tilt underneathher. “Tell me.”
Lady Clifford sighed. “I went to have a word with Madame Marchand this morning, and she informed me, with a singularly unattractive degree of satisfaction, that Helena had some sort of disagreement with Lord Peabody at the Pink Pearl last night.”
Oh, no.No.
Emma could well imagine what sort of disagreement Lady Clifford meant. Helena had objected to Lord Peabody’s boot heel to her shin, or his hands wrapped around her neck. “What happened? What didhe do to her?”
“It’s not what he did to her—well, not entirely, anyway. It’s what she did to him, deserved asit likely was.”
Emma closed her eyes, praying it wasn’t as bad as she feared. Helena had a temper, much as Emma herself did. Lady Clifford had taught Emma how to control hers, but Helena was like a wild thing when threatened, striking out at everything in her path.
That animal instinct for survival was how she’d enduredfor this long.
“Helena clawed Lord Peabody’s face, Emma. Her nails left bloody scratches on his cheeks.” Lady Clifford shook her head. “Lord Peabody’s terribly vain, as you know, and he wasn’t inclined to be forgiving. Madame Marchand has sent her away for good this time. Helena won’t be returning to the Pink Pearl.”
“Lord Peabody provoked her!” Emma cried, but she knew very well it wouldn’t make a bit of difference that Lord Peabody had no doubt heartily deserved a clawing. Oh, he’d earned those bloody scratches, but what was the pointin saying so?
He had all the power, and Helena none.
Then another thought struck her, and a cold shudder gripped her.
Madame Marchand had done this on purpose.
She’d been furious with both Emma and Helena when she caught them in the library last night. What better way to punish them both than by turning Helena over to a vicious lord with a penchantfor violence?
Madame was well aware Helena wouldn’t tolerate Lord Peabody’s abuse—that she’d fight back, and once she did, it gave Madame the perfect excuse to toss Helena out onto the street. Madame wanted to be rid of her, and handing her over to Lord Peabody was a quick, efficient way toaccomplish it.
This was no coincidence, and no accident.
“It doesn’t matter what Lord Peabody did, Emma,” Lady Clifford said. “You know that as well as I do. The moment he sets foot inside the Pink Pearl, he may do whatever he likes. Helena does not enjoy thesame freedom.”
Emma fell back against the squabs, a numb haze falling over her. “I tried to tell her, to warn her not to—” She trailed off, realizing too late that Lady Clifford knew nothing of her visits tothe Pink Pearl.
Perhaps her ladyship had suspected it all along, though, because instead of scolding Emma, she squeezed her hand.
Emma squeezed back, struggling to quell her rising panic. “I should have made her come with me. I’ve been to the Pink Pearl over and over again. I never should have let her stay there.”
But she’d been too busy kissing Samuel to think about Helena, hadn’t she? Now Helena would be made to pay for Emma’s foolishness,her cowardice.
Lady Clifford sighed. “I have people looking for her.”
“But you haven’t found her.”
“Not yet, no.”
