“I have to retrace the usual route from Casa Beaumont to Santo Spirito and question the sisters,” he said. “Giovanni, will you take Luciano and follow a different route?”
“Of course,” both men said simultaneously.
“Meet me at the convent.” Jamie eyed the young man in the back who watched the discussion with hostile eyes. He intended to keep that one close. “Eduardo, you will come with me,” he said.
Eyes caught for a moment, Jamie’s daring him to say no. He didn’t. Eduardo rose with a shrug. “The stupid maid probably had a tryst. We should check the cafés,” he said.
Nora’s eyes widened. “I didn’t think of that,” she whispered.
Eduardo’s lips twitched, but he held his tongue.
“We’ll know soon enough,” Jamie said. He turned Nora in his arms. “Listen to me. You stay here.”
“No! I’ll go with you,” she insisted.
“You will not. I have plenty of help. You will only slow us down,” he retorted.
“But—”
“No buts,” he insisted. “I don’t want to have the two of you to worry about.”
She walked him to the door. Before he could take the hat and gloves handed him by Castellimonte’s footman, the count himself stalked into the room.
Damn. Jamie squeezed his eyes shut. “Count,” he said with a dip of his head.
“Major Bently, what is this I hear?” Jamie told him briefly, leaving out any part Nora had in the arrangement. The nursery maid took the child to school. They didn’t appear.
“We’ll call out the guard,” the count insisted.
“Not yet,” Jamie answered. “I need to verify the facts.” He described the plan to trace the route.
“One hour,” the count said. “If it is kidnapping, we cannot allow them time.” Nora’s face turned sickly pale. “If you are not back in one hour,” the count said, “I will put the guard on full alert.”
Jamie thought a heavy-handed approach might spook any would-be kidnappers, but he withheld his opinion.
“Mrs. Bently will stay here,” he said instead.
“Certainly,” Castellimonte agreed. “We will see to her.”
“I’m not so fragile,” Nora insisted. “I can care for myself.”
“You are one of the strongest people I know,” Jamie told her, “but I need you here in case Alicia brings her here to find us.” The flimsy excuse seemed to satisfy. Nora took the count’s arm.
“One hour, Bently.” Castellimonte’s voice followed him out the door.
Eduardo’s suggestion tocheck cafés ate up precious time. Halfway along, they encountered Wat Jones. Nora’s frantic questions had alerted the man, and he had similar ideas.
They found Luciano and Giovanni, equally empty-handed, when they arrived at Santo Spirito a half hour later.
“She did not arrive,” the sister-gatekeeper insisted.
“Are you certain,” Jamie demanded one more time.
“I have been letting Mrs. Nora in every day, and now I let in the little angel. I would know. She did not come.”
A rustle of skirts behind the gate alerted him to Mother Margarita’s arrival. Hatchet-faced Sister Cecilia towered behind her.
Mother Margarita’s voice maintained its usual calm, even as her face showed deep concern. “Until Nora arrived, we assumed Isabella would not join her class today,” she said. “The child did not arrive, nor have we seen your maid. Have you any leads?”
