Then she lurched forward, gripping Emma’s shoulders
“Emma, good Lord! Why didn’t you come straight to us?”
Emma burst into tears. “Because I thought she’d just gone for a walk at first. Then I checked her room, looked outside, and started calling her, but her phone’s switched off. Her car’s still here. I didn’t want to panic anyone, but I… I just don’t know where she is!”
Margaret let out a strangled sound, somewhere between a gasp and a sob, stepping back from Emma as though physically pushed.
She pressed a hand to her forehead, swaying slightly.
“Oh, I feel faint. Truly, this is too much.”
“You won’t,” Lady Victoria replied without sympathy.
But the panic was real now, visible, contagious, spreading through the room in waves as the full meaning of Emma’s words settled over us.
Caroline was missing.
And none of us had the faintest idea where.
The room was descending into chaos.
But it was James who scared me.
“She should have been with me last night,” he said again, voice barely audible. “I should have checked on her. What if she… what if something happened?”
Before I could reassure him, though I wasn’t sure what reassurance I had, one of the younger housekeeping staff approached me, holding a clipboard like a shield.
“Ms Sinclair?” she said nervously. “I… I’m sorry to disturb but… the terrace door was unlocked when I came in at five.”
James flinched. Actually flinched. Like the word unlocked triggered a dozen horrible possibilities.
Margaret gasped so loudly I was sure someone in the kitchen dropped a pan.
“An unlocked door?” she cried. “She’s been abducted! Kidnapped! Taken by…”
“By her own common sense, perhaps,” Lady Victoria murmured, stirring her tea.
But James wasn’t listening to any of it. He took a step back, then forward again, like a man trying to find footing on a moving ship.
“Holly,” he said, eyes meeting mine with raw fear, “we need to find her. Now.”
The planner in me kicked in automatically, even while my brain spun in circles.
I nodded. “Okay. No more guessing. We split up and search the property.”
Behind me, Margaret wailed, “My daughter!”
And from the corner, Lady Victoria sighed, “If she left, she had her reasons. None of them flattering to you, Margaret.”
I clapped my hands sharply.
“Right. Let’s do this,” I said firmly.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Everyone had gathered in the main room, talking over each other.
I grabbed the nearest free chair and stepped up on it so I could see everyone at once.
