There was no man Adrian would rather have by his side when there was a chance of facing danger.
“You’re right,” he told him.“Maybe reviewing the facts would help us discover a detail we’ve not yet considered.”
“We know she left home the day before yesterday at some point between two-thirty and three in the afternoon,” Murry said.“While Wrengate was honing his boxing skills at Reed’s.”
“She snuck out without informing the servants of her departure,” Adrian added.“However, her lady’s maid recalls seeing her in the library at two-twenty.When the maid went looking for her later, to ask if she wished to go for her daily walk, she was gone.”
The hour was what had prompted them to come to Hyde Park first.According to Wrengate, his sister had always enjoyed walking.It gave her a chance to reflect, he’d said.
It was this remark that caught Adrian’s attention since it suggested she might prefer walking by herself, unaccompanied.
“She always does so at Faintree Hall,” Wrengate had told him, “but she knows it isn’t safe to do so in London.I made that clear when I insisted she always have a chaperone with her.”
And yet, there was nothing to suggest Lady Edwina had been abducted from the house.The absence of her pelisse, a reticule, and one pair of walking shoes was clear indication that she had gone out alone.
“We also know she’d not been herself since Orwell’s murder,” Adrian told Murry.
A thoughtful nod and then, “You said she met him the same evening during the Moorland House ball and that they danced?”
“Exactly so.My wife says Lady Edwina was smitten with Orwell but that she feared her brother would not approve of her setting her cap for a tradesman.”
“As much as I wish I could fault Wrengate for being a condescending prick, his stance on this is the norm within the peerage.”Murry sighed.“Thank Christ I’m not one of them.I’d likely hang myself on account of self-loathing alone.”
“Hmm…” Adrian scanned their surroundings while scratching the back of his neck.“This park is vast.She could have taken any path.Or she might not even have come here.”
“I reckon she did,” Murry said.
“Based on what?”
“A hunch.”When Adrian snapped his attention back to Murry, he simply shrugged.“Does she have any close friends here in Town?”
“I don’t think so.If she does, Wrengate failed to mention them but…” Adrian considered.“This is her first visit to London as an adult, and since she arrived about two months ago, she’s hardly had enough time to form such relationships.”
“Meaning she had no one but her brother and the servants in whom to confide her thoughts and feelings,” Murry pointed out.
“Which she did not.”Adrian frowned.“She suffered alone, and that could have made her feel trapped.”
“For a woman struggling with shock, and used to walking alone at Wrengate’s estate, I figure she longed to escape to a place that was big enough to contain her emotions.Without bringing company with her.”
“Foolish.”
“Agreed,” said Murry, “but if we’re right about her state of mind, she might not have been thinking clearly.”
“We’re making assumptions,” Adrian muttered.He hated that.Speculating was one sure way of ending up chasing a false lead.“What we need is a witness.If we can find someone who saw her, we might have a better sense of what happened.”
Unfortunately, Wrengate had dismissed the idea of publishing news of her disappearance in the papers and requesting information from the public.In the event she’d run off, whether alone or with someone else, he hoped to find her before the debacle turned into a scandal.
“Maybe we should return in a few hours, around the time she would have come.Just in case someone else has a habit of walking at three in the afternoon, in which case their paths might have crossed.”
Adrian nodded.“In the meantime, we should visit the nearby teashops and bakeries.Anywhere she might have gone for refreshment.We’ll ask the employees if they can recall a woman of her description stopping by.”
The pair headed back toward the park’s front entrance.As they approached, Adrian spotted the flower girl who’d sought his help last year when she’d warned him about the mistreatment of children she knew.Thanks to her, he’d been able to save them all, including Isak, the street urchin Samantha had used as a lookout and messenger boy before she and Adrian married.Back then, she’d been working against him on Harlowe’s behalf, her directive being to find proof of Adrian’s criminal ties.
Chest tightening with the reminder, he paused for a second and took a deep breath.A great deal had changed since then.Samantha had proven her loyalty to him several times over.He loved her and knew without doubt that she loved him in return.No sense in letting emotions linked to the past overshadow that.
He relaxed his posture and glanced at Murry.The valet raised a brow, in response to which Adrian shook his head.It’s nothing.
Returning his attention to the flower girl, he continued onward.Rose was her name, if memory served.She must have arrived recently, for she was still in the process of putting her bouquets in order.
