Page 19 of A Marriage of Necessity

Chapter Five

Kennedy stopped at the office door and knocked.

“Enter,” the man inside called.

Kennedy open the door and entered. A large man who sat behind the desk looked up and smiled. “You’re early.” He rose and shook Kennedy’s hand when he reached the desk.

“This is important, John.”

John nodded toward the chair opposite his desk. Kennedy sat down while John resumed his seat.

“It’s been nine days, Kennedy. A lifetime for you, I know. But a mere pittance for me.”

Kennedy’s chest constricted. “No clues as to her whereabouts, then, I take it?”

John’s brows rose. “I didnae say that.”

Kennedy sat forward in his chair. “You have something?”

John rested his arms on his desk and clasped his hands. “Your sister and her maid, Sarah, left your father’s estate at eight p.m., the evening before you contacted me.”

“What? You mean my father had only just sent her away? Had I been home instead of out at a damned ball, I would’ve gone to see him much earlier and perhaps—”

“Perhaps nothing,” John cut in. “Whether an hour or day, unless your carriage crossed hers on the street, you simply couldn’t have known.”

John was right, of course. But it was still too bitter a pill to swallow. She’d been gone no more than an hour when Jacqueline came to his home. He refocused on John. “Is there anything else, anything at all? How did you discover this?”

John leaned back in his chair and flashed a wide smile. “No matter how hard you nobles try, you can never really hide anything from servants. Have you ever considered the possibility that by making your servants invisible to the world, you yourself stop seeing them?”

“Enough of the philosophical rantings,” Kennedy said. “You are well aware that I don’t hold with treating my servants as if they aren’t human. So, you questioned the servants. What else did you learn?”

“It looks as though your father was telling the truth when he said Rose is no longer in Scotland. She took three large trunks, the sorts of trunks that one might take on a ship.”

“France,” Kennedy whispered.

“Let’s hope so. If it were the Colonies…” his voice trailed off.

Kennedy shook his head. “We know no one in America. Despite my father’s bravado, he clings to life like a man hanging from a cliff by his fingernails. Somewhere in the recesses of his diseased mind, he believes he will cheat death for a time. If I do produce an heir in the next nine months, and Rose does not return home safely, he knows I will kill him.”

“Have you friends, associations, of any sort in France?” John asked.

Kennedy nodded. “Aye, many, even some distant relatives. But he knows better than to send my sister to any of them. However, he would make certain there was someone nearby who could help with any problems. He would also want to know if any problems arose.”

John gave a slow nod. “My thoughts exactly. Which is why I have a man watching Chesterfield at all times.

Kennedy left John with this office, certain he’d hired the right man to help find his sister. It was John’s logic—along with the fact he had barred the door when Kennedy had decided to begin the search for Rose himself. John was one of the few men he knew big enough to stop him. He was also one of the few men Kennedy knew who made sense when he argued a case. He’d been right, of course. Kennedy’s first order of business was marrying a woman and getting her with child. In all likelihood, once he succeeded, his father really would bring Rose home. Kennedy still wasn’t certain he would bring her home before a child was born, despite Kennedy’s demands.However, once Anne was pregnant, Kennedy could join the search for his sister.

Kennedy returned home that afternoon to find his wife, her mother and sister out. When he questioned the staff, he learned they had gone dress shopping. For a woman in such need of money, she certainly didn’t mind spending it on frivolous things at the first opportunity.

He headed to his office and threw himself into work, hoping to forget his inability to help his sister. He hadn’t even bedded his wife yet. He winced at memory of last night’s argument. He’d been completely in the wrong. Once his anger abated, he recognized the wide-eyed shock on her face when she’d caught sight of his erection. That look belonged to a woman who’d never seen a man’s arousal.

He hadn’t meant to insult her, but he meant what he said. The antiquated idea that a man could seek pleasure whenever and wherever he chose, while a woman was obligated to remain chaste, was ridiculous. Jacqueline hadn’t been a virgin, and he hadn’t cared. But Anne wasn’t Jacqueline. She clearly considered any attack on her chastity an attack on her honor.

A commotion in the hallway jarred Kennedy from his work on the labor contracts he reviewed. He glanced at the clock. Four P.M. He had been working for over two hours. The voices in the hallway grew louder, and he recognized Louisa‘s laugh. Warmth rippled through him. Rose had often complained that she wanted a little sister. Louisa may not be exactly what she had in mind, but the two girls would get along famously.

The voices grew closer and he braced himself when the door burst open and Louisa rushed in with a dress box under her arm. She spotted him and broke into a bright smile. Anne and her mother entered the room. Anne’s cheeks were flushed and her eyes were bright with laughter. She was breathtaking.

Kennedy rose and walked around his desk toward them.