Page 41 of Their Wildest Dreams

Selby returned to the road. One of his men glanced behind him, plainly expecting to see Harriet in his custody.

“She got away from me,” Selby said. “She reached the trees before I could stop her.”

The man frowned toward the field. “Do you want us to search?”

“In the dark? No. We have been here too long already.” Selby mounted his horse and gathered the reins. “Leave the servants. By the time they free themselves, we will be well away.”

“What if the lady finds her way home?” the man asked, looking once more toward the field.

Selby disliked the question, reasonable though it was. “I attempted to talk to her about the validity of her marriage. She can claim we meant to abduct her if she wants, but it her word against mine and a man will always be believed. Now mount before someone comes along the road and discovers us debating the matter.”

The man obeyed. Selby turned his horse toward home without looking back. Harriet would not survive the night. By morning, it would no longer matter what she had seen or what she might have told Benedict.

Still, he could not dismiss the blood upon her face. He had expected to feel relief when she stopped fighting him. He felt none. Only fear. Only the idea that somehow he’d made a grave error that would cost him.

Harriet was late. Benedict had reminded himself at least a dozen times that she was not a child and required no keeper. She had traveled the road between Alderley and Denham Park, Everton included, for most of her life. The carriage was sound, the horses steady and she had taken both a coachman and groom at his insistence. None of that explained why she had not returned.

He stood at the window in the drawing room, watching the drive disappear into the gathering darkness. The book he had attempted to read lay open upon the chair behind him. He had not managed more than two pages. Each sound from the road drew his attention, and each time it proved to be nothing more than wind in the trees or a wagon passing somewhere beyond the estate.

Harriet had said she would return that afternoon. She would not remain at Alderley through dinner without sending word, particularly after the conversation they had left unfinished. Whatever uncertainty she felt about changing the terms of their marriage, she would not avoid him by simply failing to come home.

A wheel might have broken. One of the horses might have thrown a shoe. The recent rain had left portions of the road in poor condition, and the carriage could have become mired.

Benedict glanced at the clock. It was nearly dark enough to require lanterns.

He turned from the window with every intention of ordering a horse saddled. Before he reached the bellpull, the door opened and two footmen entered supporting a man between them.

For a moment, Benedict did not recognize Harriet’s coachman. Blood covered one side of his face. His coat was torn, one eye swollen and his hands abraded where it was clear he had fought against the ropes which had bound him.

Benedict crossed the room. “Where is Lady Everton?” The coachman tried to answer but had not breath enough for it. The footmen lowered him into a chair, and Benedict waited only until the man no longer appeared likely to collapse upon the floor before asking again. “Where is my wife?”

“Selby, my lord.” The coachman pressed one hand to his ribs. “Him and two men stopped us in the narrow lane beyond Alderley. They pulled me from the box and set upon the groom. Her ladyship ran when Selby opened the carriage door.”

Benedict gripped the back of the nearest chair. “Did he take her?”

“I don’t believe so. She ran across the field, and he went after her. That was the last I saw of her. He came back without her claiming she had gone into the woods, but she’d have made it home by now.” Shame entered the coachman’s expression. “They bound me inside the carriage. It took me hours to work free, and I hadn’t the strength to search for her. I thought it better to come here and raise help. Billy is in worse shape. Hated to leave the lad, but didn’t know how else to get him help!”

“You were right.” Benedict looked at the waiting footmen. “One of you ride to Denham Park and tell my father what has happened. Someone else fetch a cart and go retrieve the groom and get Dr. Easton here. Every other able-bodied man from Denham and Everton will aid in the search. Bring horses, lanterns and blankets.”

Mrs. Mercer entered as the younger footman hurried away. Her gaze moved from the injured coachman to Benedict, and her face lost all color. “Where is Lady Everton?”

“Missing.” He disliked the word so intensely that forcing it from his mouth required effort. Benedict turned back to the coachman. “Tell me precisely where this happened.”

The man described the turning, the low stone wall and the field bordering the woods. Benedict knew the place. He had ridden through it often enough as a boy and had hunted the woods beyond it with his father.

“My lord, you cannot search alone,” Mrs. Mercer said when he started toward the door.

“The others will follow when they are ready. I haven’t the luxury to wait for them. The weather is turning and if she is injured…”

She caught his sleeve. Mrs. Mercer had offered him a great many warnings since his marriage, most of them delivered with the calm certainty that he would disappoint Harriet if not properly managed. There was no warning in her face now. There was only fear.

“Bring her home,” she said, tightening her grasp upon his sleeve.

Benedict covered her hand briefly with his. “I mean to. Whatever has happened, I will find her.”

His horse was brought round before the men at Everton had fully assembled. He mounted and took the shortest route across the estate, carrying a lantern and little else. The wind caught at his coat as he rode. Branches struck his shoulders when he cut through the wooded path, but he scarcely noticed them.

Selby had taken Harriet. Benedict knew what the man wanted from Alderley. He understood his anger over the marriage settlement and the land he believed had been stolen from him. None of it explained why he would stop Harriet’s carriage or what he meant to do with her once she was in his power.