Page 21 of The Baron’s Halo

“Only Captain and Mrs. Grey. All our relations have fallen on the wedding breakfast for consolation and sustenance.”

“Vultures.”

“Birds of prey, perhaps. The cousins wanted to keep up their strength in the event they were needed. After the punch you dealt Grey, I thought they might have a point.” Yule peered at him. “How are you holding up?”

“Not well, Yule. Not well at all.” Sandy dropped his head in his hands, squeezing it until the pounding in his brain eased a trifle. “I have no idea why she would have done this. She got her way in everything to do with the wedding.” Wrack his brain though he might, he could devise no reason whatsoever why Isabelle would have deserted him.

“I expect when you find her, it will have all been some trivial misunderstanding.”

Sandy stared at his cousin with a baleful eye. “No bride would jilt her groom at the altar over something trivial. Besides…” Sandy ground his teeth. “She wanted to marry me. She needed to marry me to escape her stepfather. I cannot think how that might have changed between last night and this morning.”

“Escape Captain Grey? But he’s just returned.” Yule’s frown had a touch of impatience about it.

“That is the trouble. Remember, I told you he’d been unkind to Isabelle and her mother?”

By the time Sandy had finished the tale of Captain Grey’s violence toward his wife and stepdaughter, they were drawing up in front of the Horton’s residence. Sandy was out of the carriage and banging on the front door before the horses had come to a halt.

A flustered maid opened the door.

“Is Miss Devereaux here?” The desperation in Sandy’s voice must have frightened the girl, because she stepped back and put her hands up as if to fend him off.

“Oh, no, m’lord. She left early this morning to be married to Lord MacKay. My mistress said it was to take place at Welwyn House in Mayfair. That’s a duke’s house, if you don’t know it.” The maid’s eyes widened, her mouth popping open. “Are you trying to stop the wedding, m’lord?”

“No, I’m trying to make sure it takes place. Thank you.” Sandy turned away, so frustrated he chewed his lip. He headed back to the carriage, thinking hard. Where else might Isabelle have gone?

“Not here, I take it?” Yule opened the door and Sandy climbed in, trying to puzzle it out.

“No, and my mind is about to burst into a thousand pieces with all the possibilities running through my brain. Why did she run and where did she run to?”

“She has no other friends she might go to?”

“None I know of save Grace. She was a very solitary woman, Yule, and rightly so.” There must be a piece of the puzzle he simply didn’t have.

“No friends here in Town, but what about her home? Mrs. Grey doesn’t reside in London, does she, outside of the Season?” Yule’s excitement threatened to leap to Sandy.

“I think not. Isabelle didn’t dwell on her younger life, except for the cruelties visited on her by her stepfather. Still, you may have hit upon something, cousin.” Sandy rapped on the trap. “Twenty-seven Ormond Yard, please,” he shouted up. “There may very well be information about either their friends at home or here in London with which Mrs. Grey hasn’t been forthcoming.”

“Well, you did just punch her husband.”

“She might thank me for that, actually. Sauce for the goose, you know.”

When they arrived, to Sandy’s surprise, Yule jumped down to accompany him.

“In case Captain Grey is in the habit of holding a grudge,” was all he would say.

Sandy knocked and was shown into the same small parlor as he had been all these weeks.

Moments later, Mrs. Grey rushed into the room, her face pale, her brows furrowed. “Have you found her?” she whispered.

“No.” Sandy automatically lowered his voice as well. “I came to ask if you have any idea where else she could have gone? Back to your home town, perhaps? Did she have friends there?”

The lady shook her head and looked as if she might swoon.

“Please, ma’am, sit.” Yule led her to a delicate sofa and sat her down. “Your daughter had no friends growing up? No childhood companions?”

Her face pinched, Mrs. Grey shook her head in quick little jerks. “Not in Kent. She wasn’t encouraged to play with other children after I remarried.”

“What about before that, during your first marriage to Isabelle’s father?” Sandy could have cursed himself for not finding out more about Isabelle’s early life. She’d encouraged him to talk about his family and friends and he’d happily obliged, without seeking many details about her in return.