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The duke gallantly swung my cloak over my shoulders, one hand tenderly grazing my neck. For an instant, I felt as if I belonged in this dress, in these jewels, with these men.
As soon as I stepped outside, Fogarty approached me, reminding me of my place in society. “It’s all right,” I told him. “Emma is still inside. Watch out for her. I should be back shortly. If I’m not, question Blackford.”
I entered the carriage with the Duke of Blackford, Sir Izzy, and Drake. In the hours between the begi
All I was required to do was stand nearby and make sure all the papers from the safety box came into Blackford’s possession and a stack of banknotes from Blackford’s account was handed to Drake. The whole business took two minutes, and then we left the bank to the visible relief of the guard.
Blackford summoned a hansom cab for me and said, “Go back to the ball. I’ll take the papers to Sir Broderick after I drop off Sir Izzy and then I’ll join you there. I look forward to claiming a waltz.”
I stopped him with a hand on his sleeve before he sent the cabbie on his way. “I would love to waltz with you, Your Grace. But first, I must know. Why are you giving blackmail material you paid so much for to Sir Broderick?”
“There are only a few letters I’m interested in. It’s best if Sir Broderick is in charge of the rest. He’s famous for his discretion.” He gave my hand a squeeze and signaled the driver to take me back to the Arlingtons’ ball.
I returned and handed my cloak to a servant. By the time I reached the top of the stairs, I could hear a lively dance tune from the orchestra. I walked past the card room, down the stairs, and into the ballroom, picturing myself at the center of the dance floor with the duke.
I didn’t see Emma. Brightly costumed revelers filled my view in every direction, but I couldn’t find the shimmering blue fabric.
Jacob, dressed in a formal footman’s uniform now splattered with goo, frantically waved to me from a doorway in the corner of the room. I bolted toward him around chairs filled with wallflowers and chaperones.
“Georgia. Thank God. Emma was carried out of here not five minutes ago. She’s been abducted.”
Chapter Twenty
I GRABBED Jacob’s flailing arms. “What happened? Who carried Emma out?”
“I don’t know. She looked fine the last time I saw her, dancing with a man in a wizard costume. Then I saw that same man carrying her down the servants’ hallway. I ran after them, but the wizard knocked over two maids carrying trays of ices and strawberries along the back way to the dining room. In all the slipping and sliding, I lost the man carrying Emma. He escaped the house through the side door. And Emma was limp.”
The wizard. Not Price dressed as the angel of death. “Oh, good heavens. Where were they going?”
“I don’t know.”
“Show me the route he took.” I held up my skirt to follow Jacob as fast as he ran. My feet skidded on the liquid left on the wooden floor. Once out the service door, we were on a dark, narrow path that led in two directions, to the garden or the street.
“Which way?” Jacob asked.
A glimmer close to the street caught my eye. I rushed forward and pointed, since my corset wouldn’t allow me to bend enough to pick up the jewels.
Jacob reached down and swept up Emma’s tiara. Her very expensive tiara. “No common thief would leave this behind,” he said, pocketing the crown.
A bulky shadow in worn clothing and a battered hat came up to us. “Georgia, Emma’s been snatched. I couldn’t stop him.”
“Oh, no, Fogarty. Did you see where Emma was taken?”
“I heard,” the ex-policeman said. “He told the driver Chelling Meadows. I couldn’t get a good shot at the man in the fu
“That’s all right,” I said. “We’ll save Emma.”
Fogarty was pacing in front of me. “I told your driver to come around front and I told the bobby on this beat to get word to Scotland Yard.”
“Chelling Meadows used to be Hancock’s home,” I told them. “I don’t know who lives there now. It’s past Holland Park. We’ll have to go there at once.” Why had the villain taken Emma to Hancock’s former home? Then I remembered Emma telling me Hancock still worked in his laboratory there. I was embarrassed by my failure to realize who Drake’s enemy was and ready to rip Hancock apart.
“I saw that ugly brute that works for Blackford jump on the back of the carriage. He must have had orders to follow if either of you were abducted from the ball. They should have reached Chelling Meadows by now.” Fogarty helped me into the unmarked carriage that had brought us here.
“That must be Sumner you saw. Was Hancock’s niece with them?”
“No. I noticed the man in a wizard costume talking to a young, blond shepherdess shortly before he asked Emma to dance. The shepherdess could have been his niece. Whatever he said, she shook her head no and went off to dance with someone in a knight costume,” Jacob said as he and Fogarty piled in behind me and our driver started to pick his way around the other carriages.
“The wizard was alone when I spotted him carrying Emma. She appeared to be unconscious,” Fogarty said. “I think she was still alive.”
My heart squeezed tight. I had to save Emma. We finally broke free of the tangle of carriages and rode out past Kensington Palace and Holland Park.
“Why does it have to be out in the country?” I asked. Traffic had been heavy through town and our trip was slow. I could have run faster. It was all Fogarty could do to keep me from bolting from the carriage.
“This isn’t the country anymore,” Fogarty told me. “He still owns the house and grounds, but the estate has been sold off and built up. Part of the London suburbs now.”
“Are we ever going to get there?” Tears were filling my eyes.
“If he drove the horses any faster, we’d tip over on a curve,” Fogarty said. “Jacob, are you armed?”
“I’ve got my knife.”
“I have a dagger,” I added.
“Can you throw it?” Fogarty asked me.
“No, but I’ll have no problem stabbing him in the heart. Poor Emma. She’s so young. What did he do to her?” I started to pull the weapon out of its sheath, but Fogarty put out a hand to stop me.
“Leave it where it is until we know there’s no other way.”
Fogarty stopped the driver on the road in front of Chelling Meadows and told him to wait for us. Then we climbed down and entered the grounds past a tall wrought-iron fence. None of us spoke as we stepped through knee-high weeds and around a dry fountain, Fogarty leading the way with a lantern from the carriage.
The house loomed before us, an old three-story structure with a two-story wing on one side and the crumbling remains of a conservatory on the other. Every window was dark.
Fogarty turned the knob on the front door and it opened with a creak. We walked inside the empty front hall, expecting to be challenged by a thug at any moment. The only footsteps and breaths we heard were our own.
Holding the lantern ahead of us, Fogarty was the first to see the wire across the doorway in front of us. He held up his hand, and we stopped. He stuck his head into the space beyond and looked around. Then he dropped to his hands and knees and crawled into the next room, pushing the lantern ahead of him.