Chapter 32
After numerous horse changes and almost ungodly haste, Drew and Chase arrived at the Durands’ house early the morning after next. Chase walked in the front door and down the hallway, casting over his shoulder, “My parents should be up and having breakfast by now. They have never been the type to stay abed.”
Drew could do nothing but follow in his wake.
Practically exploding into the dining room, the two found George and Margaret quietly at table.
George jumped from his seat. “Chase, what goes on here?”
“Father, has Annie returned?”
Drew watched as a footman hurried out of the room. Moments later, he returned with plates and utensils and hastily set two places at the table.
Margaret waved them both to sit. “You two boys look a sight. Sit and eat. Tell us what is wrong. Where’s my daughter? What can we do to help?” Her tone brooked no argument as distress shadowed her facial features, her cheeks getting paler by the moment.
As Chase plopped into a chair, Drew sat as well. Food was loaded onto their plates in short order.
“Mama, I went to his lordship’s estate and found Annie there, happy and comfortable. She had not been coerced into leaving London. She was merely excited to solve the problems on the estate.” Chase shoveled food into his mouth.
“You should have contacted us immediately.” George complained about having been left uninformed.
“Let him finish, George. Go on, Chase.” His mother put sugar and cream in the newly poured tea by her son’s plate. Her hand shook slightly but she seemed determined to maintain her composure.
“The earl and Annie acknowledged that Gentilly had come and gone, leaving earlier the day I arrived. That would have been three days ago, I think. But, yesterday Annie rode into the local village to the dressmaker’s. We worried when dinnertime came and she had not returned. Then her mare showed up without her. After hurrying to the village we discovered Gentilly had lunched with her at the inn then left with her. Now we don’t know where she is.”
Drew interrupted before Chase could frighten his parents further. “We think Gentilly brought her back here. Do you know where he lives? Do you have any idea of what sort of funds he has that he could gather for some nefarious plan?”
Both parents stopped. For moments they looked at each other. George spoke first. “I believe he has rooms somewhere off Oxford Street. As for income, I do not believe he is wealthy. Someone passed on in his family and left him a tidy sum, say five hundred or so a year. We discussed it one time well before your return, my lord. He felt he could support Marianne comfortably if not in the first stare of fashion. Once you were declared dead, the heir would be located and Marianne and Andrea would be left in his care and resources. One could not know whether they would be fair or foul. Marianne expected there had been no provisions made for her as your widow since your disappearance occurred so soon after the wedding.”
Chase swallowed hard before asking, “Father, did he belong to a club? We need his exact address. Someone there may have it.”
George thought again but it was Margaret who spoke. “The Oxford and Cambridge Club. I believe it’s on Pall Mall. We spoke about it one day in passing. That’s where he went to school, you know. Cambridge.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before Drew and Chase threw down their napkins and jumped up from the table in unison. As they rushed down the front hall toward the door and their horses, they heard Margaret call after them, “Wait! Don’t you both want to freshen up?”
Within half an hour they reined in before The Oxford and Cambridge Men’s Club on Pall Mall. After rushing through the establishment doors, they came up short. The reception area was deserted. No one rushed to greet them. They hesitated for only a moment before they heard a few quiet voices coming from behind a closed door. Walking sedately over to it, Drew knocked respectfully.
Moments later a man of about their own age opened it. “Yes? May I help you? You do not look familiar. Are you new members?”
Drew pulled himself together to present himself as a proper earl should. “Hello. No, we’re not members. We are looking for one of your current members. Could you tell us where Sir Robert Gentilly might reside? It is of the direst importance.”
“No, I don’t know. Wait just a minute.” Their host turned back toward the room. “Do any of you know where Gentilly lives? These gents seem to have an urgent need to find him.”
After a few moments pause then a few murmurs of “No, I don’t,” Drew and Chase heard someone within say, “Oxford Street. Number 13 I think. We teased him all the time, he being a Cambridge man.”
Chase grabbed the hand of the man in the doorway and shook it hardily. “Thank you. Thank you ever so much.”
It took another twenty minutes to arrive at Gentilly’s address. The two of them took turns banging on the front door until someone finally answered.
“Yes. What is it? Don’t you know it’s not nearly ten o’clock?” The woman who answered was elderly to the extreme and looked as if her early years had not been kind.
“Madam, I am the Earl of Reignsfield. I am looking for Sir Robert Gentilly. I understand this is where he resides. Perchance he is in?”
“Blazes, no, your lordship. He cleared out days ago. He paid me up his last week’s rent and took his leave. I’ve no idea where he went off to. Didn’t leave no forwarding address.”
Drew thanked the landlady for the information.
“Bloody hell.” Chase stomped down the steps. “What shall we do now? If he’s left no information. Where can he be?”
“Chase, the point is, he’s kidnapped my wife, your sister. We have to rethink our approach. If he’s given up his rooms and taken Marianne, he must have a plan to go somewhere. He can’t possibly just wander around England hoping to escape notice and avoid our finding him.”
Chase gathered up his reins and prepared to mount his horse. “But where would he go? And, would Marianne go willingly?”
From his saddle, Drew looked over. “I think he plans to leave the country. What else could he do under such circumstances? But, no, I don’t think Marianne went willingly. She told me days ago she was going to stay with me, that Robert could only be a friend to her now.”
“Then we better figure out from what port he plans to leave and fast or there may be no way of getting her back.” Chase turned his horse.
Drew said, “The easy choice is London but it could be Bristol or Liverpool. They’re not as obvious as London and he would be less familiar with them. We might need to split up. First we’ll check at the London docks and hope luck is with us.”