Chapter Fifteen
IN BERKELEY SQUARE, THE vehicles were lined up two deep at the curb outside James and Georgina Malory’s town house. The elders, as James and Anthony referred to their two older brothers, were there. Anthony and Roslynn were there, since he’d been the first one whom George had sent for when Jacqueline hadn’t come home for dinner. Danny was there, too, since her husband was also missing, and she knew that Percy was with him. And Amy had been fetched in case she had any out-of-the-ordinary insight into the situation.
They were gathered in the parlor. Edward was seated next to Georgina with his arm around her shoulders. She’d stopped crying for the moment. They’d already searched the house for a note Jacqueline might have left about where she’d gone and questioned all the servants. They knew only from Jacqueline’s maid that she’d decided not to attend the scheduled party that night and was going for a ride with Jeremy and expected to be home in time for dinner or shortly thereafter. And Artie had confirmed she’d left the house with Jeremy. But dinner had been hours ago.
“Would she elope?” Amy asked.
“With whom, all twelve of her suitors?” Georgina replied.
“She was interested in a new one she met at the recent masked ball you took her to,” Amy continued.
Georgina frowned, remembering. “James didn’t like that fellow because he refused to introduce himself when the young man returned Jack to us after a dance.”
Amy said, “She didn’t know his name when she told me about him yesterday, but she’s had time to find out.”
“I’ll be the first to admit Jack is impulsive, even reckless,” Georgina said. “But she’s not crazy. No one marries someone they’ve only just met, certainly not our Jack, who’s touted repeatedly that it’s not her goal to marry this year—much to James’s delight.”
“But she’s obviously enlisted Jeremy’s help with something,” Danny put in. “And both Jeremy and Jack are angry and hurt that James wouldn’t let them go with him. They talked a lot about this last night when we escorted Jack to the soirée.”
They all stared at Danny, which had her add, “No, Jeremy would not leave the country without telling me.”
Georgina sighed in agreement. “Jack might have wanted to follow her father, but she’d leave a damned note if she was going to do something that foolish. And they certainly wouldn’t take Percy with them.”
“Do you have any feelings about this, Amy?” Edward asked his daughter.
Amy sighed. “Nothing that will help.”
“Anything at all?” Georgina persisted.
But Jason added, “Jacqueline has Jeremy with her, and Percy, and her four-man escort. She must still be in the city and is just delayed for some reason. That she didn’t leave a note means she expected to be home before she was missed. She’s probably going to show up here any minute.”
They all stared at Jason for making that prediction, then immediately turned to Amy again. Amy rolled her eyes. “I’m not a bloody magic ball. I’m sensing nothing about this situation, which you should take to be a good sign, no harm, no danger, no disaster. I haven’t had any special feelings a’tall since yesterday when I shared with Jack that she’s found her man.”
“Her man?”
“The one for her. And she got quite angry at the suggestion, flatly denying it. But she was also excited about the masked man. But as I said, as of yesterday, she still didn’t know who he is—unless she lied to me.” Amy shook her head. “No, she wouldn’t do that. Maybe she found out who he is or figured out how to find him.”
“So you think she’s gone off to meet him and dragged Jeremy along as a chaperone?”
Amy shrugged. “As good a guess as any.”
“Now that sounds like something Jack would do,” Roslynn put in. “Especially if the man posed a mystery to her and she hasn’t solved it yet. But I do agree with Jason. They are probably just delayed in getting home.”
“We can’t depend on that,” Georgina said. “We need to start looking for her. I’ll make a list of Jack and Judy’s friends here in the city. The rest of you, figure out where an innocent rendezvous might take place in case she did run off to meet that man from the ball.”
“A restaurant, since she left near dinnertime.”
“It’s way past dinnertime, but that’s not a bad idea.”
“The man’s hotel if it has a restaurant. If he’s new to town, he might be staying in one and could have suggested they dine there. And Jeremy is chaperoning her.”
“But we don’t know his name.”
“Won’t need to know,” Danny said. “If they’ve gone to either a restaurant or a hotel, her four-man escort will be waiting outside and will be easy to spot. Jeremy took his chaise, that’s also easy to spot.”
Jason started giving orders. “We need more men for the search in case she doesn’t walk in the door soon. George, send a man to every Malory household in town to collect all available footmen. I need to attend to something, but won’t be long. I imagine she’ll be back by the time I return.”
“What the devil, Jason, where—?”
Anthony didn’t finish his question because his eldest brother was already out the door. Georgina had started crying again on Edward’s shoulder. Anthony sighed and dropped down on the sofa next to his wife.
“Are we sure we’ve searched everywhere for a note Jack might have left to explain where she went?” Edward asked Georgina gently.
“Her room, mine, the parlor. The maids are still searching the rest of the house, though Jack would have left the note in a place where I’d surely see it.”
“Who was manning the door today?” Danny suddenly asked.
“That would be me,” Artie said, standing just inside the parlor door.
“So you got left behind this trip?”
The two old salts who’d sailed with James during his ten-year absence from England usually drew straws to see which one would accompany James if he sailed without the rest of his family. But Artie was shaking his head.
“ ’E left us both behind with the womenfolk this trip,” Artie grumbled. “We were to guard them with our lives—fat lot o’ good we did, eh.”
“Nonsense,” Danny told the ex-pirate. “Amy has assured us there’s no danger yet, and for the time being we’re going to assume there won’t be. But did Jack receive anything today out of the ordinary?”
“A single rose, same as the one she got yesterday. She took them to her room.”
“I saw the two roses on her vanity when I looked earlier,” Anthony remarked, “lying side by side.”
“Were there notes with them?”
Anthony leapt up from the sofa and headed for the parlor door. “We only looked for notes that Jack might have written to George. Bloody hell, didn’t even think to look for any others written to her.”