Chapter 19
“Where is she?” Nicholas raked his fingers through his hair.
“Who are you talking about?” said the Duke.
The captain hurried down the gangplank and handed a Nicholas a letter. “This was left in her cabin and addressed to you, Lord Rutland.”
He ripped open the note and forced his eyes to the missive. Alexandra’s elegant scrawl confirmed the worst of his suspicions. “She’s left. The fool woman deserted me.”
“What woman?” Lady Susannah huffed.
Nicholas spun around, scanned the crowded port. “She was kidnapped with me.”
Lady Susannah narrowed her eyes. “You mean to tell me you were alone on an island with a woman. When were you going to inform me?”
Nicholas pushed aside the driver, scrambled on top of the Rutland coach, his blood pounding, eyes darting. She had just been there. She couldn’t have gone far. But…why? He curled his hands into fists. Why did she leave him? “Alexandra, come back. Right now.”
Lady Susannah gasped. “Nicholas stop shouting and come down. People will think you’re a lunatic.”
Nicholas jumped to the ground. Wide-eyed, the Duke stared. Anthony raised an eyebrow. His wife, Rachel smiled.
“Your behavior is appalling,” Lady Susannah said through her teeth. “Nicholas, think of the scandal you may create…yelling and screaming on the docks, acting like an ape from that wilderness where you were stuck for so long.”
She was right. No doubt they all thought he was mad.
He grabbed his brother’s arm. “Anthony, help me. It is too dangerous for her on the docks. Who knows what unsavory hands she may fall into?”
The Duke tipped his hat back. “Nicholas, slow down. Give me her description. I will have my men comb the docks.”
“She’s golden-haired, blue eyes, the most beautiful woman in the world. I’m not leaving until I find her.”
“You must look for her,” Lady Rachel Rutland concurred.
Lady Susannah glared at her, turned on her heels and steamed toward her carriage.
“Alexandra,” Nicholas shouted, bumping aside one person and then another as he pushed through the throngs, his brother and father keeping up directly behind him. If he wasn’t so frightened for her well-being, he would have thought it absurd his behavior, and the fact his father and brother broke decorum, following him was equally absurd.
After several hours of searching the docks and nearby streets, darkness fell and his father convinced him to go to the townhouse.
In the library, Anthony and Rachel sat opposite him, silent.
“Oh, no.” Nicholas shot to his feet. “Abby. I almost forgot. We must arrange a prisoner exchange for her. The Governor-General in the Bahamas said she was kidnapped by the dangerous privateer, Captain Jacob Thorne during an invasion by the Colonials. We must free her of those cruel ruffians.”
Rachel laughed.
He glared at her. “I don’t see what is so funny. I can only imagine what Abigail has suffered at the hands of those uncivilized savages. I will kill Captain Thorne if he touches her.”
“There will be no killing, and all is well with your sister,” said the Duke.
“Is she back in England? I must see her.”
Anthony winked at his wife. “I take exception to you calling my wife an uncivilized savage. Rachel is a Colonial and Captain Jacob Thorne’s cousin.”
“What madness is this?”
His father placed a hand on Nicholas’s shoulder. “Although I don’t know the full story, Abigail was saved by Captain Thorne. That terrible night when both of you were abducted from Belvoir and Anthony’s lab exploded, she was put aboard a ship where she suffered at the hands of a cruel English slaver until Captain Thorne rescued her. I am indebted to him.”
“Where is she?” Nicholas demanded.
Lady Rachel Rutland smiled. “She is living in Boston and happily married to the uncivilized savage, Captain Thorne. Did I mention you are an uncle?”
His father told him of the eyewitness on the docks the night of his abduction. How he’d recognized Nicholas and gave the names of the ships they sailed on. How his father had ships sent out to search for them.
Nicholas dropped into the chair, astounded by the extraordinary course of events.
Alexandra had told him Abigail was alive. That his father and brother were alive.
She had always given him hope.
Like you, Nicholas, she survived. You must count on that, live with that thought. Alexandra’s prediction and faith came true. His eternal optimist.
He held his head in his hands. Without Alexandra, London would never be home again, no place would be. He remembered her smell, her laugh, and gentle mocking to rouse him out of his moods. Everything about her was perfect and without her, his soul withered and scarred.
“Nicholas, someone must have seen Alexandra leave. There must be a trail. I’ve given her description to runners to pursue her. We will find her. What village does she come from?”
Nicholas fell back into the settee. “I don’t know. All she ever told me was southern England.”
“We could search for her father by name,” said the Duke.
“Elwins. Samuel Elwins, a sea captain. But he is not her real father.”
“Go on,” said the Duke.
Nicholas looked right at his father. “She is Lady Alexandra Sutherland and she saved my life.”
“Oh.” Everyone said in unison.
“Did you say Alexandra Sutherland? I thought she was dead,” said Anthony.
“She is not. Lady Alexandra is alive, spirited away by the Elwins when Lady Ursula Sutherland murdered her husband, Baron Sutherland and planned to do away with his daughter.”
Lady Rachel Rutland gasped.
Anthony jerked his head back and his father nodded, taking it all in. “Baron Sutherland was a great friend of mine and I always thought it strange he died when in vigorous health.”
Nicholas further recanted the rest of Alexandra’s story, explaining her unfortunate life, including her stepmother, Ursula, and how she had taught him to survive on the island.
“I’d like a private moment to talk,” said the Duke.
Anthony handed Rachel up. At the door, Rachel peered at Nicholas over her shoulder and said, “Keep your hopes up, Nicholas. I can tell this woman is very special to you.”
Nicholas was just getting to know Anthony’s new wife who he hadn’t met until a few short hours ago. He liked her. She was far from Anthony’s selfish first wife.
The door closed with a light snap. Alone now, Nicholas waited, dreading his father’s new demands. “Don’t tell me—
His father raised his hand. “I’m not going to tell you what to do, Nicholas, ever again. You cannot imagine the dreadful hurt and pain of not knowing if you were alive or dead. Time became tenuous, and cruelly oppressive, thinking of your fate.”
Nicholas slumped in the chair and rubbed a hand over his unshaven face. “I want to become a great duke, but you cannot tie my hands anymore. I can’t be the person you want me to be. I want to bring progress to the estates. I cannot go back to the stagnant—”
“I’m a different man now, son. I admit after your mother’s death, I became detached and morose. It is no excuse and I hope you can find forgiveness in your heart for my distance. I have not been a good father, but from now on, I will be at your side. You can do anything you desire to do with the estates. I give you free rein.” His father poured a brandy and handed it to Nicholas.
“I don’t want to marry Lady Tomkins. She is ill-suited for me.”
The Duke smiled. “With you turning London upside down and…after a year on an island with a certain Lady Sutherland, I gathered nixing your relationship with Lady Tomkins might be in your future.”
“To think Alexandra wanted me to be free of her. That daft woman. When I find her, I’ll drag her back to London and chain her to me.”
The Duke swirled the amber liquid of his brandy. “Despite what she said in her letter of not wanting you, Alexandra Elwins, or Lady Sutherland is in love with you, Nicholas. Looks to me like she sacrificed her happiness for what she believed you wanted most.”
“And how do you know so much?” Nicholas retorted. He was tired and touchy as a bear.
“Your mother was the same.”
Nicholas took a deep swallow. “I made the mistake of expecting children. She left because she could not produce an heir due to a childhood injury and any of your protesting about producing an heir, I will not hear. I want Alexandra.”
“I am not protesting at all. I told you, I’m a different man, Nicholas. Anthony can produce the heir.”
Nicholas exhaled. “I must be delusional.”
“You are not.”
“I expected you to object, to disinherit me.”
“No, son.”
Nicholas was silent for a few minutes locked in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. All this time he’d believed what his father had wanted and it caused Alexandra to leave. Now, just like that his need for an heir was gone. The fear that cut him was eradicated. Gone. But in its place, and even worse fear because Alexandra…for no good reason…was gone. If anything happened to her…
The danger Alexandra had mentioned, her stepmother’s desire to have her killed, meant her life could be in danger at this very minute.
Or what if dockworkers grabbed her or a nefarious highwayman. She was vulnerable on the streets alone. He had to get to her. Now.
Nicholas raked his hand through his hair. Never had he been so scared in his life. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
“I want you to ask the King to help her get back her title and lands and whatever is owed to her. And we must find a way to ferret out Lady Ursula and Willean and have them punished for their crimes.”
The Duke went around his desk and sat. Picking up a quill and dipping it in ink, he said, “I will do it immediately. In addition, I keep a sensitive finger on the pulse of London. I want you to go over everything again about her past. Her connections. The people who moved her away from the stepmother. Any detail you can give me to trace Lady Sutherland. We will find her.”