Noah’s gray eyes flit to Leverton and to the constable holding the box of…chocolates? He was baffled until he heard the Duke choke out a sound like a gasp.

“W–where did you find it?” Leverton stuttered.

“Do you recognize this box, Your Grace?” the constable asked again. This time Noah felt fear and cold dread running through him, and he almost stumbled when Leverton replied.

“Yes, of course. I gave that to Lady Emmeline six days ago,” his rival said with a dazed tone. “Where did you find it?”

The constable replied, “A few feet away from an upturned carriage on the road towards Brennan Hi—”

Noah was out the door in seconds, running towards his horse, with fear cramping his gut. Brennan Hill was a township between his and Leverton’s duchies, but it was to the north, out of the way of either dukedom.

“Halt!” a rough voice called over and Noah spotted Leverton rushing towards him. Noah wasn’t in any mood to attend to him, stuck his foot in the stirrup and mounted his horse.

“I said stop!” Leverton called, while precariously putting himself right in front of the charging horse.

“Are you mad, Leverton!” Noah snapped the reins back and the horse whinnied while cantering back and balancing on his back legs, “Move or you will be trampled!”

“No.” Leverton’s face was pale and Noah could see the man visibly swallow, “The constables want us both to come with them.”

Every part of Noah rebelled with the mere suggestion of accompanying his enemy. His temper flared, “Tell them to hurry up then!”

He sat and waited with growing anxiety while the two constables and Leverton mounted their horses. Finally, they all rode off. Noah swallowed hard as his steed took a strong canter and even though he tried to focus on riding, flashes of Emmeline’s body, mangled and mutilated under a crashed carriage, were running through his mind. It was as though he was seeing his sister again, and without even thinking about it, he sped his mount into a gallop with his heart thumping even faster than the horses’ hooves.

He was in such a rush that he nearly missed the site of the upturned carriage, laying on its side in a deep ditch. Yanking the reins hard and ignoring the incensed whinny of the horse, Noah barely got his mount under control before he launched himself off it and ran to the carriage site.

The Leverton seal was on the side of the carriage and Noah felt his heart fall to his feet. It took almost everything inside him not to touch the carriage and spin it over in a desperate move to find his love but knew if he did, it would make the work of the constables harder. His fists clenched tightly as he waited for the rest to arrive.

“My God!” Leverton swore as he reined his horse in to a stop, jumped off it and ran to the carriage. “No!”

He was just about to reach for the carriage when Noah grabbed and pushed him back, “Stop, you fool, you cannot touch it!”

Leverton’s eyes were jewel chips as they sliced into him, “She is my sister!”

“She is my love!” Noah snarled back, “I want to flip the carriage over and ransack it to pieces, Leverton, but I cannot!”

The two constables approached the Dukes. “A passerby brought it to our attention this morning. We feel it was a robbery.”

Noah’s throat was tight and the words he was going to say felt like he was regurgitating acid, “Did you find…a body?”

“No, Your Grace,” Mr. Stanton replied with a grim look on his face, “But we are hoping to never find one.”

“We will assemble a search party,” Leverton ordered as he went to his horse, “I will head it.”

The words ‘why you’ were on the tip of Noah’s tongue but he bit it. It made sense for Leverton to head the party, as Emmeline was his sister.

“I will join you,” Noah declared. “You will not exclude me from this search, Leverton.”

“I was not about to,” Leverton replied with narrowed eyes, “I need you here to keep an eye on you. I am still unsure if you’re the mastermind of this incident.”

Noah felt like slicing Leverton’s head off his shoulders for that remark. Wasn’t his grief plain? Was his heart not on his sleeve? Wasn’t it clear how much he cared for Emmeline, loved her and wanted her to be his? Noah’s jaw went tight as he squared his shoulders and glared at the Duke.

“I am no savage manipulator, Leverton,” Noah spat.

Leverton’s eyes were still, “We will see about that.”

Sneering at the other Duke, Noah set about to examine the area. He had some hunting experience so he knew what to look for in an ambush. Skirting the carriage, he scanned the ground and found a set of footprints stomped in the mud.

From the size of the footprint, Noah calculated the man to be tall and from the heavy indentation—judged by his questing fingers—was large. He felt Leverton’s eyes on him but didn’t care. If someone had abducted Emmeline, there was a good chance she was still alive. Noah swore to himself to put a lead ball into the perpetrator if he ever found him.

“Someone was here,” Noah declared while standing up and brushing his fingers off. “But to find him, that’s the rub.”

“We will find him.” Leverton declared, “We must find him. Get your people, Newberry, and I will get mine.”

“We will get our men too,” Constable Greer replied while going to his mount. “We will assemble in the next hour.”

Mounting his horse, Noah grimly made his way to this duchy to gather his men. Speeding off, he forced himself to keep positive.

She must live. Emmeline, you must live for me!

“Noah!” The Duchess of Newberry called as her son brushed past her brusquely, almost sending her to the ground. The Duke paused momentarily to steady his mother.

“Why are you in such a rush, Son?” his mother asked with a concerned frown.

“It’s Lady Emmeline, Mother,” Noah said grimly, “Her carriage was found upturned near Brennan Hill. She is missing, and I am going to get my men to help me find her.”

“Why bother!” the Dowager Duchess’ gleeful screech came from the staircase, “She is not worth your attention Noah. She’s from a clan of murderers. It is poetic justice to let her die!”

Noah saw red, spun on his heel, and snarled at his grandmother, “Silence! Sheathe your claws, harpy! I will not let the lady I love die if I can do something about it!”

Spinning on his heel, he marched to his room and grabbed his sword, and a flintlock pistol. He paused momentarily to stare himself in his eyes in the mirror and saw plain fear in his silver-gray gaze. He was terrified that Emmeline was already dead and that there was nothing he could do about it.

Squaring his jaw, Noah forced his mind to be positive and left the room. His men were already assembling at the gate of the Manor and their faces were grim.

“Is it true, Your Grace?” His commander of the party, Mr. Brown asked, “It is a Grant we are searching for?”

Noah’s face was grave, “Yes, it is, and I know you all know about the rift between my family and hers, but this is not about family history or present rivals. This is about an innocent soul that might die if we don’t find her. This is a matter of humanity, not history.”

The man who asked the question nodded, “We are ready then, Your Grace.”

Swinging upon his horse, Noah spurred his mount on, riding hard to get back to Emmeline. He gray eyes were fixed on the road ahead, while he was praying in his heart for them to find his beloved alive. The miles flew by under his horse’s hooves. As the daylight waned his anxiety and desperation grew. By the time they got to Brennan Hill, it was getting unusually dark but that wasn’t going to deter Noah.

His party of twenty-five men came upon Leverton’s band and Noah alighted from his horse. The constables were there but their numbers were less than the amount mustered by the two duchies.

Constable Greer issued them instructions.

“Assemble groups of three, and the fourth will be one of ours,” Constable Greer demanded. “Each group will be sent to a corner of the forest. We have some horns but not many. If you find anything of suspicion, a shoe, a reticule, or even a bauble, mark the place and we’ll have bloodhounds follow it when they get here.

Noah selected two of his men and a blue-clad constable and took the eastern corner of the forest, while Leverton took the western corner. The constable had a horn and when the director, Greer, sounded his, the party took off into the woods.

As the four made their way through the brush and underbrush, Noah kept a keen eye around, above and below. Emmeline was too precious to him for his attention to be lacking. Every sense was so heightened that Noah felt godlike. He scrutinized every blade of grass and every bush with hawk-like eyes, while he kept his ears attuned to the other search parties.

His heart was beating fast, pumping an urge to run and scour the whole woods by himself if needed, but he kept his pace steady. He didn’t feel the miles passing under his feet as he walked and searched because distance and fatigue didn’t mean anything to him in comparison with Emmeline’s life. He felt a confusing mix of hope and despair in his chest as he kept searching–hope that Emmeline was alive and despair that she was dead.

They came to a small meadow in the woods and Noah was in the process of scouring the stretch when a horn’s call sounded through the air. The young duke felt fright run through him like a rushing wind. Had they found Emmeline?

The call wasn’t far from him and without a word Noah spun on his heel and ran towards the sound. It came again and Noah blasted through the brush to the clearing. He saw a party of Leverton’s men surrounding something.

Noah barely saw Leverton rush out from the woods, too, as he single-mindedly pushed away one of the men in a circle and saw a constable holding a blood-stained cloak.

Was that Emmeline’s? God forbid!

“Move!” Leverton ordered and the men shifted.

“Your Grace, does this look–? ”

Leverton went pale and grabbed the cloak from the man’s hand with trembling fists. Even before Leverton said a word, Noah knew exactly what was coming, and fell to his knees as the world shattered around him—Emmeline was gone.