Lady Violet Attends a Wedding by Grace Burrowes

Author:Grace Burrowes [Burrowes, Grace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781952443947
Publisher: Grace Burrowes Publishing

Nobody remarked Sebastian’s absence at table, though his chair sat empty at Papa’s end of the table. Aunt Charlotte occupied the hostess’s seat at the foot of the table, from whence she sent me fulminating glances every two minutes.

The company tried to find subjects to discuss other than the dreary weather, Miss Engle’s shocking disappearance, and the appalling awkwardness likely to arise when her parents arrived and learned she was missing.

“Tomorrow, we search the tenancies,” Felix announced as the fruit and cheese were brought out.

“Alarm the whole shire?” Papa asked, sitting back in his chair. “Is that wise, my boy?”

Felix flushed a dull red, and I was about to speak up in support of his suggestion when St. Sevier poured the earl another serving of wine.

“If your neighborhood is anything like where I grew up,” St. Sevier said, “the whole shire already knows. They have been having a good gossip in the shops, at the posting inn, and over their back fences at Miss Engle’s expense. She is to be married, in any case, so any harm to her reputation as a result of this situation will be fleeting. Harm to her person, however, might be more lasting, hmm?”

He finished pouring with an elegant turn of his wrist that prevented any wine from running down the outside of the bottle.

“Can’t hurt,” Ajax muttered. “Somebody might have seen something and not realize it’s relevant.”

“Like what?” Hector asked. “The carpenters said Miss Engle hasn’t left the property.”

“She might have used the postern bridge.” I offered that suggestion mostly for the sake of arguing with Hector, who was being a spectacular pain in the bum, even for him. “She’s small, and the bridge would have held her weight easily. She could have gone over to Sebastian’s land and not realized she was leaving our estate.”

Everybody at the table regarded me as if I’d just admitted to plotting to blow up Parliament.

“She’s right,” Aunt Florence murmured. “The poor young woman might have wandered across the river.”

“Shall we search the marquess’s property?” Cantrell asked, patting his lips with his table napkin. “Pity he’s not here so we could ask him.” His smile was bright, his tone downright cheery. I nearly dashed my wine in his handsome face, but Miss Engle was his sister. That he could be cheery was a testament to more steadiness of temperament than I had.

Either that, or he knew something the rest of us did not, perhaps about his parents’ plans for Katie.

“MacHeath’s Ford isn’t rented out at present,” Ajax said slowly. “Half the land is fallow. If Miss Engle is lost over there, we have a lot more searching ahead of us.”

Hector rose and bowed curtly in Aunt Charlotte’s direction. “Then I’m for bed. I expected a wedding, not this drama.”

Papa waved a hand at Ajax. “See to your ill-tempered brother. Tell him he either finds his manners before breakfast, or I’ll task him with traveling to London to tell the Engles of their daughter’s disappearance.”

“I can do that,” St. Sevier said as Ajax followed Hector from the dining room.

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